Lynda Gledhill

A career that started in journalism prompted Lynda Gledhill into her current role as the new executive officer for the California Victim Compensation Board, a position she had held on an interim basis since December. Gledhill started covering the Capitol as a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle in 1998 and stayed in the job until 2007, when she started working in government communications, first for former legislators Don Perata and Ellen Corbett and then later at the Government Operations Agency. “It’s hard for me to believe that I’ve been out of reporting longer than I was a reporter, because I think if you ask me at the end of my career, ‘What were you?’ I think my instinct might be to say I was a reporter,” Gledhill said. “As I reflect back on it, I do feel like I’ve been trying to educate, inform and help the people of California my whole career, just in different ways.” Now she’s focused on working for a state agency that helps provide financial assistance for victims of violent crimes. What inspires her most about the new job is helping people. “These are people who have been victims of violent crimes and people who have experienced trauma, and the idea that we as a state can do something to help them is powerful,” she said. Gledhill, along with a majority of the staff at CalVCB, has been working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We switched from 95% full time in the office, to 95% full time teleworking,” she said. And being somewhat new to the office, Gledhill says she misses interacting with her colleagues. “I miss the casual conversations because you never know what you’re going to learn,” she said. Gledhill says despite the extraordinary circumstances, she’s proud with how the agency has kept up its work in an efficient manner. “Processing applications increased about 28% compared to last April,” she said. “Our call center wait times have actually decreased, and the number of online applications has increased. Half of applications in the month of April came through the online application process.” While Gledhill says those numbers are good, she’ll be overseeing efforts to increase the number of applicants who file claims online and streamline the approval and compensation process. “How we present ourselves online and digitally, that is something I’ll be taking a look at,” she said. “We know that for many people in the state of California their only access to the Internet might only be on a phone with very limited bandwidth and data packages that limit the ability to connect, and so it’s really important that whatever services we provide are reachable to those people.” Away from the job, Gledhill’s family life was even prompted by journalism in a way. She and her husband, Don Andrews of the Democratic Office of Communications and Outreach, met when they were both reporters covering the Capitol. “We met in the Assembly press bay,” she said. “We were co-presidents of the Sacramento Press Club when we got engaged and married.” Their 14-year-old daughter, Julia, will start high school this year and Gledhill hopes she’ll have somewhat of a typical transition. “I hope for her sake there will be some return to normalcy, at least being able to be around her peers, I’m sure she’s tired of mom and dad,” she said. Gledhill has had many titles over the years including mother, reporter and press secretary, and looks forward to the work she’ll accomplish with her new title of executive officer. “I’ve always said CalVCB was the one organization, the one department under Gov Ops that really felt like it was helping the people directly,” she said. “So it’s a thrill for me to be able to come to this organization and take that on, because for me, that’s what government should be. It should be helping people directly and in the best way possible.” Contact: Gledhill, Lynda.Gledhill@victims.ca.gov.