Lori began her career studying the humanities in the Jesuit tradition in Seattle, Italy, East Germany, Cuba and Mexico, then teaching 6th grade newcomer students in Delano, California. Lori earned her Juris Doctorate from UC Hastings College of the Law and worked in a variety of public interest contexts including the San Francisco District Attorney’s office under Kamala Harris, the Kern County Public Defenders Office, public employee unions, legal aid organizations, and higher education.

At DHF, Lori runs comprehensive strategic civic engagement and legislative advocacy programming that has transformed power dynamics in the Central Valley.  DHF’s redistricting campaign was the most comprehensive grassroots community mapping effort ever in the history of the Central Valley and reached over 5,000 residents, leading to a complete reversal of the ratio of Voting Rights Act districts to non-Voting Rights Act districts at the state and federal level and increasing supervisorial Voting Rights Act districts by 135%.  It also led to two (2) bills in the state legislature to establish Independent Redistricting Commissions for Fresno and Kern Counties. 

Lori is also responsible for accountability programming that builds the capacity of  grassroots leaders to strengthen vital democratic functions through Election Protection, anti-voter suppression, public meeting participation, and public safety consent decree monitoring.  Lori is particularly concerned about the health of local information ecosystems and regularly attends professional development opportunities like social media monitoring and the University of Chicago’s “Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy” conference to ensure voters’ autonomy is respected and local elections are fair.

As the Civic Engagement Coordinator, Eliana is responsible for all the community outreach campaigns for Kern County and is proud to have supported causes that benefit our communities by supporting and campaigning for propositions, bonds, petitions, serving as a legislative advocate for bills that are up for consideration in all levels of government, and contributing to DHF’s Civic Outreach curriculum and training courses to support our organizing department and our community.

As a daughter of Latino immigrants, she knows firsthand the struggles that minorities face when it comes to politics and was mobilized during a High School walkout to protest a House bill (HR 4437) which catalyzed the 2006 U.S. Immigration Reform protests.

Eliana has an array of experience of over a decade in political campaigning. In the past, she has worked as a field manager for several healthcare initiatives, an organizer for President Obama’s re-election campaign, a union organizer for the National Union of Healthcare Workers, and an organizer for Amanda Renteria for Congress. Before joining the DHF, she was involved in a multi-state campaign for Senator Bernie Sanders and was a Campus Organizing Director for the NextGen Climate. Eliana is an experienced organizer with a concentrated skill in voter data software maximizing her knowledge and experience in community outreach.

Eliana is a diehard Beatles fan, a music and sci-fi lover. Her hobbies and self-care activities include playing disc golf, Zumba, dancing, singing, yoga, prayer, meditation, writing, reading, volunteering, listening to podcasts and audiobooks and creating and appreciating all forms of art. With more practice, she hopes to eventually join the Bakersfield Lady Hawks Disc Golf Club. She is currently working on learning how to play the ukulele and then hopes to move on to the harmonica. The struggle must continue, it does not start or end here, but we can get there together. Si Se Puede.