Frank Vram Zerunyan, J.D. is a Professor of the Practice of Governance and Director of Executive Education at the University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy. His key areas of expertise include Local Governments, Public Private Partnerships, Civic Leadership, Land Use, Regulation and Executive Education. He teaches graduate courses on Intersectoral Leadership, Business and Public Policy, International Issues in Public Policy as well as International Laboratory. He also lectures locally and globally to build capacity and foster leadership among public executives worldwide.

Frank currently serves as the Mayor of Rolling Hills Estates, California. In his role as a public official, after serving as Chair of the Planning Commission in Rolling Hills Estates, Frank was elected to the City Council in 2003 and re-elected in 2007 and 2011. He previously served as Mayor in 2007-2008 and now serves on various regional boards, including law enforcement, sanitation, technology and transit. He has chaired and continues to chair select city government committees in Rolling Hills Estates. Frank’s public service on various local government policy committees extends statewide with the California League of Cities, California Contract Cities Association and Southern California Association of Governments. In 2008, Frank was elected and assumed a leadership role as the 49th President of California Contracts Cities Association, the second largest municipal organization in the state of California with approximately 70 member cities and 10 million residents. In January of 2013, Frank was appointed to an ad hoc experts committee on capacity building in public administration at the United Nations Division for Public Administration and Development Management in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

As a gubernatorial appointee under Governor Schwarzenegger, Frank was a state regulator serving on the Medical Board of California in the Department of Consumer Affairs. He was elected by the Board to serve as its Vice President. After five years of service on the Medical Board, Frank’s term expired in June of 2011. His responsibilities on the Medical Board included the promulgation of regulation, professional discipline and the sixty million plus budget of the Medical Board.

Frank has more than 25 years of comprehensive and multi-sectorial experience as a lawyer, consultant, director, board member, professor and public servant. Frank has been honored as one of Southern California Magazine’s Super Lawyers since 2004, Marquis’ Who’s Who in America and American Law and Government institutions like the California Assembly, the California Senate, the County of Los Angeles and various city governments for his leadership in the public sector. In the not for profit sector, Frank served as chairman of the Board of Governors of the worldwide Armenian Bar Association. He also chaired the Daniel Freeman Hospitals Foundation in 2001 and oversaw the successful distribution of $8 million in gifts. He has acted as a policy advisor and counsel to the Armenian National Committee of America in Washington DC.

Frank earned his Juris Doctor degree from Western State University College of Law and his Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University, Long Beach. He also completed his advanced legal studies in Corporate Taxation at the University of Southern California Law Center. He is a graduate of California League of Cities’ Leadership Institute.