Laura Lothian was elected to the La Mesa City Council in November 2021. This is the first time she has ever worked for or in government. From babysitting to hotel room cleaning to restaurant work in her school days to real estate for the last 20 years, Laura has spent 45 years working in the private sector.
As one of La Mesa's most successful real estate agents, Laura loves helping people sell and buy homes, especially in all the beautiful neighborhoods La Mesa has to offer. She has the distinction of having sold the most homes in La Mesa since 2003.
For over one dozen years, Laura has served on La Mesa Village Merchant Boards. She was on the board of the La Mesa Chamber of Commerce for four years, La Mesa Parking Commission for four years, is a benefactor for La Mesa Beautiful, and a yearly sponsor of the La Mesa Historical Society's Annual Home Tour. She served on the Board of Directors for Pacific Southwest Association of Realtors and is a monthly and/or frequent contributor to many causes, including the San Diego Food Bank, Wounded Warriors, Ocean Conservancy, Judicial Watch, Reform California, The Lincoln Club.
Laura earned her BA in journalism from California State University, Long Beach, and was the Editor-in-Chief of the University's daily paper, the Daily 49-er. She has been published in the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Grunion Gazette, Gringo Newspaper (Baja, Mexico) and University Magazine. Laura understands the power of the pen and feels the media should be a watchdog - not an attack dog, nor a lap dog - just a neutral reporter of the news.
Laura is the daughter of Maria Contreras, a Guatemalan who immigrated legally into the United States in the sixties, and James Vance, a native of Louisiana. Maria was a nurse then became a Realtor, she currently lives in Del Cerro. James was a physicist for NASA, who in 1969/1970, won the NASA Achievement Award for programming Apollo 11's reentry into the earth's atmosphere, a true "rocket scientist."
Simon is Laura's significant other for the last 20 years. Mack and Lainey, who live in Nashville, and Milly, who lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina are Laura's three, young adult kids. Though apart by thousands of miles, Laura and her kids talk and text daily and visit with each other frequently - thank you Southwest Airlines!
It is Laura's hope, that by serving on the La Mesa City Council, improving her community and fighting for the principles that made the United States that beacon of hope and freedom, she can leave the world a better place for her kids and future generations.