Mitchell H. Katz, M.D.
Mitchell H. Katz, MD, joined the Department of Health Services as Director in January 2011. He oversees a $3.5 annual budget, 21,000 employees, and a health care system of acute hospitals, multiservice specialty centers, community health clinics, and the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Agency that together serves the County’s 10 million residents.
Among his top priorities are to strengthen the DHS outpatient delivery network, foster stronger coordination with the Department’s community clinic partners, reduce health disparities, and provide the high-quality, patient-centered care at the heart of his approach as a practicing physician and health policy leader.
Prior to joining DHS, Dr. Katz served as Director of Health and Health Officer for the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) from 1997 to 2010. There, one of his signature accomplishments was the creation of the “Healthy San Francisco” initiative that established primary care medical homes for the city’s vulnerable residents that improved health outcomes and reduced medical care costs. Earlier, he served as SFDPH Director of Community Health and Safety from 1996 to 1997 and Director of the AIDS Office from 1992-1997.
Dr. Katz received a Bachelor’s Degree from Yale University and Medical Degree from Harvard Medical School. He completed his residency in Primary Care Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and is a practicing Internist.
An avid bicyclist, Dr. Katz enjoys navigating the urban jungle, promoting active and healthy living and sharing “greenwill” across the County of Los Angeles.
Ben Allen
California State Senator Ben Allen was elected in 2014 to represent the 26th Senate District, which consists of the Westside, Hollywood, and coastal South Bay communities of Los Angeles County.
Ben serves as Chair of the Senate Education Committee and the legislature’s Joint Committee on the Arts. He is a member of the Senate Committees on Elections and Constitutional Amendments, Natural Resources and Water, and Transportation and Housing. He co-chairs the Environmental Caucus and is Vice Chair of the Jewish Caucus.
Ben has authored several measures that have become law, including the groundbreaking bill to boost vaccination rates among schoolchildren. He authored laws that protect veterans from pension scams; improve the diagnosis, treatment, and care for persons with Alzheimer’s disease; and enable HIV-positive persons to donate life-saving organs to others living with HIV.
Ben coauthored the Senate’s historic climate change legislation, which requires 50% of the state’s energy to come from renewable sources and doubles energy efficiency in buildings by 2030. He is also leading the effort to end the use of harmful drift gillnets in commercial fishing off the coast that injure and kill endangered sea turtles and other marine life.
Ben received the Freshman Legislator of the Year award from the California School Boards Association and was named Legislator of the Year by the County Superintendents’ Educational Services Association, the Alzheimer’s Association, and Technet, an association of technology companies that includes Apple, Google, and Microsoft.
Ben grew up in the 26th District. He is a former board member, and board President, of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, where he was a leader on issues of environmental sustainability, financial accountability, and community engagement. While in law school, Ben served as a voting member of the University of California Board of Regents and was a judicial clerk with the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. As an attorney, he worked for the law firm of Richardson & Patel LLP and was previously a litigator with Bryan Cave LLP.
Prior to his law career, Ben worked for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and then as Communications Director for Congressman Jose Serrano (D-NY). He is a senior fellow with the international human rights organization Humanity in Action, a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, and a graduate of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles’ New Leaders Project. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University, a Master of Philosophy degree from the University of Cambridge, and a Juris Doctor from UC Berkeley.
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