Sydney Kamlager

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 St. 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 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, PA.

Professional career

Sydney Kamlager began her professional career at the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) in Venice, CA, where she programmed public art programs in each of the city council districts throughout 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. She was responsible for the agency’s legislative, advocacy and public policy agendas as well as for its parent and provider advocate program, Community Voices. While at Crystal Stairs, she trained and mobilized community advocates, fought against state budget cuts to child care and helped raise the local profile of the organization and child care’s contribution to the local economy.

Political career

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. Mitchell won and Kamalger became her District Director. She has served as District Director for Ms. 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. In her first election for public office, she won decisively on March 3, 2015, garnering over 52% of the vote among four candidates. 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 Ms. Gwen Moore and Ms. Marguerite Archie-Hudson.

Public Service

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.