Speakers

Since becoming California’s 34th Attorney General, Bonta has led California DOJ to take on some of the biggest challenges of our time — the lawlessness of the second Trump Administration, attacks on healthcare, deception peddled by Big Oil, and the state’s housing crisis. As California’s Chief Law Enforcement Officer, crime and public safety are Bonta’s top priorities, which is why he is at the helm of California DOJ’s work to crack down on fentanyl, dismantle organized retail crime schemes, remove illicit firearms from communities, fight for commonsense gun reforms, combat human trafficking, and address hate crimes. As the People’s Attorney, Bonta sees seeking accountability from those who abuse their power and take advantage of hardworking people as a critical component of the job. From protecting the rights of workers, tenants, and homeowners to taking on greedy corporate giants, wage theft, price gougers, and hidden fees, Bonta is standing up for consumers and making life more affordable for all Californians.

Before serving as Attorney General, Bonta spent more than eight years serving in the State Assembly, where he authored nation-leading legislation to make our communities safer and more affordable, and to ensure government institutions work for all of the people they serve. Some of his proudest achievements as a legislator include creating the strongest tenant protection law in the nation, ending surprise medical bills, strengthening voting rights, banning for-profit private prisons, and protecting immigrants and workers.

Bonta was sworn in on April 23, 2021, becoming the first person of Filipino descent to serve as California Attorney General. Born in Quezon City, Philippines, Bonta immigrated to California with his family as an infant. He is the son of a proud native Filipina mother and a father born and raised in California. Bonta grew up and attended public school in California before working his way through Yale University and earning his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School.

Tani Cantil-Sakauye is president and CEO of the Public Policy Institute of California, where she holds the Walter and Esther Hewlett Chair in Understanding California’s Future. From 2011 to 2022, she served as the 28th Chief Justice of California and led the judiciary as the chair of the Judicial Council—the constitutional policy and rule making body of the judicial branch—the first person of color and the second woman to do so. 

Before she was elected statewide as the Chief Justice of California, she served more than 20 years on California appellate and trial courts and was appointed or elevated to higher office by three governors. Earlier in her career she served as a deputy district attorney for the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office and on the senior staff of Governor Deukmejian, first as deputy legal affairs secretary and later as a deputy legislative secretary. 

Currently, she is also an associate professor at the University of Virginia, and a board member for the University of CA Center for Students, the Kaiser Arbitration Oversight Board, and the Alliance of Retired Chief Justices. She holds a BA and a JD from the University of California, Davis.

Julián Castro serves as Chief Executive Officer of the Latino Community Foundation, the nation’s largest Latino-serving foundation. Julián’s deep commitment to the future of this nation is woven into his DNA. Raised by his mother, Rosie Castro, a civil rights and Chicana activist, and his grandmother, Victoria Castro, on the westside of San Antonio, Texas, Julian grew up with a profound understanding of what it meant to love and serve community. 

Inspired by a legacy of leaders working to safeguard our democracy and strengthen community, Julian has dedicated his life to public service. Julián was elected to the San Antonio City Council in 2001 at age 26, then was elected Mayor of San Antonio in 2009. 

In 2014, President Barack Obama appointed Julián U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, where he served until the end of the Obama administration, and in 2020, Julián ran for the Democratic nomination for President. Julián earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University and a law degree from Harvard Law School.

Lorena Gonzalez has dedicated her career to expanding workers’ rights through organizing, politics, and legislation. From transforming the San Diego region as head of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, to passing landmark labor laws in the State Assembly, to her historic leadership of the California Federation of Labor Unions, Lorena has relentlessly championed the cause of the working class. 

Her efforts have achieved groundbreaking advances for millions of working Californians—including paid sick leave for every employee in the state, overtime pay for farmworkers, and the strongest laws in the nation against worker misclassification and wage theft. These historic victories established California at the forefront of labor policy and set a national agenda on workers’ rights. As both a legislator and labor leader, she has been a leader in tackling emerging technology in the workplace, including creating protections against dangerous warehouse production quotas at Amazon and leading the fight to establish guardrails for the use of AI. She currently serves as the National Co-Chair of AFL-CIO State Federation AI Task Force. 

Lorena was raised by a single mom who worked as a nurse and a father who immigrated from Mexico to work in the strawberry fields of San Diego County. Her first summer job was working at the Community Services arm of the Labor Council, providing support to striking workers. She is a graduate of Stanford University, and earned a master’s degree from Georgetown University and a law degree from UCLA. 

In 2022, Lorena became the first woman and first person of color to be elected as President of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO. Under her leadership, the Federation has built a stronger, more accessible Labor Movement through prioritizing all forms of organizing and building solidarity across unions. She has revived the Member to Member political program to build engagement and power for all Union families. Lorena consistently and unapologetically ensures that the voices, needs, and rights of all workers remain at the forefront of public discourse in California.

Lee Herrick is the California Poet Laureate. He is the author of four books of poems: In Praise of Late Wonder: New and Selected Poems (Gunpowder Press, September 2024); Scar and Flower, finalist for the 2020 Northern California Book Award; Gardening Secrets of the Dead; and This Many Miles from Desire.

He is co-editor of The World I Leave You: Asian American Poets on Faith and Spirit (Orison Books 2020) and Afterlives: An AGNI Portfolio of  Asian Adoptee Diaspora Writing.

 Herrick serves on the advisory board of Terrain.org and Sixteen Rivers Press. He co-founded LitHop in Fresno.  He has taught in Qingdao, China; at Kundiman in New York City, and for twelve years in the low-residency MFA program at the University of Nevada, Reno.

He was born in Daejeon, Korea and adopted as an infant. He lives with his family in Fresno, California and served as Fresno Poet Laureate from 2015-2017. He teaches at Fresno City College. He is the 10th California Poet Laureate, and the first Asian American to serve in the role. In April 2025, he became the first California Poet Laureate to be officially reappointed to a second two-year term.

Mike Madrid is a nationally recognized political consultant with an expertise on Latino voting trends and voter behavior. Madrid has been a pioneer in Latino communications and outreach strategies in state, local, and national political campaigns. A graduate of Georgetown University, he served as the press secretary for the California Assembly Republican leader, as the political director for the California Republican Party, and as senior adviser to both Democrats and Republicans.

In 2020, Madrid co-founded the Lincoln Project, a Republican anti-Trump organization that became one of the most successful Political Action Committees in US history. Madrid was a co-director of the Los Angeles / USC Times Poll and in 2013, was appointed to the Board of Directors of the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC). Mike was an adjunct lecturer on Race, Class and Partisanship at the University of Southern California and awarded the UnidosUS Capital Award in 2023 by the oldest Latino Civil Rights organization in the country. He continues his work against the rise of global authoritarianism through his political work domestically and internationally.

Madrid is the author of “The Latino Century”, published by Simon and Schuster released in Spring 2024. He is also co-host of the Latino Vote Podcast.

Janet Napolitano is the Founder of the Institute for Security and Governance at UC Berkeley.  As a distinguished public servant, Napolitano served as the president of the University of California from 2013 to 2020, as the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security from 2009 to 2013, as Governor of Arizona from 2003 to 2009, as Attorney General of Arizona from 1998 to 2003, and as U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona from 1993 to 1997. She earned her B.S. degree (summa cum laude in Political Science) in 1979 from Santa Clara University, where she was a Truman Scholar and the university’s first female valedictorian. She received her law degree in 1983 from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Napolitano currently serves as a professor of public policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. In March of 2019, Napolitano published How Safe Are We: Homeland Security Since 9/11.

Dan Walters is one of the most decorated and widely syndicated columnists in California history, authoring a column four times a week that offers his view and analysis of the state’s political, economic, social and demographic trends. He began covering California politics in 1975, just as Jerry Brown began his first stint as governor, and began writing his column in 1981, first for the Sacramento Union for three years, then for The Sacramento Bee for 33 years and now for CalMatters since 2017. 

Dan is also the author or co-author of two books about California, “The New California: Facing the 21st Century” and “The Third House: Lobbyists, Money and Power in Sacramento.” He is a frequent radio show guest and occasionally appears on national television, commenting on California issues. 

Walters began his career in 1960 at the Humboldt Times in Eureka, California, a month before his 17th birthday, first as a newsroom aide and later as a police beat reporter. Having found his calling, he not only turned down a National Merit college scholarship but dropped out of high school, lacking one required class – ironically civics – to qualify for a diploma. Before moving to Sacramento to cover politics, he was the managing editor of three small daily newspapers.

Assemblymember Buffy Wicks represents the East Bay in the California State Assembly, with a district spanning the communities of Oakland to Richmond, and includes the City of Berkeley.

Asm. Wicks was recently appointed Chair of the Appropriations Committee, after serving as Chair of the Assembly Housing Committee for two years prior. Her work focuses heavily on advancing solutions to solve California's housing and homelessness crisis, expanding our state’s social safety net, protecting kids in the digital world, and championing the rights of women and working families. 

A lifelong community organizer, Asm. Wicks previously served on both of President Barack Obama’s campaigns, and worked for him in the White House. She lives in Oakland with her husband, Peter, and daughters, Jojo and Elly.