Los Angeles County Assessor Jeff Prang has announced Ted Olguin as his new chief of staff of the assessor’s Communications and Public Affairs team.
“I am honored to have been selected to lead Communications and Public Affairs on behalf of the largest property assessment agency in the nation,” Olguin said in a statement. “Los Angeles County is home to the largest concentration of Native Americans in the country and I am proud to represent a small but growing number of Native American professional leading in local government.”
As an enrolled tribal member of the Pueblo of Isleta Native-American community in New Mexico, Olguin is the highest ranking Native American in the assessor’s office. In his new role, Olguin will be responsible for a wide range of duties, including public education, media, legislative analysis and advocacy, internal and external communications, and community outreach. Olguin will lead a staff of 13, including field deputies, special assistants and administrative staff. Prang said Olguin will also lead efforts to implement his vision of “providing excellent quality service” to the public, in large measure by way of an “aggressive educational outreach program.”
“Ted is uniquely qualified to lead our efforts in the public affairs arena,” Prang said in a statement. “Internal and external communications have changed significantly over the years with a variety of multimedia platforms now available, along with conventional outlets.” Prang described Olguin as having the “unique ability” to navigate the changing “modern world” of public affairs.
Olguin is an alumnus of the Southern California Coro Fellow in Public Affairs program, which provides a graduate-level, experiential, cross-sector leadership training. He also completed his undergraduate studies in political science and economics at the University of New Mexico. Olguin committed two years of service with Teach for America as a second grade teacher while completing his Masters of Elementary Education from the University of Missouri-Saint Louis.
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