Bill Lockyer
State Treasurer and Chair

Residence: Hayward, California.
Background: Mr. Lockyer completed his undergraduate study at the University of California, Berkeley, and earned a law degree from McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento while serving in the State Senate. He also holds a teaching credential from California State University, Hayward. As State Treasurer, Mr. Lockyer draws on leadership, management and policymaking skills developed over a public service career spanning more than three decades. Mr. Lockyer served for 25 years in the California Legislature, culminating his Capitol career with a stint as Senate President pro Tempore. He served eight years, from 1999-2006, as California Attorney General and left a lasting legacy. Among his landmark achievements as Attorney General, Mr. Lockyer revolutionized crime fighting in California by creating and maintaining the nation's most sophisticated DNA forensic laboratory, established the Megan's Law website and recovered billions of dollars for defrauded energy ratepayers, consumers and taxpayers.

John Chiang
State Controller

Residence: Torrance, California.
Background: Mr. Chiang graduated with honors from the University of South Florida with a degree in Finance, and received his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center. As State Controller, he presides over 76 boards and commissions, including the Franchise Tax Board, the California Public Employees' Retirement System Board, and the California State Teachers' Retirement System Board. Prior to being elected State Controller, he was elected to the Board of Equalization in 1998, leading with innovative taxpayer-friendly services like the State's free income tax return preparation service, ReadyReturn. Mr. Chiang's record of public service has been recognized with many awards and distinctions including the Award for Excellence by a Government Official from the Los Angeles County Bar Association.

Ana J. Matosantos
Director of Finance

Ms. Matosantos was appointed State Director of Finance in December 2009.
Residence: Sacramento.
Background: Ms. Matosantos earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Stanford University. Ms. Matosantos has served in the Department of Finance as chief deputy director since 2008. Prior to that, she served as deputy legislative secretary for health and human services and veterans affairs in the Office of the Governor from 2007 to 2008. From 2006 to 2007, Ms. Matosantos served as associate secretary for legislative affairs for the Health and Human Services Agency (HHS) and, from 2004 to 2006, she served as assistant secretary for program and fiscal affairs at HHS. Prior to that, she was a consultant to the Senate Committees on Health and Human Services and Budget and Fiscal Review from 1999 to 2004.

Claudia Cappio, Executive Director
California Housing Finance Agency

Claudia Cappio is the newly appointed (subject to confirmation by the Senate) Executive Director of the California Housing Finance Agency. Prior to her appointment, Ms. Cappio was Principal at Sparticles LLC, a planning and development consulting firm. Previously Ms. Cappio served the City of Oakland as Director of Planning, Building, Major Projects and the Oakland Base Reuse Authority during then-mayor Jerry Brown’s administration. While there she was responsible for spearheading major public and private development, including the Oak to Ninth Project (with 3,000 housing units), the Wood Street Mixed Use Project (1,500 residential units), and the 10K Program, which approved construction of 6,000 residential units in downtown Oakland for 10,000 residents. Her experience in municipal planning and building also included many years of service to the cities of Emeryville, Albany and Corte Madera, California. Ms. Cappio received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Urban Studies from Ohio Wesleyan University. She is currently a member of Lamdba Alpha Phi, the International Honor Society for the Advancement of Land Economics. She is also a Lecturer of University of California Extension planning courses and Continuing Education of the Bar, including the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), design review, public and private partnerships, and successful infill development. Ms. Cappio is also certified as a Wilderness First Responder from the Wilderness Medical Institute.

Laura Whittall-Scherfee, Deputy Director of the Division of Financial Assistance
Department of Housing and Community Development

Laura Whittall-Scherfee was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown in July, 2012 to serve as the Deputy Director of the Division of Financial Assistance at the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). Ms. Whittall-Scherfee previously worked at the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) from 1995 – 2012. Her most recent position at CalHFA was as the Chief of Multifamily Programs. There, she managed staff involved in underwriting loans for mentally ill and homeless populations under the Mental Health Services Act as well as staff responsible for the disbursement of federal funds through the New Issue Bond Program and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Program. Prior to State Service, Ms. Whittall-Scherfee spent 15 years in the private sector working for various financial institutions performing commercial loan workouts. Ms. Whittall-Scherfee received a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from Pomona College.

Lois Starr
County Representative

Currently, Lois is a Housing Development consultant for non-profit housing and service agencies. Lois spent the previous fifteen years at the Community Development Commission of the County of Los Angeles. Lois Starr was the Director of the Housing Development and Preservation Department for the County of Los Angeles. As part of her responsibilities, Lois oversaw the County’s Housing Development Programs including first time Homebuyer and single family rehabilitation programs, multifamily and single family bond programs, affordable and special needs housing development, including collaborative partnerships for the production of special needs housing. Working closely with the Health and Human Services Department’s in the County, Lois has taken the lead to develop and implement new and innovative solutions to house and serve homeless individuals and families many with co-occurring disorders, youth emancipating from the dependency and delinquency systems of care, frequent users of the County’s health and mental health systems of care, victims of domestic violence and frail seniors living in public housing. etc. In this capacity Lois oversaw the development and implementation of the County's Veterans Assistance Supportive Housing Program (VASH) and was instrumental in the development of the Best Practice innovation of an inter jurisdictional agreement between the City of Los Angeles and County of Los Angeles to allow VASH voucher holders to seamlessly move between jurisdictions to find permanent housing. Prior to her work at the County, Lois was a housing development consultant specializing in the development of transitional and permanent housing for special needs populations. Her firm, Yokota-Starr led the development of the first transitional housing apartments for youth emancipating from the foster care system in the County. Ten years at the Los Angeles Area office of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as both a relocation and planning specialist was preceded by work at the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. A native of Los Angeles, Lois was educated in Southern California completing undergraduate work at Cal. State Northridge and graduate work at Pepperdine.

Vacant
City Representative