Meet Nithya

Nithya Raman is an urban planner, a graduate of Harvard and MIT, a working mother, an immigrant to America, and a member of the Los Angeles City Council representing District 4.

After serving several years as the Co-Chair of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council Homelessness Committee, as well as co-founding the SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition, Nithya felt there was a gap between city services and the expanding homelessness crisis — a gap she was equipped to fill.

She ran for City Council in 2020 and won a historic victory, becoming the first Asian-American woman and the first South Asian ever to serve on the City Council. In March 2024, she was decisively elected to a second term.

Since taking office, Councilmember Raman has prioritized delivering compassionate and effective services for people experiencing homelessness, building more affordable housing, and moving with greater urgency to meet our city’s climate goals.

She has built a dedicated team that takes a proactive approach to constituent services, ensuring her office both responds to incoming requests and goes out in the field to meet people where they are, informing them about renter protections, neighborhood upgrades, community initiatives, fire safety, and more.

Councilmember Raman serves as Chair of the Civil Rights, Immigration, Social Services, and Neighborhoods Committee, Vice Chair of the Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee, and member of the Homelessness and Health Committee, Public Safety Committee, and the Ad Hoc Committee for Charter Review.

Nithya lives in Silver Lake with her husband Vali Chandrasekaran and young twins Karna and Kaveri.