Center for progressive economics

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Who we are

Mark Pash CFP – Founder and Chairman

Mark PashMark Pash grew up and worked in two separate family businesses, one in manufacturing and the other in retail stores. Mark went on to receive two business degrees, a Bachelors and Masters, from UCLA and USC, respectively. Then he served, as an officer, in the business branch of the U.S. Army- the Quartermaster Corp. After the army, he received his Certified Financial Planners designation from the College of Financial Planning.

Over the past 40 years Mark has been very active in the financial industry helping clients with their budgets, investments, loans, income taxes, social security, medical coverage and scores of other person financial issues. Additionally, Mark has founded a number of financial organizations and has served as an officer of various industry corporations and associations. His extensive background brings a grounded understanding of the practical and theoretical in the field of economics. Mark has long been active in politics and was a Congressional candidate in 1996.

Brad Parker – Executive Director

Brad ParkerParker is a prolific political writer and speaker in Progressive and Democratic Party organizations. Brad is one of the founding members of Progressive Democrats of America in California. Parker has worked extensively on copyright and Net Neutrality issues, both in Washington D.C. and in the California Democratic Party. His book “Left Turn Only – Dispatches from the Progressive Underground” came out in 2010 and can be found on Amazon and Kindle. Currently, Parker is active in the following political organizations:

Brad is also the newly appointed Executive Director of the “Center for Progressive Economics” and a member of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 47.

Brad is an artist, songwriter, producer and musician. Parker’s music has earned him numerous awards in countries around the world with sales in the millions. In America his hit Country song “Nobody’s Gonna Rain On Our Parade,” recorded by Kathy Mattea, earned him BMI awards as a songwriter and a publisher as well as a BMI “Million-airs” citation for over 1 million broadcast performances and counting. Cher has recorded his songs as well as Richard Page, Edgar Winter, Karla Bonoff, K.T. Oslin, Ronny Cox, Hurricane, Bill Miller and many others. Parker has produced and written hits for artists around the world including Andy Lau in Hong Kong, M. Nasir in Malaysia, Keiran Goss and Eleanor McEvoy in Ireland. Brad has shared the stage with Bo Diddley, Cyndi Lauper, Michael Bolton, Brenda Russell, Billy Burnette, Canned Heat, John Densmore, Greg Allman, Johnny Rivers, Eddie Money, Dan Fogelberg and Robert Cray, and many others. Parker is a 25-year member of NARAS and co-founder of online music marketing and promotion service “www.muzlink.com” ~ a member service of NARAS. BMI, ASCAP, NSAI, CMA and the Folk Alliance. Brad is also the owner of Riozen Media, www.riozen.com, an Independent Music and Media company.

Minerva Leah Williams – Marketing Director

UntitledMinerva, who has an energetic giving spirit, achieves and seeks solutions. She is a great listener. She has willingness to research, to learn and to continue serving the community. She has a reputation for getting things done. She and her husband, Todd Hoover, provide community educational workshops while offering free services to nonprofits to build bridges with positive-minded groups.
In 2008, The LACDP recognized Minerva and her husband with the Democratic Volunteer of the Year Theodore & Eleanor Roosevelt Award. In 2010, DPSFV awarded me the Democratic Volunteer of the Year Truman Award. In 2010, Karen Bass, then Assembly Speaker, gave her a Certificate of Recognition. On July 30, 2011, she received a commendation for her commitment to public service by Assemblymember Isadore Hall, III (D) of the 52nd District. As an elected member of the LA County Democratic Party 37th and 38th Assembly Districts, she has represented the state central committee for the State’s 10th region,is a state representative for the State’s African American Caucus, and a member of the San Fernando Valley NAACP. Having been raised as a military brat, She believes that the military may solve issues, but eventually “we need to learn to negotiate and practice world Peace.” Her world passion for peace interests transcends beyond California, as she is a member of the Israeli-Palestinian Confederation.

As President of the Democratic Club of the Santa Clarita Valley and a member of the Democratic Alliance for Action she assists candidates in making preparations for achieving campaign goals.
Minerva is a lifelong Democrat born into an Air Force military family out of Detroit, Michigan. She retired after a successful twenty-year career at the LA TIMES in advertising, journalism, business networking, target marketing, and serving as a spokesperson for the African American and Senior Markets. As an education, ADHD and elementary math master student at Chico State, she completed a dual teacher’s credential in hopes of changing the attitudes and problems she saw in young people. After completion, she found changes needed to be on a larger level. She believes the root of our current economic crisis results from the citizenry not having an adequate knowledge of money and how it works.

She is a California state licensed independent insurance life, accident, health, Covered California and long-term care certified insurance agent (CA-#OC65182) and an Affordable Care Act workshop advocate. She joins the Center for Progressive Economics in hopes of transcending all her skills into a higher spiritual goal.

She and her husband, Todd, reside in the Santa Clarita Valley. They can be reached at (661) 670-8686 for additional questions or full resume.

Todd Hoover – IT Specialist

Untitled1Todd Hoover is an IT Professional specializing in software engineering and server administration. He holds numerous certifications for Novell and Microsoft, and also has two Bachelor’s degrees, one in Business Administration and the other in Spanish, both from the California State University Chico. He has worked at Northrop Grumman as a network administrator for 13 years and for the last 4 years at Hewlett-Packard as a VB.Net Programmer and Python Scripter on the Americas Server Automation Team.

Besides Todd’s professional background, he has been actively involved in the Democratic Party, having served on the Democratic State Central Committee, the Los Angeles County Democratic Party Central Committee, and the on the Eboard of the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley. Todd, along with his wife Minerva Williams, maintains several Democratic web sites, the most significant of which is http://www.scvyoungdems.org. This site provides a calendar and photo album of democratic events from the most recent; to those dating back almost a decade. It also contains information about local candidates, employment opportunities and a broad range of other information of interest to Democrats and to the community in general. Todd has hand-coded the entire site utilizing the latest HTML, ASP.Net, and JavaScript technologies. Please see Todd’s resume