Gloria Gray received nearly twice as many votes as incumbent George Dotson in the runoff election for Inglewood Council District 1. According to the results at Sentinel press time, Gray had 1,485 votes or 64.72% compared to Dotson’s 809 votes or 35.28%.
If Gray prevails as the winner, she will once again devote time and resources to the city she has served for decades in various capacities. An Inglewood resident, she also served from 1995 to 2003 on the board of the Inglewood Unified School District and is a former executive board member of the L.A. County Democratic Party Central Committee 51st Assembly District.
Her long tenure on the West Basin Municipal Water District Board of Directors is further evidence of her commitment to public service. First elected in 2006, she went on to be appointed to the Delta Stewardship Council by then-Assembly Speaker Karen Bass in 2010. In the former position, she was the first Black woman to serve and in the latter, she was the first African American.
In 2019, Gray added another “first” to her extensive public service career when she became the first African American elected to chair the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of Southern California. Currently, she serves as the immediate past chairwoman of the agency.
Also, Gray has an extensive history of serving the community. Prior to her election to the West Basin Board, she worked for 36 years as a healthcare administrator at the L.A. County Departments of Health and Human Services.
“My career gateway was at the Department of Health Services. I started as a stenographer and steadily worked my way up the ladder to healthcare administrator, earned my Bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Redlands, my Health Services Management Certificate from UCLA and my Master’s in Governance Certificates from both the California School Boards Association and the Special Districts Board Management Institute,” recalled Gray in an earlier Sentinel interview.
“I learned to face and overcome challenges by never giving up. Each job opened my eyes to the world around me. I also began to appreciate the importance of public service and how it takes action and involvement to make our community a better place.”
Her involvement with community organizations is varied as well. She is the co-founder and past-president of the Black Health Services Action Committee and the Black Organizations Alliance. Affiliated with SEIU Local 721for more than 35 years, Gray also served on a range of the boards including Charles Drew University of Sciences and Medicine, Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center, PV (Playa Vista) Jobs, Southwest Community College, South Bay Workforce Investment Board, Inglewood Leadership Council, LAX Area Community Advisory Committee and Inglewood Chamber of Commerce.
The Sentinel will continue to monitor the election and will post the latest results online at lasentinel.net.
