Douglas W. Otto Biographical Information Doug Otto is an attorney in private practice.  He grew up in Long Beach where he was student body president at Millikan High School, and played football and ran track.  He attended LBCC before earning a BA from Stanford University; an MA jointly from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in New York City; and a JD from the University of Chicago.  He has been a full adjunct professor at law at Southwestern University School of Law where he taught for 16 years.  He has been very active in Long Beach.  He is a founder and past president of the Long Beach Foundation for Architectural and Cultural Heritage and Long Beach Heritage.  He was named Preservationist of the Year in 1990.  He chaired the City of Long Beach’s Blue Ribbon Citizens Transportation Task Force which developed a comprehensive transportation plan for the entire city.  He was a member and Chair of the Long Beach Planning Commission for eight years.  He chaired the Long Beach City Manager’s Downtown Business and Development Advisory Committee for six years.  He is founding Board Member of the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific, currently serves on its Executive Committee and has chaired its Long Range Planning Committee for eighteen years.  He also served on the City’s Ethics Task Force, is a member of the St. Mary Medical Center Board of Trustees and sits on its Biomedical Ethics Committee.  He was also president of the Long Beach Public Corporation for the Arts. From 1998 to 2000, Doug chaired Long Beach Strategic Plan 2010, a comprehensive city-citizen planning effort which charted the course of Long Beach for the next decade.  For this and other community work, he received the prestigious David Landry Memorial Award for outstanding community service from the City of Long Beach. Professionally, he is a former President of the Long Beach Bar Association which named him Lawyer of the Year in 2005.  He is a former member of the California State Bar Association Access to Justice Commission and co-chaired the American Bar Association Committee on Crime Victims.  He annually chaired the Los Angeles Legal Aid Foundation’s Gran Cru fundraising campaign.  In 2011, the State Bar Association Small Firm Section named Doug Attorney of the Year. In 2004, Doug was elected to the LBCC Board of Trustees for Area 4.  Since then, he has focused his volunteer work on higher education which he calls the “civil rights issue of the 21st century.”  He has served two terms as President of the LBCC Board of Trustees.  He was elected to the statewide California Community College Trustees Board of Directors where is led an effort to champion student success as a statewide goal.  He has served two terms on the Community College League of California Board of Directors which represents both California trustees and community college presidents and CEOs.  In 2010 he co-chaired the statewide Commission on the Future of Community Colleges which was the genesis of the recent California Legislature’s Student Success Task Force. In his spare time, Doug enjoys going to the gym daily, reading voraciously, backpacking and traveling.  He and his wife have renovated a second family home in New York City where they vacation when time permits.  He has hiked the John Muir Trail from Yosemite to Mount Whitney and the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.  Doug is married to Dr. Freda Hinsche Otto who is a former Asst. Vice Chancellor of the California State University System and is currently a consultant to local nonprofits and businesses.  Together they have five children and five grandchildren including a daughter currently studying full-time at LBCC and is on the Honor Roll.