AIA|LA City Leaders Breakfast Reception w/ Lourdes Castro Ramírez – President & CEO, Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA)

AIA|LA City Leaders Breakfast Reception w/ Lourdes Castro Ramírez – President & CEO, Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA)

2025 City Leaders Breakfast Series Presented By: 

The 2025 AIA|LA City Leaders Breakfast Series allows architects & designers, and other community stakeholders to meet directly with key individuals transforming Los Angeles in a roundtable setting to discuss innovative ideas to ensure a healthy, sustainable, and economically competitive future.

Lourdes Castro Ramírez – President & CEO, Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA)

Unanimously appointed by the HACLA Board of Commissioners, Lourdes Castro Ramirez leads the second-largest public housing authority in the nation, serving over 200,000 individuals.

As President and CEO, Castro Ramirez is strengthening the agency’s collaborative commitment to people, place, and pathways by expanding affordable housing, creating greater access, investing in people, and building strong communities.

Before joining HACLA, Lourdes served as Chief Housing and Homelessness Solutions Officer for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. In this role, she led the Mayor’s comprehensive citywide priorities focused on preventing and reducing street homelessness, fast-tracking affordable housing production, forging partnerships that lead to increased housing and service coordination, and developing unified regional solutions by working closely with city, county, state, and federal partners. She continues to serve as housing advisor to Mayor Bass.

Previously, she was the Secretary of the California Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency under Governor Gavin Newsom. She led 12 entities, including 40 boards and bureaus, responsible for preserving and expanding affordable housing, advancing statewide efforts to prevent and end homelessness, protecting consumers, and safeguarding California’s civil rights.

Castro Ramírez has held other prominent positions, including her appointment by former President Barack Obama to lead the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Public and Indian Housing, her leadership as President and CEO of the San Antonio Housing Authority, as a Director at HACLA, where she oversaw rental assistance and resident development programs, and as President of the University Health System Foundation in San Antonio.

Castro Ramírez earned her Master of Arts in Urban Planning and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Chicano Studies at UCLA.

This Reception is Hosted By:

The 2025 AIA|LA City Leaders Breakfast Series: (CONFIRMED TO DATE)

• • Lori R. Gay – President & CEO, Neighborhood Housing Services of Los Angeles County = Friday, May 9 (8am)
  • Laura Friedman – U.S. Congressional Representative, 30th District  = Friday, August 8 (8am)
  • Lourdes Castro Ramírez – President & CEO, Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) = Thursday, August 21 (8am)
  • Leigh Sata, Ed.D, AIA – Vice Chancellor & Chief Facilities Executive, LACCD = Friday, August 22 (8am)
  • Adrin Nazarian – Councilmember, District #2, City of Los Angeles = Thursday, August 28 (9am)* *(9am, not 8am)
  • Janisse Quiñones, P.E. – Chief Executive Officer and Chief Engineer, LADWP = Friday, August 29 (8am)
  • Michael Baim – VP, Venue Infrastructure (VNI), Energy (NRG), and Look & Sign (LNS), LA 28 = Thursday, September 11 (8am)
  • Laura Rubio-Cornejo – General Manager, LADOT = Thursday, September 18 (8am)
  • Mark Gonzalez – Assemblymember, District #54, California = Friday, September 19 (8am)
  • John L. Reamer, Jr. – Inspector of Public Works & Director, Bureau of Contract Administration, City of Los Angeles = Thursday, October 16 (8am)
  • Sade Elharaway – Assemblymember, District #57, California = Friday, October 17 (8am)
  • Ysabel Jurado – Councilmember, District #14, City of Los Angeles = Thursday, October 30 (8am)

2025 AIA|LA City Leaders Breakfast Series Presented By: