Understanding the Implications of the 2022 Midterms

Jenifer Fernandez Ancona currently serves as Co-Founder and Vice President at Way to Win. She oversees the political and narrative strategy of Way to Win, a national community of donors, movement leaders and strategists seeking to upend politics as usual. Prior to coming on full-time to Way to Win, she served as Vice President at Women Donors Network, helping to run the national community of women donors who leverage their wealth, power, and community for a more fair, just, and sustainable world. She has a wide range of experience in communications, donor organizing, strategy development, grassroots organizing, and multi-racial coalition building. Jenifer has worked as Director of Strategic Communications at Citizen Engagement Laboratory, as a consultant to the Democracy Alliance, as a top legislative aide in the California State Assembly, and as a news reporter for the Los Angeles Times.

 

Sonja Diaz is the Founding Director of the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute, a comprehensive think tank that addresses the most critical domestic policy challenges facing communities of color in states and localities across the U.S. Diaz served as policy counsel to Vice President Kamala D. Harris during her first and second terms as California Attorney General and directed voter protection programs for Democratic candidates in Virginia during the 2016 election. Diaz has also managed domestic policy portfolios at three California nonprofits, clerked in the White House’s Domestic Policy Council under President Barack Obama, and supported litigation efforts at MALDEF, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and California’s Bureau of Children’s Justice. Diaz routinely briefs state legislators and local elected officials from across the U.S. on evidence-based governance and emerging trends in domestic policy. Her research and commentary have been mentioned in major news outlets, including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, CNN, NBC, NPR, Politico, and Univision. Diaz was appointed to the Los Angeles City Council Redistricting Commission and served as Vice Chair of the Commission during the 2021 redistricting cycle. Diaz received her J.D. from UC Berkeley’s School of Law, holds a M.P.P. from UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, and a B.A. in politics from UC Santa Cruz.

 

A longtime organizer and strategist, Taylor Holden is the CEO of One for Democracy, a national network of more than 140 donors and foundations pledging a minimum of 1% of their net worth or assets to protect democracy. Most recently, she served as Senior Advisor to several members of the Pritzker family, advising the family’s national civic and political giving. Taylor has provided advising services for the Democracy Alliance, Democracy Fund Voice, Open Society Foundations, Heising-Simons Action Fund, Swing Left, and others. During the 2018 cycle, she was on the ground floor of Way to Win as the Director of Resource Strategy, where she helped lead both philanthropic advising and communications for a community of more than 100 individual donors, funds, and foundations. Taylor is on the Board of Directors of Everybody Votes, a $60 million collaborative effort to close the voter registration gap among people of color in partnership with civic organizations led by and for multiracial, im/migrant, Black, Indigenous, Latino and Hispanic, and Asian American people. She is also on the Board of Directors of New Era Colorado, a young voter engagement organization that has modernized the state’s election laws and gets young people to give a f*ck about democracy.

 

Raúl joined the Haas, Jr. Fund in early 2021. Over the past decade, he has helped lead democracy reform efforts for the Brennan Center for Justice and the Voting Rights Project of the ACLU of California. In these positions, he played a leadership role in advancing legislation, litigation, and advocacy on issues from ensuring broader, easier access to voter registration to the successful implementation of the Voters Choice Act reforms enacted by the state in 2016.“Raúl comes to the Haas, Jr. Fund with a powerful understanding of the many levers it takes to open up core democratic systems,” said Robert Joseph, vice president of programs with the Haas, Jr. Fund. “He is a proven coalition builder and a great fit for the Fund’s ambitions as we strive to increase civic participation and representation for all of California’s diverse communities.”A native Californian, Macías started his career as an advocate for long-term care for residents and a consumer health advocate. He subsequently served as a researcher with the California Budget & Policy Center, with a focus on state policy and how it affects working families. He received his law degree from the University of San Diego School of Law.