Madeline Janis is co-founder and executive director of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy. In 2002, she was appointed by Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn as a volunteer commissioner to the board of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, the country’s largest such agency and then reappointed to that position by L.A.'s current Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in 2006. She is also a Senior Fellow at the UCLA School of Public Affairs.

Ms. Janis led the historic campaign to pass L.A.’s living wage ordinance, which has since become a national model. Over the past decade, she has provided training and assistance to community organizations and unions in dozens of cities across the country, and is widely regarded as an innovator in the fight against working poverty. She serves on the boards of directors of Good Jobs First, the Partnership for Working Families, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, and the Phoenix Fund for Workers and Communities, a project of the New World Foundation.

Under Ms. Janis’ stewardship, LAANE has become an influential voice for the working poor and for the need to strengthen and rebuild the middle class in L.A. Combining research, organizing and legislative advocacy, the nonprofit organization has spearheaded numerous programs to create quality jobs with healthcare and a better quality of life for Los Angeles workers and communities.

LAANE and Ms. Janis have received many honors, including the UCLA Law School’s Antonia Hernandez Public Interest Award and the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese’s Empowerment Award, awards from the Liberty Hill Foundation and Office of the Americas, and numerous commendations from the Los Angeles City Council and the California Assembly and Senate.

Prior to founding LAANE, Ms. Janis served as executive director of the Central American Refugee Center (CARECEN) from 1989 to 1993, where she helped lead a successful campaign to legalize and regulate the activities of the mostly Latino immigrant sidewalk vendors. During this time, she also headed efforts to combat civil rights abuses of Central American immigrants by the L.A. Police Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and helped tens of thousands of Central American immigrants achieve legal immigrant status.

Before joining CARECEN, Ms. Janis, an attorney, represented tenants and homeless people in slum housing litigation, and advocated for homeless disabled people who had been denied government benefits. She also worked for two years at the law firm of Latham & Watkins on commercial litigation and land use matters, representing many large companies throughout Los Angeles. She received degrees from UCLA Law School and Amherst College in Massachusetts.