Sara Hernandez believes all politics are local. And so are the solutions to our most entrenched societal challenges. She brings years of experience as a public policy advocate through her work as an attorney, educator, non-profit leader and public servant in city government. Before entering private practice, Sara's career focused on advocating for local policies that improve public education, develop public infrastructure, promote economic development and provide access and opportunities to under-resourced communities.As an LAUSD middle school teacher Sara founded a non-profit that identifies low-income students and provides them with exceptional educational opportunity and resources throughout their high school years to get them “to and through college”. It was Sara’s work with students and their struggles with homelessness, lack of public transit options, housing and food insecurity, navigation of the foster care system, immigration issues, navigating the DACA process and general access of public resources that led Sara to pursue a career in public policy and local government.After earning a law degree, Sara worked in Los Angeles City Hall, where she led community revitalization efforts through a mix of strategic economic development policies, innovative policy initiatives, and investments in housing, homelessness, transportation, infrastructure and green space.Sara is currently a land use and environmental attorney at DLA Piper LLP and a community college instructor teaching Constitutional Law at Valley College. As an attorney she works regularly with organized labor, community and business leaders in connection with some of the most pressing environmental, land use and housing issues in the region. She has done extensive pro-bono work representing indigent immigrants in asylum proceedings due to the devastating violence in the Northern Triangle and government oppression in Nicaragua. Sara is involved with the Southern Immigrant Freedom Initiative which represents detained immigrants at detention centers throughout the deep South and has assisted immigrant students with the renewal of their DACA status.