Sydney Kamlager is Trustee for the Los Angeles Community College District.
Background
Sydney Kamlager was born in Chicago, Illinois. She is the daughter of Don Kamlager and Cheryl Lynn Bruce, an acclaimed stage actress and director In the early eighties, her mother moved to Brooklyn, New York, and sent for young Kamlager shortly thereafter.
She and her mother returned to Chicago in 1986, where she attended Saint Ignatius College Preparatory.
During her junior year in high school, she went to Appalachia, West Virginia, on a missionary program, and her commitment to social justice and addressing poverty and education was born.
Education
Sydney Kamlager was born in Chicago, Illinois. She is the daughter of Don Kamlager and Cheryl Lynn Bruce, an acclaimed stage actress and director In the early eighties, her mother moved to Brooklyn, New York, and sent for young Kamlager shortly thereafter.
She attended middle and junior high school in Brooklyn.
Her first internship as a young teen was at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. She and her mother returned to Chicago in 1986, where she attended Saint Ignatius College Preparatory.
During her junior year in high school, she went to Appalachia, West Virginia, on a missionary program, and her commitment to social justice and addressing poverty and education was born. She attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, was initiated into Zeta Phi Beta, Sorority, Incorporated., and curated her first art exhibition, featuring artists John Outterbridge and Willie Midllebrook, among others
She received her Masters in Arts Management in 1994 from the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Career
The LACCD is the largest community college district in the nation. Kamlager was elected to Seat 3 of the Board on March 3, 2015. Sydney Kamlager began her professional career at the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) in Venice, California, where she programmed public art programs in each of the city council districts throughout Los Los Angeles
Kamlager supervised the restoration of the famous Venice graffiti pit, working with graffiti crews from across the city to establish the pit as a site for revolving spray paint mural art
After SPARC, Kamlager worked with actor Delroy Lindo, developing projects for his Cieluna Company. Kamlager returned to the public service and non-profit world in 2002, where she would become the Director of External Affairs at Crystal Stairs.
In 2010, Kamlager transitioned to politics and accepted a position as a key consultant on the campaign to elect Holly J. Mitchell to State Assembly. She has served as District Director for Mississippi
Mitchell while she was in the State Assembly and while in the State Senate, focusing on strategic initiatives as well as on issues of higher education, restorative justice and the arts
In 2015, Sydney Kamlager ran for Seat 3 of the Board of Trustees for the Los Angeles Community College District. She is the fourth African-American woman to be elected to the LACCD Board of Trustees since 2001 and the third African-American women to be elected to Seat 3 since 1987. She follows in the footsteps of Mississippi
Gwen Moore and Mississippi
Marguerite Archie-Hudson. In 2013, Sydney Kamlager was appointed by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas to represent the 2nd Supervisorial District as a Commissioner on the Los Angeles County Commission on Children and Families. In 2013, Sydney Kamlager also joined the Board of Dircetors for the Unusual Suspects Theatre Company.