CLUE as it was known has undergone growth and changes these past few months. There is now what are considered four anchor entities as part of the greater CLUE California umbrella. There are CLUE San Diego, CLUE Bay Area, CLUE San Jose and CLUE Los Angeles. Additionally we have affiliate offices in the Inland Empire and Orange County.

CLUE’s first executive director the Reverend Alexia Salvatierra, now heads CLUE CA. Reverend Anna Olson, originally brought on as assistant director to Alexia when it was just CLUE, then became the executive director of CLUE LA. Anna recently moved on to a new and exciting congregation in Long Beach. Long-time community activist and writer Gary Phillips has stepped in as Interim E.D. while the organization conducts a search for a permanent executive director who will help shape and guide the work of CLUE LA into the future.

Gary Phillips
Interim Executive Director

Born in South Central Los Angeles, Gary Phillips' community activism and organizing in his native city for some thirty years include efforts ranging from the Coalition Against Police Abuse’s Campaign for a Citizens Police Review Board in the ‘70s, Proposition X about compelling the city council to conduct a peace dividend study in the ‘80s, working in coalitions opposing the anti-affirmative action Proposition 209 and the anti-immigrant Proposition 187 in the ‘90s, to being the state director of Progressive Majority tasked with helping elect forward-thinking candidates in local elections in the ‘00s.

Along the way he has also organized on affordable housing issues, done gang intervention and public safety issues, involved in neighborhood empowerment, and was entrenched in the anti-apartheid movement. Phillips has been a union organizer, the executive director of the MultiCultural Collaborative, an entity begun in the wake of the ’92 civil unrest to better race relations at the grassroots, a radio talk show host, the communication director for the Legal Aid Foundation los Angeles, the largest public interest law firm for the indigent and working poor, and currently co-facilitates a Big Read project, a National Endowment for the Arts national initiative to bring reading back to underserved communities, for incarcerated youth.

Phillips has written articles and op-ed pieces on politics, race and pop culture for publications including the then L.A. Times Magazine, San Francisco Examiner, Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Miami Herald and American Prospect magazine. He has also published ten mystery and crime novels and numerous short stories.