Our Executive Board
Daniel Lopez, President
Daniel Lopez is currently serving in his first term as LACYD President and currently serves as a Legislative Deputy for Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Krekorian. Daniel’s interest in politics first began within his family. Growing up in a politically active family, Daniel was instilled with a strong commitment to the civic engagement, and with values that mandate fighting for those less fortunate. His political engagement began in earnest when he attended Loyola High School in Los Angeles where his Government and Politics class cemented his love of politics. After graduating from Loyola, Daniel attended the University of Southern California. While Daniel was attending USC he became involved in the Hillary Clinton for President Campaign. Daniel became so involved in the campaign that he worked in Texas and North Carolina, where he got to staff now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Former President Bill Clinton, all while maintain a full class load at USC. The Clinton campaign truly opened Daniel’s eyes to the tremendous affect that politics and public service has to many every day Americans and how truly lucky we are to live in a free democracy. After the Clinton Campaign, Daniel worked as the New Media Director for the Antonio Villarigosa Re-Election Campaign, where he created all of Mayor Villarigosa’s now vibrant Social Media Websites. After the conclusion of that campaign, Daniel went to go work for then-Assemblymember Paul Krekorian’s bid for LA City Council. Councilmember Krekorian was victorious and asked Daniel to join his City Hall Policy Team where he has been since. Last May, Daniel graduated from USC with a degree in International Relations and Economics. Daniel is also a big sports fan and enjoys baseball, football and basketball. Daniel is a lifetime resident of the Pasadena area of the San Gabriel Valley.
Jason B. Levin, Vice President of Communications
Jason Levin is beginning his third term as the Los Angeles County Young Democrats’ Vice President of Communications. In this role, Jason coordinates and manages LACYD’s external and internal communications, including the organization’s social media presence. In his professional career, Jason recently served as Press Secretary for LACYD co-founder Congressmember Howard Berman’s re-election campaign. He has previously served as a Field Representative in the office of both Congressman Berman and State Senator Fran Pavley, a Field Organizer for the Nick Karno for CA State Assembly campaign, and as an Intern for both the American Directions Group (formerly The Clinton Group) and the campaign to elect Jack Weiss as Los Angeles City Attorney in 2009. Jason graduated from The George Washington University’s Columbian College of Arts and Science with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History. He has also travelled abroad, studying at the Institute for the International Education of Students in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A proud “Valley boy,” born and raised in Sherman Oaks, Jason is a proud advocate for Los Angeles, the great state of California and the United States of America.
Aubrey Farkas, Vice President of Programming
Aubrey Farkas is a student at the University of Southern California, earning her Masters in Public Policy and certificate in Political Management. Aubrey also works for Brad Sherman for Congress. Aubrey serves on the Board of Directors for BookEnds, a non-profit literacy organization based in West Los Angeles, and Progress for a New Generation, a committee dedicated to ensuring the political presence of progressive young professionals is felt. She is an appointed delegate to the California State Democratic Party and has worked on several campaigns including Hillary Clinton’s Senate and presidential races, Barbara Boxer’s 2010 Senate campaign and Phil Angelides for Governor. Aubrey graduated from UC Davis, where she studied Political Science, Middle Eastern/South Asian Studies and Art History.
Marcos Sanchez, Vice President of Administration
Ben Harris, Treasurer
Ben Harris is a field deputy for Congressman Brad Sherman, responsible for representing Congressman Sherman to leaders in the Business and Jewish communities of the San Fernando Valley. Ben has experience at virtually every level of government, including working for Senator Dianne Feinstein, Councilman Eric Garcetti and for the City of Los Angeles for both the City Attorney and City Administrative Officer in the Debt Finance Division. His legislative experience includes working on private equity provisions of Dodd-Frank while at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ben grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from Pitzer College, where he received the prestigious Robert Day Scholarship for Leadership and Finance and graduated with honors in Finance/Economics and Political Science. He currently serves as an alternate for the 43rd Assembly District to the Democratic Party County Central Committee and is a Delegate for the Democratic State Central Committee.
Dante Atkins, Board Member
Dante Atkins is a former classicist turned Democratic activist, blogger and strategist. Dante graduated summa cum laude with highest honors from UCLA with a degree in Greek and Latin before being inspired by Howard Dean’s presidential campaign to turn to the political world. After getting involved in the John Kerry campaign and volunteering in Nevada and Florida, Dante turned his attention to getting more involved in his state and local Democratic Party while also pursuing his hobby of political blogging.
Dante is currently a frontpage writer on The Daily Kos, one of the country’s preeminent and most widely read liberal blogs. He also serves a variety of roles in local Democratic infrastructure: Dante co-chairs the Legislative Committee for the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, and is the Secretary for the 50th Assembly District Delegation. He also serves as the Vice-President of Finance for the California Young Democrats, and is a founding member of the Miracle Mile Democratic Club.
Dante works professionally in private-sector qualitative marketing research, as well as campaign management during election season.
Erick Martell, Board Member
Erick Martell is beginning his first term on the Executive Board for Los Angeles County Young Democrats. Erick serves as the Legislative & Transportation Deputy for Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar, 14th District. The District includes Downtown Los Angeles, as well as Boyle Heights, El Sereno, Highland Park and Eagle Rock. Erick successfully advances the Councilman’s public policy agenda on a broad range of issues and is the point person on matters relating to Los Angeles World Airports, Port of Los Angeles, Public Safety, Public Works, Budget & Finance, LAUSD, Intergovernmental Affairs and Labor relations.
Erick also manages transportation issues for the Councilman, who serves on the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Agency Board of Directors (Metro). In this capacity, Erick is involved with a variety of significant transportation projects, including the Regional Connector and Westside Extension which will greatly improve the connectivity of the transportation network for the region and serve as an important economic development tool for Downtown Los Angeles.
Born and raised in the Pico-Union area of Los Angeles, Erick has served on the Pico Union Neighborhood Council, Levitt Pavilion Advisory Board, and is the Vice President of the Latino Staffer Coalition, a non-partisan organization created to promote the advancement of its members throughout California.
Erick holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and Spanish from Loyola Marymount University, where he was invited to be a member of the Crimson Circle, the oldest honors and service organization at Loyola and was a proud member of Sigma Chi Fraternity.
Guy Lipa, Board Member
Guy serves as Councilmember Eric Garcetti’s chief floor deputy and liaison to other Councilmembers and their staff. He also works on a variety of legislative issues including to energy and the environment, entertainment, trade, tourism and commerce and public safety.
Prior to joining the Garcetti staff, Guy served as Legislative Aide to Congressmember Tom Lantos, who represented parts of the San Francisco Bay Area and who was Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He also helped Congressmember Lantos establish the Bipartisan Congressional Task Force Against Anti-Semitism as a permanent arm of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus.
Hailing from Los Angeles’s westside, Guy happily returned from Washington, DC, to the West Coast to serve in the communities where he grew up, enjoy surfing at Los Angeles beaches, playing golf in the California sun, and rooting on the LA Kings. He is a graduate of local public schools as well as The George Washington University, where he played on the college’s ice hockey team.
Ian Zweyer Anderson, Board Member
Ian is Community Organizer who has focused much of his attention on motivating young Democrats to come out of the woodwork and get active. Ian’s first call to political action came when he was an Organizing Intern at SEIU’s 32BJ in Manhattan. Seeing the power of everyday people speaking in one unified voice for a better life inspired Ian to continue his work as an organizer. Ian interned at the Neighborhood and Community Services Dept. in Los Angeles’ City Hall where he developed presentations detailing the fiscal route of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act used to explain how this money would affect the lives’ of Angelinos.
More recently Ian worked for Congressman Brad Sherman where he developed a team of veteran endorsers used to show candidate support in parades, commercials and events. Ian was the Volunteer Coordinator for the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley’s 2012 campaign where he recruited, trained and managed a team of over 700 high school volunteers who made over 350,000 calls in a 3 month window. Ian is now a field organizer with Alex De Ocampo’s campaign for City Council in Los Angeles’ Council District 13 where he continues working to bring the next generation of Young Democrats into the fold.
Ilissa Gold, Board Member
Jonathan Cousimano , Board Member
Steve Ferguson, Board Member
Tina Oh, Board Member
