Local Child Specialist Named to State Panel

A Sylmar woman was one of four people appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson this week to a statewide child development advisory committee.

Kathleen V. Malaske-Samu, 45, has an extensive background in child care and children’s education and has been the child care coordinator for Los Angeles County since 1988. As a member of the Child Development Program Advisory Committee, Malaske-Samu will be part of a team that is responsible for reviewing and evaluating the effectiveness of child development programs and the need for children’s services in the state.

The 27-member committee meets monthly and serves as a citizen review board, making recommendations to the governor, Legislature and state departments on child care-issues. Committee members serve at the governor’s discretion and do not receive a salary.

Malaske-Samu earned a bachelor’s degree in child psychology from the University of Minnesota. She has also received a master’s degree in human development from Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena and a master’s in urban planning from UCLA.

Malaske-Samu is also a member of the city government’s Child Care Committee, the Los Angeles Roundtable for Children and the National Assn. for the Education of Young People.

Other appointees to the advisory committee this week include Robert G. Orsi of Covina, chief executive officer of Bright Beginnings Preschools; Marie Kanne Poulsen of Pasadena, associate professor of pediatrics at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, and Carla M. Sanchez of Rancho Cordova, a 17-year-old college student and single mother.