I am proud and honored to serve as the Director of Policy and Partnerships at EdVoice, an education advocacy organization focused on reshaping public education in California. In this role, I executed a successful advocacy campaign to protect over $100 million in state funding for the Golden State Teacher Grant program during the 2024-25 state budget cycle through targeted advocacy letters to leaders of the California State Legislature. Prior to my current role, I served as the K12 Education Senior Program Manager at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the nation’s oldest, largest, and most diverse civil and human rights coalition. In this role, I collaborated with over 200 national civil rights organizations to develop federal policy proposals and policy remedies to achieve educational equity and advance civil and human rights for students in K12 education.As a dedicated volunteer, I proudly serve as a Leadership Council Member for the Latino Community Foundation’s Los Angeles Latino Giving Circle, the largest network of Latino philanthropists in the nation. Together, we are committed to investing in Latino-led organizations across California, driving transformational, generational change in our communities. In my role, I co-lead the vision and strategy behind our grant-making efforts, empowering over 100 grassroots philanthropists to shape funding priorities, assess proposals, and distribute resources to high-impact, Latino-led nonprofits. Since 2018, I’ve helped steer nearly $500,000 in grassroots donations to more than 20 organizations throughout Southern California, fueling meaningful change where it’s needed most.As the son of Mexican immigrant parents from Boyle Heights and a product of the Los Angeles education system, my primary focus is to advance racial equity and protect civil rights by designing and implementing policy remedies and campaigns for children in early care and education and students in K12 education. Throughout the course of my career, I have led coalitions at the local, state, and national levels to champion education policies that improve opportunities and outcomes for children, especially children from marginalized communities.