SBRA Events
South Brentwood Residents Association 49th Annual General Meeting
October 23, 2025
Confirmed Speakers
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Senator Ben Allen represents the Westside, Hollywood and South Bay communities of Los Angeles County. He chairs the Senate Environmental Quality Committee and the Joint Committee on the Arts, and serves on the Committees on Natural Resources and Water, Governmental Organization, and Transportation. He also chairs the Select Committee on Aerospace and Defense. He is chair of the Jewish Caucus, and co-chair of the Environmental Caucus. His policy priorities include education, the environment, jobs and the economy, transportation, and political reform.
Ben is a former board member, and board president, of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. While in law school, he was a voting member of the University of California Board of Regents, and a judicial clerk with the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. An attorney, he worked for the law firms of Richardson & Patel LLP, and Bryan Cave LLP.
Prior to his law career, Ben worked for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and then as communications director for Congressman Jose Serrano (D-NY). He is a senior fellow with the international human rights organization Humanity in Action, an Aspen Institute-Rodel Fellow, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a graduate of the Jewish Federation's New Leaders Project. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude in History; a Masters degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Cambridge, and a Juris Doctor degree from UC Berkeley. He is fluent in Spanish.
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Dr. Joe Allen is associate professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, director of Harvard’s Healthy Buildings Program, and coauthor of Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Can Make You Sick—or Keep You Well. Dr. Allen serves on Harvard’s Presidential Committee on Sustainability, he keynoted the White House’s first ever Indoor Air Quality Summit, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, served as Commissioner of The Lancet COVID-19 Commission and Chair of its Safe Work, Safe Schools, and Safe Travel Task Force. In 2023, Allen was featured on the 60 Minutes episode, The Air We Breathe, spotlighting the value of healthy indoor air quality for virus mitigation. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and regularly contributes to the New York Times, Washington Post, and Harvard Business Review.
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Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on November 8, 2022 and assumed office on December 5, 2022, after serving as a City Councilmember and the longest consecutivelyserving Mayor for the City of West Hollywood. Supervisor Horvath’s career has been defined by tackling the hardest problems, building diverse coalitions, and delivering results for her community.
Supervisor Horvath’s commitment to serving others was shaped by her family and faith, which instilled in her a strong work ethic and made her a tireless advocate in addressing the complex problems facing Angelenos throughout LA County. Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath made history as the youngest woman to ever be elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. She is the first millennial, and currently the only renter to serve on the Board, bringing a much-needed perspective to LA County leadership. Supervisor Horvath has a long history of civic and social justice advocacy. She has spearheaded policies to make West Hollywood an “Age-Friendly Community” to better serve residents of all ages. She also led the City to become the first in the nation to impose financial sanctions on Arizona for its discriminatory, anti-immigration SB-1070 law. Supervisor Horvath created the first-ever West Hollywood Community Response Team to Domestic Violence. She has worked on a broad range of transportation and mobility issues, from her service as a Transportation Commissioner to championing Metro rail projects in the District. She initiated the West Hollywood Bicycle Task Force, and through her leadership, West Hollywood was named “The Most Walkable” city in the entire state.
Supervisor Horvath is widely known for her leadership on women’s issues and served as a Global Coordinator for One Billion Rising, a global campaign of the V-Day movement to end violence against women and girls. She was the founding President of the Hollywood Chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and previously served as President of National Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC) - LA Westside. She is also a champion for LGBTQ+ rights, having served as a Board member of the Victory Fund and a founding Board member of the NOH8 Campaign. In 2009, she represented the City of West Hollywood in the National Equality March in Washington DC. She has also advocated for LGBTQ+ older adults through her work on the Board of Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE).
Supervisor Horvath served on the West Hollywood City Council for nine years, appointed in 2009, elected in 2015, and re-elected in 2019. In addition to her work as a Councilwoman and Mayor, Supervisor Horvath previously served in a number of roles, including: President of the California Contract Cities Association (CCCA); Board Member for CalCities (formerly the League of California Cities); Board Member for the National League of Cities (NLC); President of Women in Municipal Government (WIMG) for the National League of Cities; Chair of the Contract Cities Liability Trust Fund Claims Board & Oversight Committee; and Executive Committee Member and Legislative & Regulatory Chair for Clean Power Alliance of Southern California.
Supervisor Horvath received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Notre Dame and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management & Fundraising from UCLA Extension. She resides in West Hollywood with her dog, Winston.
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SLO Matt Kirk joined the LAPD academy in August of 2000, and upon completing his academy work he transferred to the Van Nuys division for a few years. He began his time in the West LA division in February of 2002, working patrol until 2004 when he decided to be a bike patrol officer. (This was a great job which kept him in shape!) He spent about a year in the WLA gang unit before deciding that he liked the bike unit more and returned to that detail. In 2006 Kirk was promoted to a field training officer working with new recruits right out of the academy. He became a Senior Lead Officer (SLO) in 2008 in basic car 8A53 which is the area surrounding the WLA station. He moved to the Pico/Robertson area in 2016, moving back to WLA to take over the SLO position for Brentwood from Maria Gray when she retired in 2020. He plans to stay on as Brentwood’s SLO until he retires in August of 2030 which will be after 30 years of service. On his days off he enjoys spending time with his wife and two teenage daughters. He also enjoys surfing and mountain biking.
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Nick Fox Robbins is Metro’s Local Government Relations Manager for the Westside and Las Virgenes-Malibu regions. Born in Santa Monica and raised across Los Angeles, he takes pride in helping improve his hometown, both within his work at Metro and without. Prior to Metro, Nick was the Government Relations Manager for the Los Angeles Food Policy Council, where he worked to support local and state legislation focused on combating food inequality in the region. Before that, he worked for the City of Los Angeles’ Department of Cultural Affairs, was President of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council, and started his own business that focused on placemaking and supporting local artists. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, is a practicing artist, and is passionate about public transportation and the arts.
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Councilwoman Traci Park had a successful 20-year legal career as a municipal attorney before being elected to the LA City Council, representing the 11th District. Park was the first person in her family to attend college, earning degrees at Johns Hopkins University and Loyola Law School. Like many of her constituents, she worked two jobs and borrowed heavily to finance her education.
She doesn’t come from a political background and that fact certainly helped her to get elected, running against the endorsed view of the Homeless crisis as a housing issue. Park has criticized the “housing first” strategy of combating homelessness, and wants to instead increase investment in recovery housing and shared housing that focus on a culture of treatment and sobriety. She also wants to enforce L.A.’s anti-camping law, saying encampments near schools are “non-negotiable.” Certainly, the VA homeless crisis in Brentwood was one of the main focuses of her election campaign.
Recently, Park introduced a Motion to reassess how homeless funds are distributed in LA county. "Los Angeles voters repeatedly have shown their commitment to financial measures that aim to reduce homelessness," Park has said, "But with the mental health and addiction on our streets worse than ever, it's clear we need to reassess how these funds are allocated."
Updates from StreetsLA on the San Vicente Walkability and Median projects.
South Brentwood Residents Association 48th Annual General Meeting - 2024
With speakers:
Nathan Hochman - Candidate for LA County District Attorney
Jacqui Irwin - CA Assemblymember District 42
Traci Park - Councilwoman, District 11, City of LA
Matthew Kirk - Senior Lead Officer, West LA LAPD
Jamie Munoz - Streets LA / San Vicente Walkability Project
Nick Fox Robbins - Local Government Relations Manager Westside, LA Metro
South Brentwood Residents Association 47th Annual General Meeting - 2023
With speakers:
Hydee Feldstein Soto, Los Angeles City Attorney
Lindsey Horvath, L.A. County Supervisor, 3rd District
Matthew Kirk, Senior Lead Officer, West Los Angeles LAPD
Bryan Kirkness, Chief Inspector, L.A. Housing Department, Code Enforcement, discussing Earthquake codes
Traci Park’s Team, CD11 Councilwoman, District 11, City of Los Angeles
Jared Rivera, Deputy Mayor, City of Los Angeles
Brad Sherman, U.S. Congressman, 32nd District
