Michael Woo

Retired, College of the Environment Cal Poly Pomona, Dean

Michael Woo was Dean of the College of Environmental Design at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, for 10 years and before that. He was the first trained urban planner elected to the Los Angeles City Council (1985 – 1993). During his two terms as the Councilman representing the Hollywood area, Woo initiated the Hollywood Redevelopment Plan which set forth the 30-year legal and financial framework underlying Hollywood’s current revitalization. He also played a key role planning the route and station locations of the Metro Red Line subway connecting downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood. In the nonprofit sector, Woo co-chaired the national board of directors of Smart Growth America and the nonprofit organization which runs the Hollywood Farmers Market, the largest certified farmers market in the City of Los Angeles. Woo currently co-chairs a community effort to create a permanent memorial to the lynching of 18 Chinese in Los Angeles in 1871, the largest massacre of Chinese in California history and the largest mass killing in Los Angeles history. Woo earned a B.A. in Politics and Urban Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and received his Master of City Planning degree from UC Berkeley.