Barbara Lee, Elizabeth Hill, and Susan Rasky Highlight Speakers at League of Women Voters of California 60th Convention in Oakland, May 15-18, 2003

Statewide Leaders Convene to Discuss New Challenges, New Solutions and Continue the League's Respected Work in Promoting Active Participation by Citizens in Their Government

(Oakland, CA, May 6, 2003)---The appearance of several dynamic speakers will highlight the 60th Convention of the League of Women Voters of California at the City Center Marriott Hotel in Oakland, May 15-18.

The Honorable Barbara Lee, Member of Congress from California's Ninth District, will be the banquet keynote speaker on Saturday night, May 17. Elizabeth G. Hill, Legislative Analyst for the California Legislature, will keynote the Opening Plenary Session on Friday morning, May 16. Susan Rasky, Assistant Professor at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, will address the "Newsmaker Luncheon" on Friday noon.

Kay Maxwell, President of the League of Women Voters of the United States, will talk on the future direction of the national organization, and campaign and election reforms, as a highlight of the Saturday presentations. Also featured at Saturday's banquet will be political satirist Will Durst.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1998. She is currently the Co-Chair of the Progressive Caucus, Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Task Force on Global HIV/AIDS, Whip for the CBC, and a member of the CBC Minority Business Task Force. Congresswoman Lee came to Washington after serving in the California State Assembly from 1990-1996 and the California State Senate from 1996-1998.

Born in El Paso, Texas, Barbara Lee came to California in 1960 and graduated from Mills College in Oakland in 1973, earning a Master's Degree in Social Welfare from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1975. Throughout her political career, she has sought to bring her training as a social worker to bear on the problems and challenges that confront the East Bay, California, and the nation.

Elizabeth G. Hill is the well-respected Legislative Analyst for the Legislature of the State of California. She began her career in state government in 1976, joining California's Legislative Analyst's Office as a program analyst focusing on criminal justice. Following specializations in other policy areas, she was appointed California Legislative Analyst by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee in 1986. In her position, she serves as a nonpartisan fiscal advisor to both houses of the State Legislature, and oversees the preparation of annual fiscal and policy analyses of the State of California's budget and its various programs. In 1997, she was recognized as a "Public Official of the Year" by Governing magazine.

Elizabeth Hill earned a Bachelor's Degree, with honors, in human biology from Stanford University and a Master's Degree in public policy from UC Berkeley. Following her academic training, she was a Fulbright Scholar in Stockholm, Sweden, conducting research into innovative Swedish transportation policies. She served as a Senior Fellow in 2000-2001 at the UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research. She currently serves on the advisory boards of the Public Policy Institute of California, the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, and the Sacramento Center of the University of Southern California.

Susan Rasky, a former reporter for the New York Times, joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1991 and is now an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Journalism. She will talk about the project she has headed this year that sent groups of her students to locations throughout the U.S. to find out why younger voters, 21 to 36, did or did not vote in the last local and Presidential elections. Also surveyed in her study were voters over age 50, to assess why they vote. The differences uncovered will be the theme of Prof. Rasky's talk on "The Continental Divide", Making politics and government relevant to the Hip Hop Generation and Is California politically relevant to the rest of the country?

Prof. Rasky has a Bachelor's Degree in history from UC Berkeley and a Master's Degree in economic history from the London School of Economics. She began her career in Washington, D.C. covering tax, budget, and economic policy for the Bureau of National Affairs, later reporting for Reuters from Capitol Hill and the White House. She is a contributing editor to the California Journal and writes regularly for the opinion pages of the Los Angeles Times and the Sacramento Bee. She also appears on the KQED-produced public television program "Northern California in Review".

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Other press releases about the Convention:

The League of Women Voters of California Convenes 60th Convention in Oakland, May 15-18, 2003

"Making Democracy Work" Awards To Be Presented at League of Women Voters of California 60th Convention in Oakland, May 15-18, 2003