Candidate for
Member of Congress; California; Congressional District 50

Biography of Delecia Holt, Republican with a heart, Businesswoman, Sociologist- Researcher, Intelligence Security Analyst and Statistical Research Analyst, Philanthropist, Author

"...Ethics reform begins with me; I am the only Candidate that has pledged not to accept a salary for the first year of service while in congress..." March 17, 2006 at the Ranch Bernardo Republican Women's Federated luncheon"

Born in Mississippi, and moved to Denver, Colorado by her Grandmother and Grandfather in 1968 after years of her Grandmother struggling in the civil rights movement to register African-American voters and having seen the remnants of a neighboring man being lynched, feared for the safety of their children and grandchildren. Delecia Holt, a small business owner is a real estate broker and mortgage investor (she is a member of several local, state and national real estate trade boards (e.g. C.A.R., N.A.R., W.C.R., etc.). She has lived in San Diego since 1983 and knows the communities well. She is a small business owner who has employed 15-25 employees at any given time in her retail shops, restaurant, architectural firm, civil engineering and graphic arts businesses understands the needs that business owners are faced with everyday. She felt a deeper desire to serve her country and give back to those identified as needing assistance, especially our children veterans and aging population. She believed that becoming involved in the field of Sociology, through child and family counseling would afford her the chance to do so. A chance meeting in the Sociology department of San Diego State University changed her life forever.

In June 1996, she completed her formal training as a Sociologist with an emphasis in Applied Research (statistical analysis) at San Diego State University, during which she was offered a position as a research interviewer at San Diego's Children's Hospital's Child and Family Research Center under the direction of renowned Researcher and Professor Dr. Richard Hough, where she worked for nearly two years on various bilingual projects such as the "Healthy Families Project" which began as a pilot study in Hawaii, and San Diego and after much proven success in the identification of children and families at risk of medical and physical neglect. She assisted with the data collection and program design for intervention programs. This pilot study soon flourished into what California now knows as the "Healthy Families and Healthy Kids" child abuse prevention and medical insurance programs.

During this time she also worked on various state and federal social research programs such as SAMHSA's Drug Abuse Study, the DHHS, (RTI) Research Triangle Institute, and many others. She worked on various Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) programs for Los Angeles County with the Veterans Administration (a member of AmeriCorps) as a substance abuse and mental health counselor for male and female homeless, veterans of foreign wars at the Long Beach V.A. Hospitals' K-2 Ward and helped to develope long term housing for homeless Veterans at the Villages at Cabrillo and for the Orange County Social Services Dept. where she ran an intervention program for substance abusing mothers whom had their children removed from their care due to AOD use or child neglect and or abuse. While working for Riverside County Dept. of Social Services (in the Research Dept.) she identified the heavy methamphetamine problem that county was dealing with and took the initiative to developed the TAFT program for Riverside County's Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) needs-based treatment intervention for parent's/caregiver's engagement program and study (parts of which are being implemented throughout the county today). The TAFT program was designed to be a unique partnership of public and private agencies and researchers addressing the urgent need for timely intervention with Parent(s)/Caregiver(s) affected by substance abuse, state and federal child welfare agencies, and Cal Works/TANF services.

Her books include "Schizophrenia, Adolescent Behavior, Juvenile Delinquency, and Violence-Is There A Correlation, Chocolate Covered Bananas, Chocolate Covered Adventures cookbook, Chocolate Covered Turkey, Chocolate Covered Christmas, Chocolate Covered Adventures-Tyco's Search For The Ark of the Covenant, A Return To You Getting The Strength You Need Now, Protecting Our children From Predators-, Leaving Abuse Behind, etc."

She also has written numerous articles such as "Suicide-Who Has The Right To Label Your Behavior, Los Angeles Riots-A Collective Behavioral Approach - on the Los Angeles Riots and how collective behavior influences otherwise individual thinking persons, substance abuse and mental health treatment for mothers and other family members. She has addressed audiences in settings ranging from public and private research symposiums, state and federal agencies regarding Welfare Reform,

She is Founder of the "Treehouse Foundation", an educational support fund for schools in California whereby she ,other Realtors and mortgage lenders donate monies from the proceeds of a sale or purchase to their local schools to assist with teacher salaries, special programs, books and other educational materials for the classrooms, to create or retain theatre programs, music programs, art programs, literature- library books, science programs, purchase of computers, etc. for the schools and was Girl Scout Troop Leader for her daughter's troop. To date we have donated in excess of $65,000.00 since it's inception in September 2004.

In addition, she has worked for various government think tanks such as The Rand Corporation as a research interviewer on several research studies that asked the question how those that live in particular Los Angeles communities define their neighborhoods and how their individual definition impacts the choices they make in their everyday lives (e.g., where they choose to live, shop, levels of education obtained, medical access or lack there of, religious beliefs or philosophies, whom they choose to interact with; what races or genders they deem friendly, how they see themselves, how they see others, etc.). She had written a journal piece on The Los Angeles Riots and how collective behavior played a major role in the vigilante behavior exhibited by many involved in the riots and what they expressed as feelings of a sense of disenfranchisement. The previous study captured those feelings of isolationism and warned of such possible events if left untreated (this could be inferred to all communities throughout the United States of America).

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."