Paula Daniels is Senior Advisor to the Mayor of Los Angeles specializing in food and water policy, She took this position in the summer of 2011 after six years as a Los Angeles Public Works Commissioner, where she developed a number of Green Infrastructure initiatives, including a Low Impact Development Ordinance.

She has been actively engaged in California environmental policy issues for over 20 years, when she first became involved with Heal the Bay, an environmental group whose mission is to improve and protect Southern California coastal waters and beaches. Daniels was also commissioner with the California Coastal Commission, and a gubernatorial appointee on the governing board of the California Bay-Delta Authority. She founded the Los Angeles Food Policy Council, a policy based collaborative of food system leaders working toward an environmentally sustainable, equitable and regionally based food system (For more information: www.goodfoodla.org)

Paula also teaches with the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, and was recently awarded the Stanton Fellowship by the Durfee Foundation.