About Abel
As the first person in his family to graduate from college, Abel Guillén understands the barriers to education faced by today’s students. He grew up in a working-class neighborhood, where few people even considered attending college.
The product of local public schools, Guillén earned a B.A. in Sociology and a Master’s in Public Policy from UC Berkeley. At Cal, he led the student recruitment and retention center for underrepresented students, and fought to expand educational opportunities. The University recognized his efforts with the Priestly Award for “contributions to student welfare.”
His advocacy for students has continued in his professional career. For the past 10 years, Guillén has worked as an educational finance advisor for California’s community college and school districts. During that time, he has raised over $2.7 billion for school construction and modernization. These successes have improved educational opportunities for thousands of students across California.
As Peralta Colleges Trustee, he is continuing to do the same here in the East Bay. Guillén was elected in 2006 to represent Area 7 of the Peralta Community College District, which includes the Adams Point, Chinatown, Lake Merritt, San Antonio, Temescal, Uptown and West Oakland neighborhoods. He is the first Latino elected to the Board of Trustees and the youngest ever to serve as Board President.
As a Trustee, he has used his professional expertise to make the Peralta colleges:
More relevant for today’s students.
Abel has championed career training programs, such as the Green Jobs Corps at Laney College, to make sure we continue to prepare students for good-paying jobs. We have secured over $20 million in funding for programs that align with industry and workforce training needs. We are helping students get the knowledge and skills they need in emerging growth sectors like green businesses and environmental technology.
To maintain educational access for our students, we provided classes for over 2,000 additional students above our State funded enrollment target. This has allowed many students to transfer to four-year colleges like UC Berkeley and San Francisco State and let students receive certificates in their chosen field of study in order to get back to work.
Fair to teachers and to staff.
Abel will continue to make sure Peralta teachers and staff are an integral part of the shared governance for managing Peralta business and academic operations. Guillén is endorsed by the Peralta Federation of Teachers.
Accountable and transparent to the whole community.
We have held the Peralta District administration more accountable through a series of financial reforms. And a national search for a new Chancellor is under way to take us into the next decade. As part of our efforts to make District operations more open and transparent, we have implemented new technologies to make public meetings and documents accessible online. But there’s still more work to do to maintain the public’s trust in our community colleges.
