A LIFETIME OF SERVICE
Ed Spriggs grew up in Southeast San Diego as the eldest son in a working-class family. His dad worked three jobs as a janitor to make ends meet, and Ed took over one of those jobs early in his teens, cleaning a large insurance office every week. He graduated from Morse High and went on to attend UCSD where he worked 20 hours a week while earning a BA in Economics, writing his senior thesis on the economics of cities. Ed was the first member of his family to receive a college degree.
His first job was with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), where he worked with small towns in the San Francisco Bay Area helping to bring in new funding and programs for quality housing, parks and open space, and small businesses.
Ed continued his work helping people and communities while attending New York University law school, where he spent a summer helping rural families in Alabama protect their farms and homes from being taken, often illegally, by developers. After receiving his law degree, he worked in a leading Washington, DC law firm mainly on business, regulatory and international matters while doing pro bono work for neighborhood groups and wrongfully treated employees.
He then joined the Foreign Service with the U.S. Agency for International Development, serving in several overseas posts as a regional legal advisor, in Washington as an Assistant General Counsel, and later in assignments representing our country abroad as Director of USAID missions in two countries. In these assignments, Ed helped improve and simplify the administration of government programs abroad while bringing needed help in education, environmental protection, and democracy and business development to millions of people. He is grateful for his success in improving trans-border environmental cooperation in southern Africa while empowering local communities to manage their own natural resources.
Ed returned to San Diego in 2001 to take a senior position as Associate Vice Chancellor at his alma mater, UCSD. He served in this role as the chief operating and financial officer for the division of student affairs, overseeing a budget of $80 million and approximately 2,000 full- and part-time employees. Ed also ran the student affairs capital improvements program and budget and contributed directly to the development of many campus facilities and the creation of UCSD’s campus “downtown.” He retired from the University in June 2014 to devote his full efforts to the Imperial Beach community and to continue the work of promoting greater campus diversity as chair of the UCSD black alumni.
Between them, Ed and his wife, Leah, have six children and seven grandchildren. Ed enjoys bodysurfing, walking the IB trails and beaches, and working with IB residents on how to improve our community.