Visionaries in Action
Dawn Addis
Dawn Addis was elected to the California State Assembly in 2022 to represent the coastal 30th Assembly District, which includes large portions of San Luis Obispo and Monterey Counties and the south-eastern area of Santa Cruz County. Dawn is the Assistant Majority Leader for Policy and Research, the Assembly appointee to the Ocean Protection Council, the inaugural chair of the California Legislative Central Coast Caucus, and the President of the California Legislative Central Coast Caucus Foundation. She chairs the Assembly Select Committee on Offshore Wind Energy in California and the Assembly Select Committee on Serving Students with Disabilities. A special education teacher who began teaching in public schools over 20 years ago, Dawn holds a Master of Arts (MA) degree in special education from San Francisco State University. She has teaching credentials in elementary education, secondary education and special education and is fluent in Spanish. Dawn's long record of community involvement includes co-founding the Women's March in San Luis Obispo and being a Planned Parenthood Central Coast Action Fund board member. In 2018, she won her first elected office, to the Morro Bay City Council, and served from 2018 to 2022. Dawn has achieved many firsts. She is the first Democrat to represent the majority of San Luis Obispo County in the State Assembly since 1947. She is also the first Democrat from San Luis Obispo County to serve in the State Assembly since 1922, and the first Democratic woman ever to hold this seat. Dawn and her husband Marcus have raised two children on the Central Coast. They have two rescue fur babies, Oppenheimer the tabby cat and Beef the Chow dog.
CA Assemblymember, 30th District
Dawn Ortiz-Legg
Dawn Ortiz-Legg, from rural Illinois, champions diverse perspectives through her multicultural background. Engaging in ICARE International's annual treks for over 30 years, she contributed to providing free eye and health care clinics, impacting nearly 400,000 underserved individuals. With degrees from Pepperdine University and Johns Hopkins, Ortiz-Legg excelled in international business, notably implementing California's renewable energy policy, creating jobs through solar projects.
Appointed to the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors in 2020, she later became the first Latina/Indigenous person elected to the board in June 2022. Ortiz-Legg focuses on economic and social policies, including the Offshore Wind Task Force, Homeless Services Division, housing strategies, childcare access, and water security. She proudly represents Diablo Canyon, California's last operating nuclear power plant.
Beyond governance, Ortiz-Legg contributes to Parks California and serves as Vice-President of the Latino Caucus of California County Supervisors. Recognized as the "2023 Working Families Champion" by the Central Coast Labor Council, she resides in San Luis Obispo and is the proud mother of one grown daughter, Georgia Legg.
CA SLO County Supervisor, District 3
Raechelle Bowlay
With more than two decades working in the early childhood field, Raechelle keeps turning her expertise and experience into positive action on our Central Coast. Since 2013, Raechelle has served as the Coordinator for the County Early Care and Education Planning, housed at the County Office of Education. One of her first endeavors was engaging key partners in a local “Quality Counts” program for early childhood education, built off a national movement to provide a better system of support and professional development for early learning programs.
Raechelle is dedicated to bolstering the broader community’s investment in early care and education and advocating for providers as essential and vital to the very fabric of our society and future. She loves her role helping to connect the dots, knowing that we must act on all fronts to address challenges within the industry, including the need for: higher wages/professional compensation for providers, increased capacity and better access to high-quality, affordable care for families, as well as more family-friendly workplace practices designed to ease burdens and improve balance for families and caregivers.
Raechelle also serves as Chair of Atascadero Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and as Chair of their Diversity Council. In addition to her appointment to the SLO County Commission on the Status of Women and Girls, Raechelle is a member of the Atascadero Branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), President of the Pacific Coast Chapter of the California Association for the Education of Young Children, and Committee Chair for Scouts BSA Troop 51.
Chair of the Commission on the Status of Women and Girls County of San Luis Obispo