Jesus Gloria Molina (born May 31, 1948) is an American politician and a former member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Molina broke into politics in 1982 by going against the powerful male-dominated Eastside political machine for a seat on the California State Assembly. She was the first Latina elected to the California Assembly. She had a long unbeaten streak in electoral politics. In 1987, she was the first Latina elected to the Los Angeles City Council and to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 1991. She was on the board for 23 years. Background and career Molina grew up as one of ten children in the Los Angeles suburb of Pico Rivera to a Mexican-American father, Leonardo Castillo Molina, and a Mexican mother, Concepción Molina. She attended public schools in her hometown, and attended Rio Hondo College, East Los Angeles College, and California State University, Los Angeles. While attending college, she worked full-time as a legal secretary. Then she became certified as an adult education instructor and taught clerical skills at the East Los Angeles Skills Center. Molina's early career was characterized by her involvement in the Chicano movement and advocating for women's health. An early accomplishment of Molina's was when she started a Nurse Mentoring Program in an effort to address the country's shortage of nurses by partnering with local community colleges to encourage and help more students to pursue a nursing degree. She was first elected to office in 1982 as state assemblywoman for the 56th District. In 1987, she was elected to the Los Angeles City Council where she served as the Councilwoman of the First District until 1991. In February 1991, she was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, representing the First Supervisorial District. Molina is the first Latina in history to be elected to the California State Legislature, the Los Angeles City Council, the Los Angeles County board of supervisors, and to serve as an assemblywoman at the California State Assembly. During her 23 years serving the Los Angeles County board of supervisors, she became known as a fiscal watchdog committed to overseeing good government reforms, maintenance of the county's public health care system, and also quality-of-life issues for the millions of county residents living in the unincorporated areas. Prior to being elected to public office, Molina served in