Brigade, a pro-Cuban group that organized trips by Americans to Cuba. She visited Cuba eight times in the 1970s. She went on to study philosophy at San Diego State University from 1971-1973, and graduated from the USC Keck School of Medicine Physician Assistant Program in 1982. She then earned a bachelor of science degree in health sciences from California State University, Dominguez Hills in 1990. She also received her master's degree in social work from the University of Southern California in 2015. Community Coalition and the crack cocaine epidemic In the 1980s, while working as an emergency medicine physician assistant and a clinical instructor at the Keck School of Medicine of USC Physician Assistant Program, Bass witnessed the impact of the crack epidemic in South Los Angeles. After attending "Crack: The Death of a Race", a San Francisco conference hosted by the Reverend Cecil Williams, she decided to organize a response. In the late 1980s, Bass and other local community organizers founded Community Coalition, an organization with a mission to help transform the social and economic conditions in South Los Angeles that foster addiction, crime, violence, and poverty by building a community institution that involves thousands in creating, influencing, and changing public policy. California State Assembly In 2004, Bass was elected to represent California's 47th Assembly district. At her inauguration, she became the only African-American woman serving in the state legislature. She was reelected in 2006 and 2008 before her term limit expired. Bass served the cities and communities of Culver City, West Los Angeles, Westwood, Cheviot Hills, Leimert Park, Baldwin Hills, View Park-Windsor Hills, Ladera Heights, the Crenshaw District, Little Ethiopia and portions of Koreatown and South Los Angeles. Leadership prior to speaker election Speaker Fabian Núñez appointed Bass California State Assembly majority whip for the 2005–06 legislative session and majority floor leader for the 2007–08 legislative session. During her first term, she founded and chaired the California Assembly Select Committee on Foster Care, implementing a host of new laws to help improve the state's foster care system and leading the effort to secure $82 million in additional funding for the state's child welfare system. Under her direction, the Select Committee passed legislation designed to improve the lives of California's most vulnerable children. During her term as majority whip, Bass also served as vice chair of the Legislative Black Caucus. As vice chair, she commissioned the first ever "State