Joe received his Master’s degree from UCLA and his B.A. From California State University, Northridge. Joe was born into a large family of 9 brothers and sisters and knows what it’s like for a family to work hard to survive. Three of Joe’s siblings were born with special needs. His little brother Benjamin contracted Leukemia, a blood cancer, at age 4, while his older sister Gina was born with neurological brain damage and his older brother Tony without the ability to hear or talk. Hence, from childhood on, Joe learned the meaning of the word struggle but also the meaning of the words: love, help and compassion.

Joe’s mother Clare had 9 children to feed and loved cooking for them! Being one of the first children in his family to attend college, Joe eventually helped his parents open their restaurant in Los Angeles called “Al Gelato” where he and his brothers and sisters worked together, 7 days per week. Over the course of 32 years in business, Joe learned about serving the public. He also learned about manufacturing, packaging food products, hiring hundreds of people, training staff members, doing payroll and watching a business grow through dedicated “teamwork.” Most importantly, Joe learned from his family and years in business to “never give up,” no matter how difficult the challenge.

Joe feels blessed to have been born into a large family with challenges for it taught him how to embrace adversity. Over the years Joe has worked to help the homeless in L.A. and Veterans at the West Los Angeles VA. Vets are near to his heart because Joe’s dad and three uncles all served in WWII. Additionally, Joe lost his dear cousin Ricky who was killed in action while serving our country in Viet Nam. Aside from feeding our Vets, Joe has served meals to the homeless and assisted his wife Karen Michelle, who has manufactured and distributed face masks to L.A’s Midnight Mission with the non-profit “Artists for Trauma,” where Karen is a community partner.

Joe believes we must never give up on our “Golden State” despite its many challenges. Rather than run away, Joe wants to stay in L.A. and correct its issues. His wife, their sons, and their wives all live and work here and Joe looks forward to raising his grandchildren here too. Americans can fix anything if we work as a team. L.A. is filled with great people but we need to vote in order to make real change happen. Joe hopes that you will trust in his past decades of experience to allow him to continue to “Serve You” and to help fix Los Angeles and make California a better place for All to live and work.