Ben Allen is an attorney at the law firm of Bryan Cave LLP in Los Angeles and a member of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s Board of Education, receiving the highest number of votes in his November 2008 election to the Board. Previously, Ben was the Student Regent for the University of California system, clerked for a judicial panel on the United Nations’ International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, served as Communications Director for Congressman José E. Serrano (D-NY), and worked as a Senior Program Assistant for the Latin America Team of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. He has worked on political campaigns in California, Pennsylvania, New York, Kentucky, and South Dakota. Ben is an elected delegate to the California Democratic State Convention, serves on the Executive Board of the Santa Monica Democratic Club, and is a senior fellow with the international human rights organization Humanity in Action. He holds an undergraduate degree in history from Harvard, masters degree in Latin American Studies from Cambridge, and law degree from UC Berkeley, and is fluent in Spanish. Ben is active with environmental, public education, veterans, and political reform causes, and is an international soccer fan.