Candidate for
Supervisor; County of Santa Cruz; Supervisorial District 2

Ellen is an attorney and mother who lives in the La Selva Beach area. She has lived in the Second District since 1984, the first seven years in Aptos. She is married to Terry Hancock who is also an attorney. She is the mother of three and the permanent foster mother of a fourth child: Alex (11), Robert (11), Laura (16) and Julia (21). Her children have all attended Aptos public schools -- Valencia, Rio Del Mar, Aptos Junior and Aptos Senior High. Alex has played for several years on the Aptos Soccer Club recreation teams; Robert competes with the Class 1 team representing Santa Cruz County in under-12 boys in tournaments around the state. Julia and Laura have competed with the award-winning Aptos Senior High School Cheerleaders. Julia is now attending UCSC and hopes to reside in the area permanently.

Ellen was born in Boston but moved to Michigan where her parents started their own careers as college librarians. Growing up and living in the steel towns of Michigan until age 16, she likes to think that some of the common-sense values of the Midwest rubbed off on her. In 1966, when her father was appointed as the chief librarian of Lewis and Clark College, she moved with her family to her mother's hometown, Portland, Oregon.

After completing high school in Portland, she was admitted to a prominent Pacific Northwest liberal arts college, Whitman College. She graduated from Whitman in 1972 and, after working for a year, applied for and was admitted to the University of Oregon Law School. She graduated from law school in 1976 and began her legal career back in her college town, Walla Walla, Washington.

Ellen has been an attorney for 23 years and she is also licensed to practice law in Oregon and Washington. In 1984, looking for more sun and a smaller community, she moved to California to accept a job with Senior Citizens Legal Services (SCLS). She has worked there ever since, the last twelve years as the Directing Attorney. SCLS is a non-profit law office that provides free legal services to the elderly in Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties. Ellen's entire 23-year legal career has been dedicated to assisting those who have no one else to help them because of their poverty, frailty or disability.

As the director of a non-profit agency with 18 separate funding sources, Ellen knows how to stretch the available funds to obtain the most benefit; and she knows how important hiring and firing decisions are and why you need to work closely with others to make the program a success. She has been responsible for planning and implementing services, coordinating with other agencies and local governments and representing the organization in a wide range of contexts. She also started a new and innovative program within SCLS, the first of its kind in California, a program to assist the most frail members of our community and protect them from fraud and abuse.

In 1999, Ellen received the Distinguished Service Award from the Santa Cruz Trial Lawyers Association in recognition of her service to the legal community.

This is Ellen's first foray into elective politics. She and her family love living in Santa Cruz County and the Second District. She wants the community to remain clean, beautiful and safe. She decided to run for the Board of Supervisors after she came to believe that she could best represent the concerns of the Second District. We need to:

Prevent over-development and the misuse of prime agricultural land.

Find rational solutions to pressing environmental problems like water aquifer overdraft and the safe use of agricultural chemicals.

Ensure that the Second District gets its fair share of road repair and maintenance funds.

Address the "livability" issues such as traffic, schools and parks.

Ellen has the support of many prominent local individuals, political and community groups. Former Second District Supervisors Robley Levy, Dale Dawson and Ralph Sanson are among her supporters, as are Supervisor Jeff Almquist and Assemblyman Fred Keeley.