Eric Gurna
President & CEO
LA’s BEST Afterschool Enrichment Programs
Growing up, Eric Gurna witnessed the impact of poverty on underserved communities. These experiences inspired him to dedicate his life to community service. Today, he is the president and CEO of LA’s BEST, an afterschool enrichment program serving 25,000 students in Los Angeles, ages 5-12. He is a thought leader in the field of Expanded Learning, and has brought the afterschool community together to change California’s conversation about afterschool funding.
Rather than fighting solely for LA’s BEST to receive funding, Gurna believes in fighting to increase the overall funding amount for afterschool – a process he described as creating a larger pie instead of taking a bigger slice. As a direct result of his coalition-building efforts, the 2017-2018 budget included an increase of $50 million for afterschool funding, the first of its kind in nearly 10 years.
