MEET FRANCIS
“I’ve lived in the district for 37 years. I went to school here. I am raising my kids here. This community is not a backdrop for this campaign. It is the reason for it.”
Francis Pollara has lived in the district for 37 years, and he's raising his kids here now. Before dual enrollment existed as a formal path, he was already taking classes at Pasadena City College as a high school student, building his own path forward. PCC opened a door that would otherwise have stayed closed. That experience changed his life.
He went on to earn his undergraduate degree at ArtCenter College of Design and his MBA at USC Marshall, but PCC is where he found the institution that made that path possible in the first place. That is not a talking point. It is the reason he is running.
Francis was raised in a family of educators. His mother is a Professor Emerita, founding chair of the nursing PhD program at Azusa Pacific University, and a two time Fulbright Scholar. His father was a Caltech professor focused on error correcting codes who spent 32 years at JPL building technology for space exploration, some of which still underpins how our digital devices communicate today. Growing up in that environment taught Francis that education isn't just about credentials. It's about opportunity, and about the responsibility institutions carry to deliver on it.
PCC is one of the most important institutions in our region. Each semester, more than 27,000 students come through its classrooms, labs, and programs, preparing to transfer to four year universities, enter the workforce, change careers, and build better lives for themselves and their families. LAEDC reports that the college generates $685 million in regional economic value every year.
Francis represents stability without complacency. Innovation without disruption for its own sake.
He has spent his career helping organizations navigate change, solve hard problems, and turn ideas into results, founding and leading companies, launching and running an early stage venture fund, investing in emerging businesses, and working in Los Angeles City Hall on some of the toughest challenges facing the region. That work reached millions of Angelenos, and still does today. He has also served as Chair of the Sustainability and Resilience Commission, Vice Chair of the Design Commission, and board member at the YMCA of the Foothills and the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator. Those roles taught him the same lesson again and again: listen carefully, ask hard questions, bring people to the table, and be accountable for how you lead.
“The curriculum of the future must be as dynamic as the economy it serves.”
Our workforce needs are changing fast. Technology is reshaping nearly every industry, employers are demanding new skills, and California is facing persistent shortages in the skilled trades and other critical fields. PCC faces the same risk state-wide K-12 schools are already living through: declining enrollment. Innovation and fiscal responsibility aren't in tension, they go hand in hand. That means more online and hybrid pathways to widen access, a stronger honors program for students aiming at the country's top transfer universities, and affordable, flexible routes that connect education directly to economic opportunity.
"Standing still is not a neutral choice. It's a decision to fall behind. And we already know what going backward looks like."
As a father of two, Francis is invested in this community and its institutions for the long haul. He's running for the PCC Board of Trustees to protect the progress the college has made, connect students to real careers, and make sure every dollar entrusted to PCC is treated as an investment in the people it serves.
As a Trustee, Francis will bring fiscal responsibility, transparency, and accountability to the board — asking difficult questions, planning for the long term, maintaining strong reserves, and making sure investments in facilities and technology deliver results students can actually feel.
PCC has made real progress. That progress deserves protection — because we've seen what happens when it isn't protected.
Expand dual enrollment and career pathways, so every student can draw a straight line from what they're learning to where it leads.
Grow the honors program, so students aiming at the country's top transfer universities have a real launchpad.
Build out flexible, affordable online and hybrid options that meet students where their lives actually are.
Deepen partnerships with local employers, universities, labor, and the trades, so a PCC credential is a promise the region can bank on.
Approach AI and emerging technology with open eyes — using innovation to expand opportunity without ever losing sight of human judgment.
Treat every dollar as an investment in students — strong reserves, long-term planning, and honest answers to hard questions.
Fight for PCC's fair share of state and regional infrastructure funding, so students and faculty get the modern, safe, resilient campus they deserve.