Gloria Molina

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Gloria Molina is a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and the current chairwoman of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Molina grew up as one of ten children in the Los Angeles suburb of Pico Rivera, California, USA to a Mexican-American father and Mexican mother.

Gloria Molina was first elected to office in 1982 as State Assemblywoman for the 56th District. In 1987, she was elected to the Los Angeles City Council where she served as the Councilwoman of the First District until 1991. In February of 1991, she was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, representing the First Supervisorial District. Ms. Molina is the first Latina in history to be elected to the California State Legislature, the Los Angeles City Council, and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Prior to being elected to public office, Ms. Molina served in the Carter White House as a Deputy for Presidential Personnel. After leaving the White House, Molina served in San Francisco as a Deputy Director for the Department of Health and Human Services.

One of Molina's significant achievements was her involvement with the Mothers of East Los Angeles, a group formed to organize against a proposed plan to build a prison in the barrio of East LA. As city councilwoman, she found government unresponsive to her concerns of yet another proposal to build a prison near schools in the predominantly Chicana/o and Mexican neighborhood.

In April of 2006, Molina was honored as the "Hispanic Business Woman of the Year" by Hispanic Business magazine.

Molina is married to Ron Martinez, a businessman. They have one daughter, Valentina.