Dan Whitehurst is an attorney and businessman who has experience in government, education, media and nonprofit organizations.

A fifth generation Californian–his family arrived in 1849–he attended San Joaquin Valley schools, then on to Saint Mary’s College in Moraga and UC Hastings in San Francisco. He was a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs and received an MA in Urban Studies from Occidental College in Los Angeles.

As a young lawyer in Fresno he was elected to the city council, then two years later was elected mayor and served eight years. He was a member of the board of directors of the National League of Cities and was President of the Mayors and Councilmembers Department of the League of California Cities. Upon leaving office he became a Resident Fellow of the Institute of Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School.

Dan’s business career was in the funeral service industry, owning and managing funeral homes and cemeteries in Northern, Central and Southern California and Washington State. He served as chair of the Great Valley Center, the Institute for Local Government and the St. Helena Public Library Friends and Foundation. He also did public policy commentary on radio and television in Fresno for fifteen years and served for a time as Executive Director of the Maddy Institute of Public Affairs at Fresno State.

He currently chairs the California Issues Forum and is a board member and past chair of AAA Northern California, Nevada & Utah. He is also on the Advisory Board of the School of Liberal Arts at Saint Mary’s.

Dan and his wife Kathleen live in Napa County and have two grown children, Keenan and Jamie, and three grandchildren.