Channing Martinez is the Co-Director of the Labor/Community Strategy Center and works closely with Akunna Uka, Barbara Lott-Holland, and Eric Mann. He is a graduate of Audubon Middle School, Crenshaw High School, and Otis College of Art and Design. He played and is playing a significant role representing the Strategy Center in the powerful Police Free LAUSD Coalition that cut the Los Angeles School Police budget by 35 percent ($25 million) as we move to full defunding. He is on the Steering Committee of the LAUSD Black Student Achievement Program. In 2019 he ran for the Los Angeles City Council in the 10th district as a first-time candidate, he received 5 percent of the total vote (2400 votes) and more than 10 percent of the Black vote. He can be reached at Channing (at) thestrategycenter.org