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Mic Farris (age 43) is a member of the Planning Commission for the City of Thousand Oaks. He is also the Corporate Senior Scientist and Senior Manager of the Advanced Sensor Applications Section at Areté Associates. Heis running in the 2012 elections for Thousand Oaks City Council. He is married to Stephanie Farris (wife of 19 years), and has one daughter, Monroe.

Education
Farris attended University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 1987, earning his B.S. in Physics in 1990. He went on to receive his M.S. and Ph.D. in Space Physics at University of Southern California in 1993. For his Ph.D., Farris conducted research under the guidance of Christopher T. Russell on the physics of the collisionless bow shock.

Political Background
Farris was elected Chair of the Thousand Oaks Planning Commision in 2002, 2003, and 2005, and Vice-Chair in 2001 and 2003. He was also a member of the Thousand Oaks Blue Ribbon Campaign Finance Reform Committee and Thousand Oaks General Plan Review Committee.

Reform Party
Farris was a founding member of the United We Stand America, or the Reform Party of the United States in 1995. He created the initial leadership team that led the effort to register 124,000 California voters into the Reform Party. He also served as the California Party Chairman then Chair of the Reform Party's Presidential Nominations Committee.

Thousand Oaks Right to Vote
The Thousand Oaks Right to Vote initiative was launched on March 9, 2012. The initiative calls for vacancies in the City Council to be filled with an interim appointment, but only until the election filling the remainder of the term. By June 11, 2012, 10,421 signatures were collected, surpassing the 7,279 signatures (10% of Thousand Oak's registered voters) required to place the initiative on the ballot, but on July 10th, the Thousand Oaks council members unanimously approved the Thousand Oaks Right To Vote Initiative into law.

Employment
Farris has served as Director at Areté Associates, a defense and space company, since 1993. In addition, he was Director at Elanix (now Agilent Technologies) from 2000-2001, and Technical Marketing Manager at Mentor Graphics from 2001 to 2002.

Awards
Mic Farris has recieved numerous awards, including
 * 40 Under 40” Award, recognizing 40 top business professionals under the age of 40 in the greater San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, San Fernando Valley Business Journal (2004).
 * Commendations for Public Service, City of Thousand Oaks (2005) and County of Ventura (2005, 2008,2011).
 * SMTPE Journal Certificate of Merit Award, Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers (2003).
 * Best Paper Award, Military Sensing Symposia Active E-O Systems (2008).