Draft:Susan Ellenberg

Susan Ellenberg
Susan Ellenberg is an American politician who serves as President of the Board of Supervisors as well as the Chair of the County’s Public Safety and Justice Committee and the Vice Chair of the Finance and Government Operations Committee. She is the 2nd Vice President of the California State Association of Counties Executive Committee and a commissioner for FIRST 5 Santa Clara County. Additionally, she serves as co-chair of Joint Venture Silicon Valley and sits on the board of the National Association of Counties' Justice and Public Safety Steering Committee.

Early Life and Education
Ellenberg grew up in Pittsburgh, PA. Her father, Dr Harvey Slater was a surgeon and burn trauma center director at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Her mother, Beverly (Botnick) Slater, was a teacher at Colfax Elementary School. She is a sister to twin brothers, author David Michael Slater and Adam Slater.

Ellenberg grew up in Stanton Heights where she attended Sunnyside School from kindergarten through fourth grade. Her family moved to Squirrel Hill in 1977 and Ellenberg attended Falk School 5-8, and The Ellis School 9-12. Unfortunately, the long established and close-knit neighborhood recently became infamous for a mass shooting at Tree of Life Synagogue, which was directly across the street from her childhood home at the corner of Shady & Wilkins Avenues. Her family was a member of B’nai Israel Synagogue, where Ellenberg celebrated her bat mitzvah in 1979.

Ellenberg spent her summers at Camp Ramah in Canada until she left Pittsburgh for New York City to attend college at Barnard College. She also spent a semester at Tel Aviv University and went on to earn a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law. In between college & law school, she worked as a paralegal at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom supporting products liability cases.

Children and Families
Ellenberg has put the wellbeing of children and families as her top priority in her role on the board of supervisors. Prior to the pandemic Supervisor Ellenberg initiated efforts to provide universal school lunches. The pandemic itself has since brought about a broader realization that children need food security to maximize their learning potential.

Ellenberg also led the creation of the Children’s Budget and the Office of Children and Families Policy to ensure that all decisions made throughout the county keep children at the forefront when making decisions. The Office of Children and Family policy oversees a caregiver returnship program as well Guaranteed Income programs for foster youth and unhoused high school students. Her initiatives have included multimillion dollar allocations for childcare facility expansion grants, childcare workforce development, and school-based wellness centers.

The expansion of school linked services has also been at the forefront of initiatives put on by her office as well.

Mental Health and Substance Abuse Disorder
On October 22, 2019, Supervisor Ellenberg introduced a referral to expand school-based mental health resources for youth at all school districts in the County. This referral, unanimously approved by the Board of Supervisors, led to the implementation of the School-Based Behavioral Health Wellness Center Grant Program of $12.1 million (FY 23-24) to develop or enhance approximately 40 wellness centers across the County. The referral also led to the expansion of school-linked-services (SLS) in County schools that offer a myriad of mental health and substance use services and supports like case management, mental health screening, prevention/early intervention programming, substance use treatment, and mental health courses to meet the needs of students and families.

In August and November 2020, Supervisor Ellenberg worked with her colleagues and community leaders in directing the County to create a non-law enforcement mobile mental health crisis response program (TRUST) to reduce relying on the criminal punishment system to treat mental health needs and prioritize community models of safety and justice.

In January 2022 Supervisor Susan Ellenberg led her colleagues to declare that the state of mental health and substance use disorders in the county constituted a public health crisis. Since then, the county has expanded the number of treatment beds available at varying levels of acuity and is actively engaged in growing the workforce to support the additional treatment slots.

Criminal Justice Reform
Ellenberg believes that the current system of temporarily removing people from community then returning them further diminished and less well-resourced does not lead to truly safer communities.

Ellenberg has created Alternatives to Incarceration Workshops to begin the work in creating a pathway to reentry.

She also led the creation of a Guaranteed Basic Income pilot program aimed toward getting justice involved individuals a foundation to get back into the community.

Following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Ellenberg brought together residents for a series of three facilitated Community Conversations that resulted in 22 recommendations for building safer communities that don’t rely solely on law enforcement.

Affordable Housing and Homeless Prevention
Addressing Santa Clara County’s homelessness and housing crisis has remained a critical issue for Ellenberg throughout her term as Supervisor. On October 4, 2021, she co-led the launch of Heading Home with the County of Santa Clara, The City of San Jose, Santa Clara County Housing Authority and other community partners. Heading Home’s goal is to achieve a homelessness count of “functional zero” by 2025, meaning the number of housing placements for families is greater than the number of families entering homelessness. Since its creation, Heading Home has connected 1,550 families with children to permanent housing. 52% of these families include survivors of domestic violence and 43% self-report a mental health disorder.

The county has also found success through the voter passed Measure A which focuses on the creation of affordable housing. Since its passing in 2016 Measure A has helped create 5,127 new apartments across 111 different cities.

California State Association of Counties
Ellenberg has served on the Board of Directors beginning in 2019. She also took a role on the Executive Committee Member beginning in 2021 and was elected Second Vice President of the influential statewide organization in Dec. 2023.

The primary purpose of CSAC is to represent county government before the California Legislature, administrative agencies and the federal government. CSAC places a strong emphasis on educating the public about the value and need for county programs and services.

While California’s 58 counties – ranging from Alpine with a little more than 1,000 people, to Los Angeles with more than 10 million – are diverse, many common issues exist. CSAC’s long-term objective is to significantly improve the fiscal health of all California counties so they can adequately meet the demand for vital public programs and services.

Joint Venture Silicon Valley
Ellenberg has been a Board Member of Joint Venture Silcon Valley since the beginning of 2019 and has been the Co-Chair of the Public Sector since January 2023.

Joint Venture builds the framework for regional thought, analysis and action by assembling Silicon Valley’s leaders in business, government, academia, labor and the nonprofit sector to assess our challenges, reach consensus on the best strategies for response and work on solutions together.

Build the Future
Susan is the founder of Build the Future and co-chairs the organization with Maria Noel Fernandez who is the Executive Director of Working Partnerships USA

Build the Future is a movement to shift the narrative around childcare from one of sole parent responsibility to an understanding that it provides a public good and is an essential component of a thriving economy.