Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl was sworn in as a member of the South Coast Air Quality Management District (South Coast AQMD) Governing Board, replacing Supervisor Kathryn Barger as the representative for the County of Los Angeles.
Kuehl was first elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in November 2014 and was reelected to her second term in November 2018. She represents the Third District which encompasses 431 square miles and includes two million residents from the ocean to Los Feliz, and from Venice up to San Fernando.
During her time on the Board of Supervisors, Kuehl has worked on many initiatives and motions to improve the quality of life for residents, including expanding affordable housing and reducing homelessness; reforming our juvenile justice system; continuing to build the infrastructure for the County’s ‘care first, jail last’ and alternatives to incarceration plans; and launching innovative programs like the Clean Power Alliance and the County’s groundbreaking Sustainability Plan.
“I’ve been working to improve the environment for all our families through most of my career in public service,” said Supervisor Kuehl. “I’m really looking forward to re-joining the Governing Board to address our regional air quality which continues to have very serious negative health consequences for many people who live in southern California.”
This is Supervisor Kuehl’s second time serving on South Coast AQMD’s Governing Board. She previously served from 2017-2019.
Serving eight years in the California State Senate and six years in the California State Assembly, Supervisor Kuehl was the first woman in California to be named Speaker Pro Tempore of the Assembly and the first openly gay or lesbian person elected to the California Legislature. During this time, Supervisor Kuehl authored 171 bills signed into law including protections for the Santa Monica Mountains, and anti-discrimination legislation on the basis of gender and disability in the workplace and sexual orientation in education.
Earlier in her career, Supervisor Kuehl also worked as a public-interest attorney and fought for over 40 pieces of legislation relating to children, families, women and domestic violence. She co-founded and served as managing attorney of the California Women’s Law Center and taught law as a professor at Loyola, UCLA and USC schools of law. Kuehl graduated from Harvard Law School in 1978.
South Coast AQMD is the air pollution control agency for Orange County and major portions of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties, including the Coachella Valley. For news, air quality alerts, event updates and more, please visit us at www.aqmd.gov, download our award-winning app, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
