Rodel Rodis

Trustee

Rodel E. Rodis is one of the original founders of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) and has served since its founding in 1997 as the General Counsel of the organization. In 2012, he was elected to a six (6) year term on the NaFFAA Board of Governors (BOG). Under his initiative and leadership, NaFFAA hosted the First Global Filipino Networking Convention held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco in August of 2002, which attracted 4,000 delegates, and which has continued in biennial global Filipino summit conferences since then. He is the President of the Global Filipino Diaspora Council (GFDC) that was formed in Manila in 2013 and the national president of US Pinoys for Good Governance which has been leading the global opposition to China’s invasion of Philippine territories in the West Philippine Sea.

Rodel has been a member of the California Bar since 1980. He is also a syndicated columnist whose weekly column, Telltale Signs, regularly appears in Filipino community newspapers throughout the US. His online weekly column, Global Networking, also regularly appears in Inquirer.net and in Philnews.com. He is the author of “Telltale Signs of Filipinos in America” (Ina Press, 1992).

Rodel was the first Filipino to be elected to public office in San Francisco when he was elected to the San Francisco Community College Board in 1992 and reelected in 1996, 2000 and 2004, serving three terms as president of the San Francisco College Board. He also served as California state chair of the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) and was also the first national president of the Asian Pacific Islander Native American Trustees Association (APINATA). Rodel was also the first Filipino to be appointed to a major city commission in San Francisco when he was appointed president of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission in 1987.

Rodel taught Philippine History and the History of Filipinos in America at San Francisco State University and at Laney College. He has also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS).