By Karen Ocamb

On March 31, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa recommended open lesbian attorney Cecilia Estolano as chief executive officer of the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA). After what is expected to be a swift confirmation by the City Council, Estolano will assume her new post in early May.

"Ms. Estolano is a driven leader who will bring private and public sector experience to the CRA to move important projects forward, so we can revitalize our neighborhoods, boost economic development, jobs, and housing," Villaraigosa said in a press release.

Estolano told IN she is "honored and thrilled" by the recommendation. "It means I have an extraordinary opportunity to spread economic development, growth, and jobs throughout some of the poorest areas of the city." She is also pleased to work with two other openly gay members (John Perez and Joan Ling) of the seven-member CRA.

Estolano has known Villaraigosa "for a very long time," she told IN. She was his appointee on the California Coastal Commission when he was speaker of the California Assembly. She backed his first run for mayor against former Mayor Jim Hahn and was on his transition team when he won last year.

Currently of counsel at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Estolano's expertise is in land use, zoning, redevelopment, and municipal law and environmental regulatory issues. She used these talents from 2002 to 2005 as special assistant city attorney for City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, where she was the city's top negotiator in a landmark Clean Water Act settlement. From 1993 to 1995, she served as senior policy advisor with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Before that she served as Mayor Tom Bradley's environmental policy advisor.

A graduate of Boalt Hall School of Law, Estolano holds an M.A. in Urban Planning from the Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning at UCLA and has an undergraduate degree with honors from Harvard-Radcliffe Colleges.

Estolano came out at 14 in 1980 when she was a sophomore in high school. She participated in LGBT activities in college and law school and was deeply involved with Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos in the early '90s. Additionally, she served on Lambda Legal's board, chairing their Strategic Planning Committee. While in the city attorney's office, she shepherded the city's Equal Benefits Ordinance with Councilmember Eric Garcetti's office and advocated for the severance of ties between the LAPD and the Boy Scouts.

Estolano said that she will try to push projects like the Gay & Lesbian Elder Housing development in Hollywood, working with her counterparts in the L.A. Housing Department. "We think there are opportunities out there," she said.

Estolano also looks forward to working with Villaraigosa's Special Assistant Torie Osborn on finding solutions to the homeless problem, including working with nonprofits that provide services for gay and especially transgender runaway and throwaway youth. Finding solutions will be "hard slogging" but homelessness "is something we want to place a lot of our resources in."

Estolano's partner of almost 10 years is Priya Sridharan, assistant director of career services at USC Law School. The couple has a 20-month-old daughter, Shireen.