Native San Diegan Dwayne Crenshaw didn’t stray far from home for long. The Patrick Henry High School graduate is now the executive director for the Coalition of Neighborhood Councils. “It is really rewarding for me, this opportunity to work in the community I grew up in,” says Crenshaw, 37.

Crenshaw’s leadership skills developed as SDSU’s student body president, then the largest student-run organization in the state with a $7 million budget. After college, the liberal studies graduate went to Sacramento as a recipient of the Jesse Unruh Fellowship.

In Sacramento he worked for State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante. “Sacramento was the most exciting place I’ve ever worked,” Crenshaw says.

County Supervisor Ron Roberts recruited Crenshaw back to San Diego and work as an aide, and then he took a job with Valerie Stallings at City Hall.

Crenshaw eventually went to work for the Jacobs Family Foundation for Center Neighborhood Innovation where he stayed for four years minus some time to run for office himself. In 2000, Crenshaw ran for a City Council seat, a race that ended in a run-off with the late Charles Lewis. “Close but no cigar,” he says about the 2 percentage point loss to Lewis. “Painfully close.”

In his position with the coalition, Crenshaw still works closely with the Jacobs Family Foundation. His favorite parts of the job, Crenshaw says, are working with community activists.

“I like seeing things being built,” says the single, softball and poker playing owner of three dogs. “I’m a big kid.”