A Slice of Orange

In this episode, Jodi speaks with julie vue, (she/they) Director of Youth and Education Program. Julie has been with OC Human Relations since Fall 2016. They lead a passionate team who are dedicated to working alongside students, parents, teachers, and administrators in Orange County schools, with the goal to improve school climate and create safe, inclusive, equitable and restorative schools. Jul...

Jay Seidel is a journalism professor and media adviser at Fullerton College. He advises the student publications The Hornet and Antorcha del Sur . The California Journalism Education Coalition named him Journalism Educator of the Year in 2011 and he has been a finalist for Fullerton College Teacher of the Year three times. Prior to becoming a teacher in 2005, he worked for 12 years as a writer and...

Saskia Kennedy is a third-generation owner of the Fullerton Observer a 43-year-old volunteer community newspaper. With her business partners Jesse La Tour and Matt Leslie, they are dedicated to continuing to inform Fullertonians about the changes to their community. Saskia has owned several businesses and has traveled worldwide. In her spare time, She is an artist and gardener. She is currently re...

Al Jabbar is a candidate for Anaheim City Council, District 3 and currently serves on the Anaheim Union High Board of Trustees. As a Cypress College student, he served on the North Orange County Community College Board as a student trustee. Jabbar currently serves as Deputy Chief of Staff to Supervisor Doug Chaffee, where he has directed more county resources to help Anaheim address health care an...

Katie Kalvoda is founder and CEO of G3 Ventures, a nonprofit corporation specializing in impact investments, innovative philanthropy and community advocacy. She is a Board Member of the Sisters of St. Joseph Healthcare Foundation and at Pacific Community Ventures, a CDFI that provides financial support and mentoring services to women and minority-owned small businesses across the United States. Ni...

David Gillanders, Jr is the Executive Director of Pathways of Hope. David is a graduate of Fullerton College, California State University Fullerton (where, along with University of California Irvine, he continues to give back through teaching), and holds a Master of Science from DePaul University. Previous work includes various program and agency leadership roles, including working at Orange Count...

Kara Regan is a passionate social justice fighter. She began her journey of education and experience working in the prison system by working on 3 degrees in Administration of Justice, Psychology and Social Sciences where she studied crime in a socioeconomic, sociocultural and sociological perspective. She uses public platform to bring awareness toward discrimination in the justice system through p...

Jodi is joined by CSUF professor Dr. Matt Jarvis whose research focuses on, among other issues, redistricting.

Jodi got the chance to chat with Christian Esteban, Executive Director of the JOYA Scholars program. The program aims to inspire and prepare students from families of low-income communities in Fullerton to succeed through higher education. By supporting students through one-on-one mentoring, academic tutoring, educational workshops, parent academy, campus visits, SAT prep, JOYA Scholars come along...

Jodi got the chance to speak with Christian Esteban, the current Executive Director of the JOYA Scholars program. The program's mission is to inspire and prepare students from families of low-income communities in Fullerton to succeed through higher education. When JOYA Scholars began in 2009, not a single high school student from the Garnet neighborhood in Fullerton, CA - aside from Valeria Sosa...

Jodi welcomed Irvine's Vice Mayor, Tammy Kim, to the podcast, to discuss her historic election to the City Council and to reflect on AAPI Heritage Month as an immigrant from Korea. Vice Mayor Tammy Kim was elected to City Council in November 2020 in a historic win beating out thirteen other candidates to take first place., with more than 43,700 votes, the highest vote count for any City Council ca...

Jodi is joined by Vincent Tran, Community Engagement Coordinator, VietRISE. Vincent is a community organizer, a second-generation Vietnamese American, and a lifelong resident of Orange County. As Community Engagement Coordinator for VietRISE, he helps organize Vietnamese residents to defend immigrant rights and housing rights. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, he served as a member of the COV...

Gavin Kane a Member of the Orange County LGBTQ Center Board of Directors. An Orange County native, Gavin is currently working at California State University, Fullerton for the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs. He started at Fullerton College, transferred to UCLA graduating summa cum laude, and is now pursuing graduate studies at California State University, Fullerton. Jodi got a ch...

Dr. Shana Alex Charles is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health at Cal State Fullerton. She worked as Director of Health Insurance Studies and nine years as a Senior Research Associate at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Dr. Charles's research focuses on expansions of health insurance and its impact on access to care, and underinsurance among those with coverage. She...

Zoot Velasco is Director of the Gianneschi Center for Nonprofit Research at California State University Fullerton’s Mihaylo College of Business & Economics. There, he hosts the Gianneschi Fellowship in Social Impact Leadership , G3X programs , the popular 501(c)3(b)(s) podcast , research projects , and coaches organizations from Victorville to San Pedro. He is a professor of Business and Marketing...

Dr. Michael A. (Mike) Moodian has served as a faculty member in various capacities at Chapman University since 2007. He codirects Wilkinson College’s Orange County Annual Survey and teaches for the Leadership Studies minor and Integrated Educational Studies major programs. Mike has written numerous journal articles, book chapters, and commentaries and has been a guest op-ed contributor for newspap...

Jim Box is a life-long public administrator in Orange County. He is currently the Director of Community Service at the City of Buena Park and was previously the Stanton City Manager, having served Stanton for over twenty years. Jim is also an adjunct professor of public administration at Fullerton College. Jim connected with Jodi to talk about the side of politics that is so often not understood -...

Homeshare OC is a program of Homeless Intervention Services OC that aims at tackling the student housing crisis. The program's innovative approach to student housing not only provides safe and affordable living conditions but also fosters an environment where students can thrive and succeed in their academic pursuits. Jodi sits down with Carrie, Laura, and Jeanette to talk about housing policy and...

Lieutenant Commander Jay Chen is a Navy intelligence officer, small business owner, and President of the Board of Trustees for Mt. San Antonio. He is the first Democrat to throw his hat in the race to unseat Republican Rep. Young Kim in California's competitive 39th Congressional district. Jay is no stranger to this race. He ran in 2012 against Republican Rep. Ed Royce, which culminated into the s...

Dr. Calhoun is the first African-American to hold elected office in Fullerton, California. As a little girl growing up in Fullerton, Dr. Calhoun was bussed from her home school, Maple Elementary to Laguna Road, a school in a more affluent area of the City. She received a strong foundation in academics at Laguna and at the other Fullerton schools, she later attended Ladera Vista Junior High and Ful...

We're back! To kick off the new year, Jodi interviews Jose Trinidad Castañeda. Jose is a Fullerton native, serves on the City of Fullerton Planning Commission, and has served on the Parks and Recreation Commission and South Coast AQMD Youth Council. Jose played a leading role in the historic election of Democrat Fullerton Councilman Fred Jung, district 1, a historically conservative district. He g...

Phil Chen is a Republican member of the California State Assembly, representing District 55. He assumed office in 2016. His current term ends on December 4, 2022. He ran for re-election to the California State Assembly to represent District 55. He won in the general election on November 3, 2020. Chen previously served as a representative on the Walnut Valley Unified School District Board of Educat...

Fred Jung and Nick Dunlap both recently won seats on the Fullerton City Council in districts 1 and 2, respectively. I got a chance to talk to them about why they ran, their experience campaigning during a pandemic, and what they plan to do when they formally join the council.

The election didn't just end on November 3rd. There are ballots STILL being counted and campaigns are anxiously awaiting those remaining results. Did the type of race those campaigns ran impact their long, drawn-out result? This is just one of the many questions answered in today's episode with Democratic political consultant Steven Sherry.

We're still watching those final mail-in ballots trickle in and get counted but we have a pretty clear idea of who won and what happened on November 3rd. To help triage these election results, I invited onto the podcast Dr. Sarah Hill, a professor at Cal State Fullerton and graduate of California Institute of Technology