I'm a social worker for the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, where I have worked with children and families in their own communities for nearly 30 years, seeing firsthand those communities' needs.

I've been an active voice for working Californians over the past quarter century, serving in several capacities with SEIU Local 721 and one of its predecessor unions, SEIU Local 535. I've been a worksite steward for the past 27 years. I served on the Local 535 statewide Executive Board from 1994 until the reorganization into Local 721 in 2007. As a bargaining team member in contract negotiations six times since 1995, including serving as bargaining team chair in 2007, I've fought for manageable workloads for child welfare social workers. As a member political activist, I've visited the State Capitol on nearly an annual basis since 1992 to fight to protect funding for child welfare services, which are annually threatened with cuts despite State analyses that show that social worker caseloads are over twice the numbers necessary to ensure that at-risk children and families are adequately supervised. I've also fought to protect funding for home care services for the disabled, to protect Medi-Cal funding through State matching funds, and to keep local tax revenues local in order to protect local community services.

I was born in Covina and have lived most of my life in the San Gabriel/Pomona Valley area, attending public schools in West Covina and Covina. I currently live in Walnut, where I became an active voice in City affairs immediately, twice running for City Council, and continuing to advocate for protection of the last remaining open space in the city.

I enrolled in the University of Southern California at the age of 16, earning a bachelor's degree in psychology. I subsequently earned a master's degree in psychology from California State University, Los Angeles.

Melissa Fazli has been an activist for the past three decades.  She circulated her first petition in 1986 against apartheid.  She canvassed in the early 90’s for Virginia Citizen Action on environmental and health care issues.  She has volunteered for many non-profits like the Red Cross and Second Harvest Food Bank.  She has volunteered and worked on many Presidential Campaigns like John Kerry where she flew to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to insure voter protection.  For Barack Obama, she phone banked and ran his social media in North Orange County.  For Hillary Clinton, she fundraised and her son was part of a social media video called Trump Effect where he spoke about being bullied for being Muslim.

During the Great Recession of 2008, Melissa decided to further her education.  She attended Coastline Community College where she received an Associate’s Degree in Social and Behavioral Sciences and then transferred to California State University of Fullerton, where she continued her studies in politics and the media.  She graduated in 2012 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications with an emphasis on Radio, Television, and Film. 

In 2012, Melissa won Best Commentary award from CNN on a different view of the Border’s Bookstore closing in Brea.  She then started her own company called Dolphin 5 Productions, where she continues to advocate on political issues, educational needs, and human rights.

In just the past year, she finished a post graduate study program at the Religious Freedom Center at the Newseum Institute in Washington D.C. giving her the expertise in Human Rights, Religious Freedom, and the First Amendment.  For her Capstone Project, Melissa produced a documentary called God Amongst Presidents.  In it she narrates all 45 Presidents of the United States religious beliefs and how they managed in a nation of religious freedom.

Melissa practiced real estate in Orange County for over 12 years.  She negotiated multi-million dollar deals and was the number one Preferred Properties Realtor for Tarbell, Realtors in 2014. Additionally, she worked with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices before she decided to change her career to full time documentarian and Human Rights activist.

She is the current Executive Board representative for the California Democratic Party for Assembly District 55.  She lives in Yorba Linda with her husband Naveed of 20 years where they raise their three sons.

Melissa has been an activist, an organizer, a volunteer, and a scholar.  Now she looks forward to being a candidate to be the next Assemblywoman for State Assembly in District 55.

I am a business leader and entreprunuer by trade.  I am not a politician and have not held elected office.  My decision to run for State Assembly is not one I took lightly. I have a BA degree in Biochemistry From CSU Fresno and a Master of Busniess Administration from the University of Southern California, both with distinction.  In my business career I have served as CEO and President for major corporations here in California.  I founded a manufacturing company here in California in 2008 that provided hunderds of local jobs and generated over $40 million in local salaries.  I have been a local Yorba Linda resident for also 25 years.  My wife and I raised our kids in Yorba Linda where they attended the local schools, particiapted in Boy Scouts and played youth sports.  We have been committed to the local community and the health of that community is very importanted to our family.

I am running for office to bring back responsible government that is action oriented.  We need to cut government spending and improve the business friendliness of our state.  This will bring back the middle class jobs we need.  Our communities need strong families and strong families need a strong economy to thrive.  California is seeing many middle class jobs being replaced with low income jobs and to much wealth is being concentrated in to few Californians.  The loss of strong middle class jobs is creating a great dependancy on social programs and draining our state resources.  We must stop the war on business and restore opportunities for all CAlifornians.