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USC Bedrosian Center Taps Distinguished Public Officials for Board

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John and Judith Bedrosian

The Bedrosians

The Judith and John Bedrosian Center on Governance and the Public Enterprise, a University of Southern California research center that promotes effective governance at all levels, has named a group of 12 current and former government officials, civic leaders and educators to its board of advisors.

The center, which was founded in 2005 with a $10 million gift from Judith and John Bedrosian, is directed by Raphael Bostic, a professor in the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy since 2001 and former assistant secretary of the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a senate-confirmed position.

The board will guide Bostic and other Bedrosian Center faculty in their effort to address pressing issues that impact how the public sector functions and serves its constituencies.

“Effective governance is essential to the quality of life of all Americans,” said Bedrosian. “That was the essence of the purpose in founding the center. It is dedicated to understanding and improving the nature of democratic governance, policymaking and management of the public enterprise in the 21st century.”

The board includes:

  • Tom Bakaly, city manager of Hermosa Beach
  • John Bedrosian, Bedrosian Center founder and member of the USC Price Board of Councilors
  • Austin Beutner, former first deputy mayor of Los Angeles
  • Raphael Bostic, USC’s Judith and John Bedrosian Chair in Governance and director of the Bedrosian Center on Governance
  • Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, former L.A. County supervisor and member of the Office of Congressional Ethics
  • Ted Gaebler, city manager of Rancho Cordova and co-author of Reinventing Government
  • Peter James Gravett, secretary of the California Department of Veterans Affairs
  • Ronald O. Loveridge, Former mayor of Riverside and director of UC Riverside’s Center for Sustainable Suburban Development
  • Ronald Sims, former deputy director of HUD and a former King County (Wash.) executive
  • Greig Smith, former Los Angeles City councilman
  • Karen Bedrosian Coyne, chief operating officer of the Bedrosian Trust and chief financial officer of the Karisma Foundation
  • Jack Knott, C. Irwin and Ione L. Piper Dean of the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy

“This group’s broad background and success in governance at all levels give the Bedrosian Center an incredible resource that will guide our efforts to examine and improve how our institutions serve the public,” Bostic said. “This is a wonderful base of knowledge that will help us better understand the issues and challenges that face our leaders.”

Added Bedrosian: “It is gratifying to know that through the Center and its Board of Advisors which was established to provide ideas and support to the Center, the Price School will be able to lead a national effort to meet, both nationally and internationally, the challenges that face our society in this century.”

Bedrosian Center