José Huizar

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José Huizar and his family during a Chinatown parade

José Huizar was elected to represent the Fourteenth District of the Los Angeles City Council in a November 8, 2005 special election to fill the seat vacated by current Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Previously, Huizar had served as a member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, representing the Second District of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Huizar was elected to that position on April 10, 2001.

School Board District 2 includes the communities of Boyle Heights, El Sereno, Chinatown, Echo Park, Koreatown, Little Tokyo, Lincoln Heights, Pico-Union, Mid-Wilshire, and Downtown Los Angeles. Huizar served two terms as Board President from July 2003 through June 2005.

Huizar has earned a reputation as an aggressive policymaker who tackles difficult issues and gets results for LAUSD students and their families. Under his leadership, the district has undertaken the largest public works program in the country with the establishment of a plan to build 160 new schools in the next eight years.

As a member of the City Council, he is continuing to work on behalf of education and a host of other issues, including gang prevention and public safety.

Prior to his service on the School Board, he was an attorney in several private law firms, a Deputy City Attorney in the Real Estate and Environmental Division of the Los Angeles City Attorney's office, and an appointed member of the East Los Angeles Planning Commission.

Huizar was selected to serve as a Trustee of Princeton University. The Los Angeles Business Journal named him one of the 25 figures in the Los Angeles Area that “stand out for their potential to shape lives” and Hispanic Business magazine named him one of the “100 most influential Hispanics” in the United States.

Huizar is a native of Zacatecas, Mexico. Huizar was raised in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of East Los Angeles and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from U.C. Berkeley, a Master’s in Public Affairs and Urban and Regional Planning from Princeton University, and his Juris Doctor from UCLA School of Law. He currently resides in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of East Los Angeles with his wife Richelle Rios and their daughters Emilia and Isabella Rose.