Yesenia (she/ella) is a passionate advocate dedicated to abolishing poverty and building a liberated future.
Yesenia has worked with legislators, research institutions, labor unions, and advocacy groups, including the International Maya League. In each of her positions, she elevates the intersections of racial injustice and poverty, criminal justice, and indigenous rights. Yesenia is influencing local, state, and federal policy through research and advocacy, including providing her personal testimony at the state and congressional level. She gained national recognition for her advocacy on college student hunger and work against school lunch shaming policies.
Originally from South Central Los Angeles, Yesenia moved into the Ramona Garden Housing Projects in Boyle Heights. Boyle Heights was where her pursuit for social, racial, and economic justice grew. Yesenia graduated from Pasadena City College and later from the University of California, Davis with two bachelor’s degrees in political science – public service and communication. She holds a master of public policy with a concentration in labor and racial justice from UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs.
She is an alumni of two prestigious fellowships: the California Senate Fellowship Program and the Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellowship. Yesenia identifies as Guatemalan-American and is a descendant of the Maya Q’anjob’al. Her ancestral lands are in Santa Cruz Barillas and San Rafael, Huehuetenango, Guatemala.