A Record of Service
For the past 23 years as a community activist, mayor, county supervisor, environmental leader and regional policy maker, Lois Wolk has distinguished herself and enriched our communities.
Community Leader
While raising her two children, Lois Wolk volunteered in the community as an elementary and junior high school PTA President, as a Little League Coach and an AYSO Soccer Commissioner, coach and referee. She served as a charter board member of the Davis Science Center (Explorit), TREE Davis, and the Yolo Basin Foundation. She is a founding organizer of the Yolo Land Trust.
In 1989, she became directly involved in local politics when she co-chaired the successful Measure B campaign to expand the Davis Public Library (78% YES Vote) and was appointed to the city's Parks and Recreation Commission.
Public Servant
In 1990, Lois Wolk won a seat on the Davis City Council where she served two terms as Mayor (1992-94 and 1996-98.) While on the City Council, she led the effort to build the Sutter Davis Hospital and the University Retirement Community. She spearheaded the formation of the Economics and Finance Commission and the Open Space Commission, led the efforts to preserve and restore Putah Creek and create wetlands adjacent to the Wastewater Treatment Plant and in the Yolo Basin. She also helped protect hundreds of acres of prime agricultural land with the Davis Farmland Preservation Ordinance.
In 1998, she was elected to the Yolo County Board of Supervisors, which she chaired in the year 2000. She chaired the Yolo County Children and Families Commission from 1999-2002, and served on the Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District from 1994-2002. As a Supervisor, she led the effort to create a Multi-Disciplinary Interview Center for abused children, a Crisis Nursery, the Yolo County Children's Alliance, and the first Tree Plan for Yolo County. She also led the effort to convene the first countywide land use task force, Gaining Ground, that includes all cities in Yolo County, the county itself and University of California, Davis. During her tenure, the Board successfully funded a new Juvenile Hall and a new Health Department, and revised the County's Agricultural Zoning Ordinance to preserve Yolo's prime agricultural land.
Awards
Lois Wolk was awarded the Woman of Distinction Award from the Soroptimists International of Davis, the Streamkeeper Award from the Putah Creek Council, the Concilio Board of Directors Award, and the Peace Begins at Home Award from the Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Center. She has also been recognized by the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the American Planning Association.
Schoolteacher, Wife and Mother
Lois Wolk earned her B.A. from Antioch College in 1968, and a M.A. from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in 1971. She moved to Davis in 1978. She has taught History, Social Studies and French in grades 7 through 12 in both public and private schools. She has been married for 35 years to Bruce Wolk, Professor of Law at UC Davis Law School. They have two sons and a daughter-in-law, Adam, 28, an MD Resident at Georgetown University, his wife, Io, 22, and Dan, 25, a student at UC Berkeley's Boalt School of Law.
Legislator
In 2002, Lois Wolk was elected to the California State Assembly. As the Assemblywoman for the Eighth Assembly District, she represents ten cities in Solano and Yolo counties including Benicia, Davis, Dixon, Fairfield, Rio Vista, Suisun City, Vacaville, West Sacramento, Winters, and Woodland. She chairs the Human Services Committee and also serves on the Budget, Health, Natural Resources, Utilities and Commerce, and Water, Parks and Wildlife Committees. She was a founding member of the Bipartisan Group, a group of legislators from both parties working on bipartisan solutions to the state budget and political reform issues.