Dylan Kendall is a social entrepreneur and longtime community advocate who has spent more than three decades working on behalf of young people experiencing homelessness, foster youth, incarcerated men and women, as well as animal welfare, environmental causes, and women in business.

In the 1990s, Dylan bartended in Hollywood. An encounter with poverty motivated her to pursue higher education, and at 28 years old she was accepted to UCLA. After completing her degree in the early 2000s, she launched her first nonprofit, the Open Museum of Los Angeles, which created a space for community members affected by the 1992 civil unrest to share their stories. She then completed a Coro Public Affairs Fellowship in leadership and organized a citywide conference, Reshaping Los Angeles: The Role of Arts and Culture in Community Revitalization —examining efforts in Canoga Park, the Dunbar Corridor in South LA, and other districts working to make neighborhoods more livable.

Not long after, Dylan founded her second nonprofit, Hollywood Arts, which used arts education to disrupt the path to chronic homelessness for young adults exiting foster care, juvenile justice, trafficking, and life on the streets. After five years leading Hollywood Arts and receiving national recognition as an Ashoka Fellow nominee, she became a foster parent, then a grandmother, and launched her third venture: Dylan Kendall Home—a ceramics brand built around a whimsical bowl with feet she first created in her studio in the '90s. That product went on to achieve global sales.

During her decade running Dylan Kendall Home, she became a vocal advocate for women in business, navigating the challenges of fundraising, scaling, and maintaining independence. In 2024, she joined the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, working on intellectual property strategies for the Hollywood Sign and Walk of Fame to support the Hollywood Community Foundation. She later left to form an Economic Development Corporation focused on strengthening small businesses, improving public spaces, and planning for sustainable growth in Hollywood.

Her brother teaches at Los Angeles City College, in the district, where her nephews have also been students — a reminder that education takes many forms and serves every corner of the CD13 community.

Dylan writes on arts, aesthetics, and innovation for Medium. Today, she brings that lived experience—from bartender to nonprofit founder to business owner to civic leader—into her work on policy and partnerships aimed at cleaner, safer streets; stronger local enterprise; and a city that works for the people who call it home.