Citizens Oversight Advisory Board

Bruce Saito is a Sansei (third generation) Japanese American. Bruce was born in Norwalk, California six years after his parents and grandparents returned to Los Angeles after being incarcerated in Internment Camps in Postin, Arizona.

Bruce began his work with the conservation corps when he was hired by the newly formed CA Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1977. Bruce was hired as a supervisor/instructor and assigned to the Bret Harte Training Academy in Calaveras County. Over the next 10 years, Bruce served in a variety of supervisor, coordinator, manager, and directors at the CCC Santa Clara, San Gabriel, Los Angeles Urban, and Camarillo Centers.

In 1986, Bruce helped establish the non-profit Los Angeles Conservation Corps (LACC) in South Los Angeles. He was initially hired as the Assistant Director and later became the Executive Director in 1995, where he led the LACC until 2015. Bruce enrolled and trained more than 20,000 youth and young adults, predominantly from diverse backgrounds and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Communities.

On September 5, 2015, Bruce was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to be the 10th Director of the CA Conservation Corps. Bruce helped grow the CCC by developing natural resource priorities that addressed critical climate and fire resiliency programs as well as life changing corpsmember youth development priorities for more than 1,600 young adults each year. After more than 46 years in public service and the conservation corps movement, Bruce retired from the CCC on November 5, 2023.

Bruce currently serves on the Corps Network’s Board of Directors. Bruce has helped to create many non-profit programs and serves on the Board of Directors at the Friends of Manzanar, Little Tokyo Sr. Nutrition Services, Coalition for Responsible Community Development (CRCD), LA Education Corps Charter High School, Los Angeles County Beaches and Harbors Commission, Community Nature Connection, and the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust.

Bruce earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from San Francisco State University in 1976. Bruce and his wife, Alexandra Torres, live in Long Beach.

Reginald Johnson (Reggie) believes that the role of a community planner is gaining an unprecedented importance. He wants to learn, plan, and optimize tools with strategies that can create positive change in South Los Angeles and connect communities. He’s obtained a degree in Community Planning with an emphasis on Economic Development at Los Angeles Trade Technical College. Reggie’s community leadership and involvement consists of facilitating male engagement efforts and food insecurity solutions for the Best Start LA Watts-Willowbrook Community Partnership, Park Equity Alliance, Alliance for Community Transit – LA, various nonprofits, civic participation and most recently appointed to Los Angeles County Measure A Citizens Oversight Board.

He launched the Willowbrook Inclusion Network (WIN) in the community in which he grew up. WIN is a non-profit, for-purpose social enterprise dedicated to community planning, civic engagement, economic growth, and workforce development. Johnson is committed to focusing WIN’s efforts on transforming Willowbrook through arts and culture to generate an educated community that can maximize their economic potential.

Reggie’s career goals are to increase the economic growth in underserved communities, improving land use issues in Los Angeles and strengthening social bonds among residents. Reggie is also involved in improving the infrastructure in communities through organizing which involves building leadership, advocacy, and quality social services. He is also working to build livable communities that will help residents, government and businesses solve complex neighborhood problems. He is committed to capacity building in communities for sustainable progress.

Yvette Lopez-Ledesma (she/her) is the founder of Tias on Trails, a body positive hiking group for women in their señora era. She also works as the Deputy Vice President of Community-led Conservation at The Wilderness Society, a national environmental conservation organization. She and her team work on developing programs to ensure that communities in urban and rural places can access the benefits of parks, open space, and public lands. Mrs. Lopez-Ledesma recently served as a Lecturer in the Urban Studies and Planning Department at California State University Northridge. From 2013-2018, she served as Deputy Director of Pacoima Beautiful, an environmental justice organization in the Northeast San Fernando Valley. She earned her BA in Urban Studies and Planning at CSUN and also earned her Master of Public Administration & Urban Planning. Mrs. Lopez-Ledesma has over 18 years of work and volunteer experience focused on her purpose to advance park and trail equity and promote inclusive community engagement.

Representing the 5th Supervisorial District on the Measure A Citizens Oversight Advisory Board is Mr. Mark Mariscal. He and his family have lived in Altadena, CA, for more than 30 years.

Board Member Mariscal was born and raised in Los Angeles, growing up in the Silverlake-Echo Park community. He worked his early and late teen years at the family store on Olvera Street. After graduating from John Marshall High School, he attended Los Angeles City College. From there, he served in the United States Air Force.

After returning from the Air Force (Honorable Discharge), Board Member Mariscal started working for the Los Angeles City Department of Recreation and Parks (LA RAP). It was during his early years working full-time that he returned to finish his college degree. Board Member Mariscal received his B.S. in Recreation Administration with a minor in Public Administration from California State University, Los Angeles.

Over the years, he promoted through the ranks of LA RAP, retiring in 2015 as the Superintendent of Regional Operations after 34 years of service. In the last five years with LA RAP, Board Member Mariscal has served his profession on the State-wide Board of Directors of the California Parks and Recreation Society (CPRS). In 2014-2015, he served as the 69th President of CPRS.

Upon his retirement, he was recruited to serve as the Director of Parks and Recreation for the County of Monterey in Central California. After 16 months, he retired once again and returned to Altadena, where he jumped into community service as a volunteer with the Altadena Rotary Club, Altadena Library Foundation and FRIENDS groups, and his local church.

Over the last 40 years, Board Member Mariscal has served on numerous Boards of Directors including being an elected Trustee of the Altadena Library District. When asked by the office of Supervisor Barger to serve in the position, he gladly accepted this newest assignment with honor.