Tony Coelho to speak on public service

Tony Coelho

Tony Coelho, who represented the Central Valley in the U.S. Congress for ten years, will deliver the inaugural address of the Madden Library’s endowed Womack Lecture Series on Monday, November 8, at 7:00 p.m. in the Alice Peters Auditorium on the California State University, Fresno, campus. The title of his presentation will be “What is “public service” and why is it needed?” Parking will be available in lots A and J on Woodrow Avenue. For more information, call 278-5790.

Coelho got his start in politics working as Congressman Bernie Sisk’s legislative assistant in 1965, and served as Sisk’s chief of staff from 1971-1977. In 1978, when Congressman Sisk retired, Coelho succeeded him in the House. He served from 1981 to 1986 as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, then from 1987 to 1989 as Majority Whip, responsible for securing the votes needed to pass the legislative agenda. While in the House, Coelho authored the Americans with Disabilities Act, widely recognized as the most important piece of civil rights legislation in the last 30 years. He also served in senior positions on the Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Administration Committees during his ten years in the House.

After leaving Congress in 1989, Coelho served as a managing director of Wertheim Schroder, an investment-banking firm in New York, and as chairman and C.E.O. of an education and training technology company he founded in Washington, D.C.

In 1999, Coelho returned to politics as general chairman of Vice President Gore’s presidential campaign. Until health concerns forced him to resign in June, he helped Vice President Gore win every primary and caucus to capture the Democratic nomination.

In addition to his work in the private sector, Coelho continues to devote much of his time to public service. He served as chairman of the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities from 1994 to 2001, as well as on other Presidential task forces and commissions.

Born in Los Banos, California, Coelho earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science in 1964 from Loyola Marymount University. Coelho and his wife, Phyllis, have two daughters   and reside near Washington, D.C. In the coming months, Coelho will be donating his records from his years in politics to the Madden Library’s Central Valley Political Archive, where they will join the papers of his political mentor, Bernie Sisk.

The Printise J. Womack Lectures were established by the generous bequest of Rhoda H. Womack in memory of her late husband, who was a long time Madden Library employee. The lecture topics alternate between progressive politics and librarianship. For more information about the Womack Lectures, please contact Marcie Morrison at (559) 278-7177.