By David Westley Skillman, AFGE, Actors’ Equity, SAG & AFTRA
I joined the military after high school, serving eight years. I also managed to complete a bachelor’s degree before I was honorably discharged. I went to work for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Los Angeles District Office in 1991 as a paralegal where I now serve as chief steward and as an offi cer for AFGE Local 3230. I’m also a trumpet player, dancer and actor.
In addition to my job and my performance pursuits, I volunteer in the community, working with a group that reaches out to incarcerated youth in the maximum security section of San Francisco’s Juvenile Justice Center to help inmates develop creative talent.
Among other things, we teach playwriting. It’s awesome to witness the joy, laughter, sadness and pain in the words of these young playwrites.
