Steve Gibson Seeks Second Term on Pasadena City College Board

The community college seat that ties Northwest Pasadena to southwest Altadena will be on the ballot again this fall, and the man who holds it wants to keep it.

Dr. Steve Gibson, who joined the Pasadena Area Community College District Board of Trustees in 2022 and now serves as its president, announced a campaign for a second term representing Area 3 — the district that includes PCC Northwest on the John Muir High School campus. The seat is up in the November 3, 2026, statewide election.

Gibson’s announcement came through his campaign, which described his record on the board and released a roster of endorsements.

According to the campaign, those endorsements include U.S. Representative Judy Chu, State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez, Assemblymember John Harabedian, former Assemblymember Chris Holden, Pasadena City Councilmember Jess Rivas, Pasadena NAACP President Brandon Lamar, fellow trustees Sandra Chen Lau, Kristine Kwong, Alton Wang and James Aragon, former trustee Hoyt Hilsman, community leader Cynthia Cannady and the PCC Faculty Association.

The campaign said that Gibson’s work on the Board of Trustees has included support for PCC Northwest’s efforts at John Muir High School, helped expand career and workforce training, and improved the college’s accessibility for all potential students.

“My goal is to make sure PCC works for everyone: the recent graduate, the working parent, the neighbor retraining for a new career,” Gibson said in the announcement. “We’ve made real progress, and I’m running to keep that momentum going.”

A PCC alumnus, Gibson earned his associate degree from the college in 2010, according to his official board biography, before completing a master’s in communications at Cal State Northridge and a Ph.D. in education at Northcentral University, where his dissertation examined job satisfaction and efficacy among community college adjunct faculty.

His biography also lists earlier work as Los Angeles Area Program Director of the American Friends Service Committee, once headquartered in Pasadena, and as a healthcare organizer for AARP.

The campaign described Gibson as a community organizer trained by United Farm Workers staff who has organized on healthcare access, climate justice and housing, and said he serves on the boards of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO, Los Angeles chapter; Black Electeds of California; and the Los Angeles County School Trustees Association.

He has published more than 20 books, some translated into Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.

According to the campaign, Gibson was raised by a domestic-worker mother and a gardener father, was the first in his family to pursue a four-year degree, and, as an African American and Korean American, has a long record of working with diverse communities.

The campaign also said Gibson lost his home in the Eaton Fire last year and is rebuilding in Altadena, an experience it said he shares with many Area 3 families, and that he has supported PCC’s fire-recovery training, including a new construction trades lab and expanded programs in fire academy training, electrical technology, welding and construction inspection.

Gibson and his spouse, Charlotte, are longtime Altadena residents, according to the campaign.

The campaign’s website is stevegibson4pcc.com.