CALIFORNIA LATINO CAPITOL ASSOCIATION FOUNDATION
Board of Directors, 2023-2024
Co-Chair:
Brandon Garcia
Assembly Majority Leader, Eloise Gómez Reyes
Co-chairs@clcaf.org
Brandon Garcia is a Senior Consultant for the Office of Assembly Majority Leader Eloise Gómez Reyes. In his role, he staffs various policy issues including transportation, environmental protection, water, recycling, governmental organization, Latino Caucus, and business & economic development as well as staffing her on the Utilities & Energy Committee. Prior to joining her office, he was an environmental advocate at Environmental & Energy Consulting where he worked on transportation, waste, environmental and energy issues. He has previously worked on housing, tech, higher education, veterans affairs, insurance, and judiciary issues for various lobbying & consulting firms. On his time off, he enjoys spending time with friends, playing board games, watching Kings basketball, and writing.
Brandon earned his B.A. in Government and a minor in Communication from CSU Sacramento. He was born and raised in downtown Sacramento.
Secretary:
Ivan Fernandez
Assembly Majority Leader, Eloise Gómez Reyes
Secretary@clcaf.org
Ivan Fernández is a Legislative Aide for the Office of Assembly Majority Leader Eloise Gómez Reyes. In his role, he works on various policy issues such as labor, housing, and public safety. He also staffs the Majority Leader on the Judiciary Committee and Budget Sub. 4 Committee.
Prior to his current role, Ivan served as a Jesse M. Unruh Assembly Fellow in the Office of Majority Leader Reyes. Following his fellowship, he worked as a Deputy Field Director for Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria’s successful 2022 campaign. Before moving to Sacramento, he worked with legal non-profits, local governments, and community based organizations such as the Inland Empire Latino Lawyers Association and the Loyola Law School Juvenile Innocence and Fair Sentencing Clinic.
Ivan was born and raised in Northeast Los Angeles. A proud product of his community, his passion for public service stemmed from the guidance and mentorship he received from community leaders and his family. He has a B.A. in Political Science, with an emphasis in International Relations, from UC Riverside. During his free time he enjoys hiking, playing guitar, and rooting for the Dodgers.
Communications Director:
Joseph Nuñez
Department of Housing and Community Development
Joseph Nuñez is this year's Communications Director. In this role he hopes to utilize social media and email to keep members of the capitol community up-to-date with professional development opportunities facilitated by CLCAF and other professional organizations.
He went to East Los Angeles College, then transferred to UC Davis where he majored in Political Science Public Service and Minored in Professional Writing. He now works for the Legislative Division with the California Department of Housing and Community Development as a Policy Analyst, where he analyzes bills and recommends positions to the Governor's Office. Prior to this role he served in both houses of the State Legislature as a Legislative Assistant, working on both policy and communications.
What drives him to continue his career in public service and serve on the CLCAF Board, is his passion for contributing to his community in positive ways. For him, his community includes his family, the City of Cudahy and Southeast Los Angeles (SELA), schools he's attended, and the capitol community. On a professional level he finds joy in mentoring, being mentored, collaborating, and sharing resources with others. On a personal level, he enjoys being outdoors, trying new foods, visiting new places, and meeting new people.
Jazmin Marroquin is a policy analyst in the office of Senator Maria Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles). In this role, she works on various policy areas including judiciary, human services, education, business and professions, and women’s caucus policy issues. Prior to this role, she was a legislative aide in former Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez’s office and before that, worked as a Graduate Student Assistant at the California Air Resources Board and at CalRecycle.
Jazmin received her Master’s in Public Policy from McGeorge School of Law in 2019, and a Bachelor of Arts in political science and a minor in history from UC Merced in 2017. She is a proud daughter of immigrants and first-generation Latina who grew up in the Central Valley. She enjoys spending time with friends and family, reading, attending concerts, visiting new places, trying new food, and asking people if she can pet their dogs.
Andres Ramirez is a Lobbyist/Senior Government Relations Associate at Townsend Public Affairs, Inc. a full service lobbying firm with offices in Sacramento, Washington DC, Bay Area, Central Valley, and Southern California -- representing Local Government, Public Agency, Non-Profit, and Private Sector Clients.
Andres has experience and proven success in policy creation, shepherding bills through the legislative process, securing direct fiscal allocations for clients through the CA State Budget and Federal Appropriations processes, and providing strategic consulting to clients navigating the complexities of the political landscapes in Sacramento and Washington, DC.
Andres is a native of Sacramento and enjoys staying involved in the athletic and other extracurricular programs at Holy Spirit Parish School and Jesuit High School, both of which are his alma mater. Andres attended UCLA where he was a member of the rugby team and graduated with a B.A. in Political Science and International Relations.
Lesley Beltran Brizuela is a Policy Analyst for Senator Angelique Ashby. She previously served CLCAF as the Fellows Representative, and most recently as the Events Coordinator. Lesley also served as a Senate Fellow during 2020-2021. Prior to her fellowship, she worked as a legislative intern for Senator Scott Wiener through the UC Center Sacramento Internship Program.
Before policy, she worked as a youth mentor with the Alameda County Office of Education, in partnership with Project EAT. Her research and work implementing sustainable water refill stations at her Title I high school in 2013 earned her a certificate of recognition from Assemblymember Bill Quirk. For 7 years with Project EAT, she hosted youth environmental summits, built community gardens in disadvantaged communities and food deserts, collaborated with Kaiser Permanente on health-related outreach, and helped extend healthy student initiatives to K-12 schools in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago.
During her free time, Lesley enjoys making pottery for her small business and taking care of her house plants!
Maria Morales is a legislative aide for the office of Assmeblymember Phil Ting (AD-19). In her role, she works on various policy issues including natural resources, utilities and energy, human services and education.
Prior to her current role, Maria served as an Assembly fellow in the office of Assemblymember Mark Stone (AD-29) working on natural resources and human services issues. She also previously served as a research and communications fellow at Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE), developing their communications campaign around the 2020 census and election.
Maria is originally from Orange, CA and is a proud daughter of immigrants. She has B.S in Global Health and a minor in Human Rights from the University of Southern California.
Bri-Ann Hernandez is a Legislative Aide in the office of Assemblymember Lisa Calderon (D-Whittier). She works on various policy issues including health, human services, education, and women's caucus policy issues. She is a former Assembly Fellow, serving 2021-2022 in the office of Assemblywoman Calderon. Prior to her fellowship, Bri-Ann earned her Masters of Public Health (MPH) degree in Community Health Sciences from UCLA, where she specialized in Population & Reproductive Health, and Maternal & Child Health. She's been fact-checking articles for Ms. magazine for the past three years as a Research Fellow.
Bri-Ann has held several research and teaching positions during graduate school, including as a Thinking Gender 2020 Conference Coordinator with the UCLA Center for the Study of Women and a Teaching Associate for courses such as Biotechnology & Society and Neuroscience. After she earned her B.A. in Psychology with a minor in French from UCLA, she lived in France for a year to teach English to high school students.
Bri-Ann is originally from Hawthorne, California. She enjoys riding her e-bike, taking care of her puppers and houseplants, and going camping or backpacking.
Abigail Alvarez (Abby) is a Policy Consultant and Lobbyist at Everyday Impact Consulting (EIC). Honoring her experiences as both a policy advocate and grassroots organizer, Abby joined EIC to pursue and practice her passion for social justice and systems change. At EIC, she lobbies for community-based organizations on a range of progressive issues. Currently she is working on environmental justice, culturally-responsive domestic violence prevention, farmworker labor rights, and food systems.
Prior to joining EIC, Abby worked as a Legislative Fellow at the California Immigrant Policy Center. As a grassroots organizer, she raised $30,000 in emergency relief funds and mutual-aid for service workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic, and led 35 independent labor rights workshops. She also led a 6,000 person boycott in support of cafeteria workers fighting for a living wage.
Abby graduated from Santa Clara University (SCU) with a bachelor’s degree in political science and Spanish, and a minor in women and gender studies. At SCU, she was Student Body President and named SCU’s first Truman Scholar in 36 years. She graduated from the University Honors Program and the Political Science Honors Program after publishing a thesis on the Zapatistas’ revolutionary politics in Latin America.
Fellows Representative:
Pedro De Anda Plascencia
State Senator, Scott Wiener
Pedro Adrian De Anda Plascencia (He/Him/His) is a Senate Fellow in the Office of Senator Scott D. Wiener (D-San Francisco). In his role, he staffs the Judiciary committee and works on an array of issues related to education, veteran affairs, banking, and LGBTQIA+ rights.
Prior to the fellowship, Pedro was a Program Coordinator with the bridges Multicultural Resource Center, a student-led, student-run, and student-initiated organization on the UC Berkeley campus that strives to recruit, retain, and empower low-income, first-generation, students of color. In this role, he advised and supported the development of over 50 student leaders as they organized and hosted K-12 programming for students throughout California in an effort to demystify higher education. As an undergraduate student, he was also heavily involved with bridges, having served as the outreach director where he planned Senior Weekend for over 1,000 newly admitted high school seniors of color.
Pedro earned a B.A. in Political Science and a B.A. in English from the University of California, Berkeley (Class of 2021) where he served as the Latinx-community endorsed ASUC Student Body Senator, a Cal-In-Sacramento Fellow, Co-Chair of the Cal Alumni Association, a writing tutor, and the Co-President of Students of Color Emerging in English. Outside of his academics and extracurriculars, he was a LEAP Law Fellow and a UCLA Law Fellow with aspirations to one day pursue a joint JD/MPP. He is passionate about educational equity, healthcare reform, and immigrant rights.
Pedro was born in Tepatitlán, Jalisco, México and immigrated to South East Los Angeles at the age of three and since then he has called South Gate, CA home. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with loved ones, FaceTiming his sisters and mom, and exploring Sacramento with his partner and friends.
