Directors

Director Kimberly Freeman

A Los Angeles native, Director Freeman is Director of Community Relations for Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas); Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) is the nation's largest natural gas distribution utility, serving a population of 20.9 million consumers through 5.8 million gas meters in more than 500 communities. As Director of Community Relations, she is primarily responsible for directing charitable giving, implementing community outreach, and developing and maintaining high quality relationships with hundreds of nonprofit organizations throughout Southern California.  Throughout her career, she has held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility in sales and marketing, regulatory relations, environment and safety, and engineering at the utility and its parent company, Sempra Energy. 

Director Freeman earned an undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from UC Berkeley, a master of public policy degree from USC, and an MBA from The Anderson School at UCLA.   Her most recent educational pursuit has been teaching an undergraduate course in government and business as a part-time faculty member in the School of Policy Planning and Development at USC.  Commissioner Freeman is committed to public service and spends time serving on boards and volunteering with many community-based organizations.

Director Freeman was appointed to the Board on July 22, 2011.

Director Lucelia Hooper

Director Lucelia Hooper has been a resident of Nickerson Gardens for thirty-two years. Her public service career spans over 20 years, most notably, at Nickerson Gardens Resident Management Corporation where she served as a Recording Secretary eventually being nominated to President of the management corporation. Since 1989 she has been involved in a variety of programs at the site, including the management and operation of the Food Bank, Youth Council mentor, Nickerson Gardens Safe Passage Program for Markham Middle School.  She also served as the President of Nickerson Gardens Block Captains Program.

Director Hooper’s dedication and commitment to better her community led her to her involvement with the Watts Gang Taskforce. Since 2004, she has served as the Vice President of the taskforce and works with Councilwoman Janice Hahn’s office to decrease area’s gang violence and improve the safety of residents. She is active in the church and volunteers her time and skills in a range of events and programs. Ms. Hooper also participates in the Partnership for Schools with the City of Los Angeles, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s initiative to improve student performance and achievement records.

A native of Mississippi, Director Hooper is the mother of four children, grandmother of seven and great-grandmother of three.

Director Alicia Maldonado

Alicia Maldonado brings a diverse communications and public affairs background to HACLA.  She is currently the President of Mockingbird Communications, a public affairs company that provides strategic communications, media relations, public advocacy  and organizational development among other services.  Prior to starting her own company, Ms. Maldonado was the Deputy Managing Director of GCG Rose & Kindel.  Her responsibilities at GCG Rose & Kindel included strategic planning and communications, media relations, organizational development, community outreach and collaboration with coalitions on a variety of issues including education, school reform, parental involvement, non-profits and healthcare in underserved communities.
 
Just prior to joining GCG Rose & Kindel, Maldonado served as the Senior Director of Communications and Public Policy for the national non-profit Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) where she was responsible for the development and implementation of strategic media and communications plans on policy issues relating to education, voting rights, employment, immigration and resource equity.  She supervised production of all organizational printed materials, coordinated press conferences and briefings, served as ghost writer for the president and general counsel, and provided media training to legal, educational staff and board members.

Ms. Maldonado began her career as a general market television news reporter in Fresno, California, and was the first Latina hired in broadcast television in the San Joaquin Valley.  She helped launch Radio Bilingue, a public bilingual radio station serving the San Joaquin Valley; and served as program director at Fresno Cable TV (now Time Warner Cable) and programming manager for Continental Cablevision (now TWC) in South Central Los Angeles.
Ms. Maldonado has extensive writing experience and has been published in the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Hispanic Business Magazine, the Los Angeles Business Journal among other publications.  She has worked on several major media outreach projects, including the decennial census counts in 1990 and 2000.

Ms. Maldonado maintains membership in several organizations focusing on educational issues including the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce Education and Workforce Development Committee which focuses on pertinent educational issues from a business perspective.  She sits on the board of the Camino Nuevo Charter Academy, a network of three charter schools serving families in MacArthur Park, one of the poorest communities just west of downtown Los Angeles.  She also sits on the board of the Los Angeles Trade Technical College Foundation and served as a member of its Selection Committee in 2006 when Dr. Roland Chapdelaine was selected to lead the college.

Ms. Maldonado is Vice President of the Board of the Los Angeles Center for Law & Justice which uses the law to empower individuals, support families and strengthen relations between Latinos and Jews.  She is the President of Hispanas Organized for Political Equality – Political Action Committee (HOPE-PAC), a non-partisan organization dedicated to attaining equal access for Latinas in the political arena.  She is also a member of the LA Chamber’s Land Use, Construction and Housing Committee.

Ms. Maldonado received her Masters Degree in Communications Management from the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Journalism from California State University Fresno.