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\nThe Economic Development Council is pleased to welcome California State Senator Ben Allen as our speaker.\n

\nSenator Allen represents the 24th Senate District\, covering the Westside\, Beverly Hills\, Hollywood\, South Bay\, and Santa Monica Mountains communities of Los Angeles County. Ben was first elected in 2014 and is now serving his third term in the State Senate.

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Ben has thrown himself into the important work of state government\, focusing on wise decision-making and pushing for reforms that address systemic inadequacies in our state. He has authored \;nearly 60 new laws \;in various areas\, from environmental protection to electoral reform.

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During his first two terms in the Senate\, fighting the climate crisis and protecting our state'\;s precious natural resources have been among Ben'\;s top priorities. CalMatters recently recognized him as one of the Legislature'\;s foremost leaders in the field of environmental protection. He authored SB 54\, groundbreaking legislation to address plastic pollution\, which Governor Newsom signed into law to international acclaim. \;

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Among his efforts to reform California campaign finance and elections laws\, Ben authored the landmark Voter'\;s Choice Act of 2016 to implement more flexibility in how and where to vote\, creating the vote center model used in the 2020 elections\, which resulted in significantly increased voter turnout. Ben also has been a leader for campaign transparency\, and was a leader in passing the Disclose Act and Petition Disclose Act and other transparency measures that have dramatically improved the disclosure of donors to political causes for the public. The California Clean Money Campaign has routinely ranked him top in the Legislature for his commitment to clean money political reform.

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An advocate for the Golden State'\;s continued leadership in arts and entertainment\, Ben is a member of the California Film Commission. He was part of a legislative effort to extend the Film &\; TV Tax Credit Program to further support and invest in California&rsquo\;s unrivaled film industry. Ben also authored the law that reinstated teaching credentials for theatre and dance educators\, and he continues to fight for expanded access to the arts in schools and underserved communities. Ben has been a champion for science and was a joint author of the state'\;s groundbreaking law that increased vaccination rates among school children.

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Prior to his election to the Senate\, Ben served as President of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education\, lecturer at UCLA Law School\, and worked as an attorney at the law firms of Bryan Cave LLP and Richardson &\; Patel and at the nonprofit Spark Program. While at law school\, Ben served as the voting student member of the University of California Board of Regents and was a summer judicial clerk with the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Prior to law school\, Ben worked in Washington DC for the Latin American team of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI)\, and then as Communications Director for Congressman Jose Serrano (D-NY). \;

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