Thursday, October 22, 2026

South Pasadena Advertising Veteran Jennifer Thompson Seeks PCC Board Seat on Oversight, Communication Pitch

Jennifer Thompson, a South Pasadena resident who spent 30 years in broadcast advertising, is making her first run for public office as a candidate for the Pasadena City College Board of Trustees seat representing Trustee Area 5, a seat held by incumbent Kristine E. Kwong.

The seven elected trustees who govern the Pasadena Area Community College District each represent one trustee area, and the district takes in Pasadena, South Pasadena, San Marino, Temple City and several neighboring communities. Area 5 covers South Pasadena, San Marino and part of Temple City.

Thompson said she would bring a focus on measurable student outcomes, growing enrollment, campus infrastructure and the effective use of college resources to the board, and she described her communications background as the thing that sets her apart from sitting trustees.

“I believe PCC is an incredibly important institution for our community, and I saw an opportunity to bring a different and missing perspective to the board,” Thompson said.

She said she does not feel “like I’m running against the sitting trustee,” adding that she is “running for the students of PCC.”

Thompson grew up in El Cajon, outside San Diego, the third of six girls. Her parents expected their daughters to go to college, she said, on one condition: the school had to be in-state, either a University of California or a California State University campus.

She chose UC Berkeley and left home at 17 to attend. She said the experience “really changed the way that I see the world.”

Thompson said she started her advertising career in San Francisco before her company moved her to Los Angeles.

She has lived in South Pasadena for 25 years. Her husband is a lifelong South Pasadena resident and a graduate of South Pasadena High School, and the couple moved to the city after marrying and raised their three children there.

Thompson said PCC was not part of her own high school experience because she did not grow up in the area. Her connection came through her older children, who played club water polo and worked out at PCC. During practices, she said, she walked the campus with another mother.

“I just always thought this was an amazing institution in our backyard, and I wanted to be part of it,” she said.

On student housing, Thompson said the idea “deserves serious consideration” and that affordability can be a barrier to educational success.

“My concern isn’t with the goal or the need, but as a trustee, I believe it is imperative that the college resources are directed responsibly,” she said.

Before supporting housing or a similar initiative, she said, she would want reliable data on student need and how many students would benefit, the cost, the funding source and the long-term financial obligations to the college.

Asked where the current board has fallen short, Thompson did not single out Kwong or other trustees.

“I wouldn’t want to say the question is about one particular board member or the team of board members,” she said. She said that as a parent of two college students she would bring a perspective she called absent from the panel: “currently that’s a missing voice on the board.”

Thompson said she “wouldn’t walk in thinking I had all the answers.” On day one, she said, she would listen, review the college’s current priorities and financial commitments and ask for progress on those priorities. She said she would not serve as “a lone voice on the board, but rather an independent voice with the long-term health of PCC at the center of all those decisions.”

“For me, good communication isn’t just public relations. It’s really a form of accountability,” Thompson said. For major spending, including infrastructure, she said, “I’d like the public to be able to understand what was decided, why it was decided, what the cost is, and how to measure the progress of those projects.”

Drawing on her radio background, she said “you have to be where your listeners are and you have to communicate to them in the ways that they will hear the message,” and that the college should reach first-time college families, working adults, high school students and community members as well as current students.

Thompson named enrollment tied to student success as her first priority, including retention, completion and transfer and career pathways, and said she thought that work, through counselors guiding students, would fit into an existing budget. She named infrastructure second.

“For me, it’s not just the aging buildings, but making sure that the facilities serve the current students and also future students,” she said.

District voters approved Measure PCC, a $565 million general obligation bond for college facilities, in November 2022 with 70.59% of the vote. Thompson said that with bond funds earmarked for infrastructure, the task is prioritizing the needs that best benefit students, and that “if the bond measures weren’t enough, I think we would certainly have to reprioritize what we could fit within the budget.” She said a trustee should “make decisions on evidence and not assumptions.”

Thompson said that while campaigning, “I haven’t met anyone who follows the board business,” but that many residents have “a PCC story and a connection to PCC.”

She said a successful first term would show measurable progress in enrollment and retention, clarity on capital projects and stronger communication with the public.

“For me, a successful term, first term, would be that more people know what’s going on at PCC and feel part of it and know who I am as a resource for them in our community,” she said.

For more information, visit https://www.instagram.com/thompsonforpcc/