Dennis Mangers has been a professional singer, an elementary school teacher and principal, a corporate executive, a state legislator, a lobbyist and strategic advisor to locally elected political figures. He retired professionally in 2020 as Senior Advisor for Arts and Culture to Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg.
He is a past Chair of the Sacramento Region Community Foundation where he helped guide the development and implementation of “Big Day of Giving”. A long- time advocate of the arts, he was a founding member of the Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus and has served as Chair of the Boards of both the Sacramento Ballet and Broadway on Tour and Broadway at the Music Circus.
He is a Class I Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Foundation and in 2006 was named its Exemplary Leader of the Region.
In 2001, he received the Jewish Community Relations Council’s Tikkun Olam Award for promoting diversity and tolerance in the region. In 2003, he was awarded the President’s Medal from Sacramento State for service to the community and to the State University system.
He has also received Equality California’s Lifetime Equality Advocate Award, The Sacramento Unity Bar’s Champion of Diversity Award and the Sacramento Metro Chamber’s Al Geiger Award for promoting appreciation of diversity.