Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Josh Fryday

50. Josh Fryday

Relatively unknown to many in the Capitol community, Chief Service Officer Josh Fryday is the man tasked with overseeing one of Gavin Newsom’s passion programs – California Volunteers. But that’s not all. Underneath that umbrella are also #CaliforniansForAll Youth Corps, AmeriCorps California and Californians ForAll College Corps, which collectively will soon be able to distribute a force of volunteers larger than the Peace Corps into California communities. The various programs they will implement include working to employ underserved youth as tutors and youth mentors, or to work on issues like food insecurity and climate action projects. The Newsom administration has invested approximately $3 billion in programs to recruit new teachers, and the governor thinks programs like College Corps will bolster that effort. A lot. It also gives him a major positive talking point to take with him as he goes around the country on the presidential campaign he allegedly has “sub-zero interest” in waging. Fryday is a former U.S. Navy officer and former mayor of Novato. He received his law degree from UC Berkeley.