Anthony Joseph Danna

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Anthony Joseph Danna

Nonpartisan

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 3, 2020

Education

Bachelor's

University of California, Los Angeles, 1998

Graduate

Northwestern University, 2018

Personal

Profession

Senior content strategist, television programming executive

Contact

Campaign website

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Anthony Joseph Danna ran for election to the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees to represent Seat No. 3 in California. He lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.

Danna completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Danna was born on June 18, 1976. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a bachelor's degree in 1998. He received master's degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in 2002 and Northwestern University in 2018. Danna's professional experience includes working as a senior content strategist and television programming executive.

Elections

2020

See also: Municipal elections in Los Angeles County, California (2020)

General election

General election for Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees Seat No. 3

The following candidates ran in the general election for Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees Seat No. 3 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		David Vela (Nonpartisan)	37.0	628,619
		Gerry Anderson (Nonpartisan)	17.7	300,993
		Lydia A. Gutiérrez (Nonpartisan)	15.7	267,275
	Submit photo	Sylvia Brooks Griffin (Nonpartisan)	7.4	125,896
		Anthony Joseph Danna (Nonpartisan)	4.9	82,757
	Submit photo	Ruffin Eugene Patterson (Nonpartisan)	3.8	64,890
	Submit photo	Samuel Paul Whitehead (Nonpartisan)	3.8	64,445
	Submit photo	Michael Batie (Nonpartisan)	3.6	61,527
	Submit photo	Robert Payne (Nonpartisan)	3.2	54,035
		Chatura De Silva (Nonpartisan)	3.0	50,716

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,701,153
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Endorsements

To view Danna's endorsements in the 2020 election, please click here.

Campaign themes

2020

Candidate Conversations

Moderated by journalist and political commentator Greta Van Susteren, Candidate Conversations is a virtual debate format that allows voters to easily get to know their candidates through a short video Q&A. Click below to watch the conversation for this race.

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Anthony Joseph Danna completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Danna's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am committed to fighting for our students because generations ago, a lot of people stood up and fought for me. As a result, this grandson of an immigrant farm worker, a factory worker, a waitress and a Teamster is now living a life he never dreamed possible. That's the California I experienced as a descendant of European immigrants, and that's the Los Angeles WE need to build for EVERYone. I am ready to do this work.

I am a community college graduate. I transferred to UCLA and went on to earn two Master's Degrees - and I took on no debt. At Penn, I studied the intersection of education and media, specifically the ways in which media affects young people and educational systems. At Northwestern, I earned an M.S. in Predictive Analytics.

My focus on data science and related research methods allows me to look at the world in a unique way and analyze how it can change for the better. Data can be transformative in rooting out the bias that underpays and undervalues women and people of color. I have successfully advocated for equity increases and promotions for my employees with the backing of this hard data.

I am married with a husband and two young children, and I fundamentally believe in the transformative power of good government. I've spent the last 16 years living and working overseas and I've seen examples of how much MORE we could be doing here at home.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• The fight against climate change and for environmental justice is the biggest fight of our generation. LA's community colleges need to be at the forefront of Green New Deal mobilization and I have a plan to get us there.
• Living Wage Jobs. Whether it is by transferring to a 4-year college, or newly entering or transitioning into the workforce, I want to connect students to the high paying jobs of today and tomorrow through expanded apprenticeship opportunities.
• We need to provide more student housing, as housing and food insecurity plague the students of this District and this has a direct impact on their education. The District has the money to build housing.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Public higher education.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

I grew up in a California that allowed my grandparents, a truck driver and a waitress, to move here from Minnesota and live their retirement years comfortably on a Teamsters (Local 120) pension and Social Security. My grandparents were a central part of my life growing up. My grandfather, a life-long member of Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, taught me a lot about the dignity of work and what it means to be a Democrat. I've carried his lessons with me throughout my life.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

I remember the news and reaction to the attempted assassination of President Reagan when I was 4 years old.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

For a brief period of time, I was a child actor. At age 8, I was cast in a film produced on location near my childhood home in Santa Cruz County. The job lasted a few months, but it was a wonderful experience meeting and working with film and theatre professionals from Los Angeles and San Francisco.

What is the primary job of a school board member in your view?

The primary responsibilities of a member of the Board of Trustees is to ensure the District is delivering on its mission and vision through oversight of District management, strategy and spending.

Who are your constituents?

The Los Angeles Community College District is the nation's largest community college district, educating over 200,000 students each year at its nine colleges. The District serves more than five million residents of 38 cities, covering nearly 900 square miles of Los Angeles County. The District's colleges provide an important learning pathway for students seeking transfer to four-year colleges or universities, while also offering two-year degrees and certificated training programs to the region's diverse workforce in many specialized trades and professions.

How would you support the diverse needs of your district’s students, faculty, staff, and community?

By focusing on issues like housing and food insecurity that are common among large groups of constituents.

How will you build relationships with members of the broader community? Which groups, organizations, stakeholders will you specifically target?

I want to build new bridges between L.A.'s leading industries and the community colleges in Los Angeles to better prepare students for the jobs of today and the jobs of tomorrow which haven't even been invented yet.

What will you do to build a better relationship with parents in the district? What plans do you have to be inclusive of parental involvement?

Not applicable in the community college setting.

Do you believe it is important to intentionally recruit with the aim of diversifying the district’s faculty, staff, and administration? If so, what would be your policy to achieve this?

Yes and that is why I support Prop. 16 on this year's ballot. Students do better when they have the opportunity to learn from instructors that look like them and that have similar backgrounds.

What issues get in the way of quality education? How would you address these obstacles?

Lack of funds and poor management. Until the state of California has a reckoning with the way our institutions of higher education are funded, it is imperative that each and every dollar is spent to its highest and best purpose. This requires ethical and effective management. No one on the Board of Trustees has extensive management experience and this limits their ability to hold the District's management to account.

What constitutes good teaching? How will you measure this? How will you support advanced teaching approaches?

I support the development of advanced teaching approaches through rigorous professional development. The District must invest more time and effort in improving its distance learning programs given the realities of COVID-19 and trends in the higher education sector.

What type of skills should students be learning for success in the 21st century?

To truly be successful in this area, the District and its colleges need to weave practices that foster 21st century skills development into everything they do. The top ten 21st century skills recognized by the Foundation for California Community Colleges are:

Adaptability
Analysis/solution mindset
Collaboration
Communication
Digital fluency
Entrepreneurial mindset
Empathy
Resilience
Self-awareness
Social/diversity awareness

A simple, but significant first step toward putting the development of 21st century skills at the center of the District's work would be a re-imagining of the District's mission statement and its related goals with these outcomes in mind. Santa Monica College, for example, has clearly woven 21st century skills into the "Institutional Learning Outcomes" connected to its mission and vision statements. It isn't as if the District and its leadership are unaware of these issues. L.A. Mission College and L.A. Southwest College come the closest to articulating the value of these skills in their respective mission and vision statements, but to prepare its workforce and its students for a future we cannot see, the District has to make bigger moves in this area.

How might you improve the value of a high school diploma? What should a 21st century diploma reflect?

I would like to see the District build upon its dual/concurrent enrollment programs to give more students a head-start on earning the qualifications they need to be successful in a rapidly changing economy.

In what areas would you like to expand curriculum? For example, do you see a need for advanced technical training or apprenticeships? What sort of innovative programming would you advance if given the opportunity?

The one area I would like to see the District expand its curriculum is in the area of green and clean energy workforce development. The fight against climate change and for environmental justice is the biggest fight of our generation. We must respond to this moment of environmental crisis by reinvesting in and reinvigorating our community colleges. To make significant progress addressing income inequality and the impacts of climate change, L.A.'s Community Colleges need to be at the forefront of Green New Deal mobilization, just as they were at the forefront of wartime mobilization generations ago. My plan calls for:

Creating our own Equitable Clean Energy Jobs Program District-wide.

Using Measure CC bond money to invest in the spaces and equipment required for sustainable, green and clean energy workforce development.

Creating green and clean energy career pathways at every campus.

What strategies or plans would you advance to ensure the schools are properly funded?

I support Prop. 15 on this year's ballot as an important first step toward increasing funding for all of our schools, but particularly for our community colleges. The entire Jarvis-Gann amendment to the California Constitution (i.e. 1978's Prop. 13) needs to be thrown out and replaced with a more equitable system.

I also support asking the people of Los Angeles for additional construction bond money to build housing facilities for students, faculty and staff.

What principles drive your policies for safety in schools?

The relationship between the District and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) needs to be reconsidered. I want to see meaningful changes coming out of the review the District is conducting with the LASD Community College Bureau on the Bureau's training, professional development and response protocols.

How might you support the mental health needs of students/faculty/staff?

I believe community colleges need to consider the whole student in the development of their programs and services and that healthcare should be included in that consideration set. Given the toll COVID-19 and the related economic crisis is taking - and will continue to take - on students I would prioritize expanding mental health services which as we know are in even greater need by LGBTQIA and BIPOC students right now. I would look for funding through partnerships with non-profit service providers and with foundations to expand these services.

What role do you imagine technology playing in (and outside) the classroom in the future? How would you prepare the district for this?

Technology is advancing rapidly and the District must keep up with advances in technology in order to prepare students for a more technologically-oriented world of work. In many industries, many entry-level jobs now require some technological competency. The District must develop a comprehensive technology plan to ensure students have access to the tools and training they need to be competitive in a rapidly changing job market.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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