Meet Perla Mendoza

Over a decade ago, Perla Mendoza chose Seal Beach as her home and has spent the years since deeply invested in this community. As the founder and CEO of Project Eli, Perla built a nonprofit from the ground up following the tragic fentanyl poisoning death of her son, Elijah. She has since built partnerships with families, community organizations, businesses, law enforcement, public agencies, and elected leaders, and taken her advocacy from Seal Beach to Sacramento and Washington D.C.

For more than two decades, Perla has chosen roles rooted in helping people, strengthening communities, and turning hardship into opportunities for action. Her early career included work in substance-use counseling, HIV and communicable-disease prevention, community health education, and disaster response. Those experiences taught her how to listen without judgment, understand complex problems, connect people with resources, and remain calm and solutions-focused when people and communities face difficult circumstances.

She serves as a board member of the Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce and the Community Action Partnership of Orange County, is an active volunteer with the Seal Beach Lions Club, and is a member of Seal Beach Friends of the Library.

She believes effective representation begins with being present: listening to residents, understanding the challenges facing the community's neighborhoods and businesses, and building relationships long before you need them. Now she is ready to serve in a new way as the voice for District 1 on the City Council.