Pablo Rodriguez
Founding Executive Director
Pablo Rodriguez is the founding Executive Director of CNC Education Fund. Focused in the rural areas of California: CNC's mission is to ensure the economy and government creates the environment for all families to thrive by completing the development of all unfinished neighborhoods.
Pablo directs 11 full-time staff, 40 part-time year-round canvassers who implement ongoing non-partisan voter engagement efforts via CNC's Sacramento, Merced, Fresno and Coachella Valley offices.
Since 2011, CNC Education Fund's year-round non-partisan Civic Engagement programs have engaged over 300,000 voters via live phone calls and door-to-door canvassing.
The implementation of CNC's integrated leadership development and mass voter engagement strategy spans the counties of Riverside, Imperial, Fresno, Madera, Kings, Tulare, Merced, Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Sacramento Counties. Over the last seven years CNC has experienced its civic engagement projects become increasingly effective in educating and motivating voters to become consistent in casting their ballots.
CNC is committed to solidifying a powerful rural voter engagement infrastructure able to influence and shape public policy decisions for all families living in rural areas of California.
Prior to CNC, Pablo served as Director of the Dolores Huerta Community Organizing Institute, where he developed trainings for mass base-building, and direct political action campaigns for organizations throughout California. In addition he developed service-learning programs with San Jose State University, the National Association of Social Workers, and Loyola Marymount University (LMU). In partnership with LMU, he also initiated the development of the first micro-finance program focusing exclusively on farm workers in the United States.
Pablo has previously served as Board Chair with the Americans for Democratic Action Education Fund, a nonprofit advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. The ADA Education Fund is committed to promoting public policy education and citizen empowerment. He has also previously served on the Boards of the Chicano Latino Youth Leadership Project in Sacramento. As well as the La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley, CA.
Samantha Valadez
California Field Director
Samantha the field director for Communities for a New California Education Fund (CNCEF). Samantha oversees all field campaigns and monthly door-to-door canvasses implemented by the CNCEF Coachella, Fresno, Merced and Sacramento offices which cover a 13-county area. In June 2018 she managed a team of 12 full-time staff and 80 phonebankers and canvassers which contacted over 75,000 voters in a 4-week period. The multi-county campaigns spanned an array of non-partisan issue campaigns such as: Access to quality healthcare, The California Voters' Choice Act, Parks4All to name a few.
Samantha's commitment to excellence and intrepid spirit have created the environment for her rapid climb with CNCEF. Samantha joined CNCEF in November of 2014 as a member of the non-partisan Civic Engagement Project Team conducted by Lisa Marroquin.
Samantha’s work with CNCEF started as a phone banker and together with her team were able to speak to more than 13,000 voters in the cities of Merced, Turlock and Los Baños. Samantha spoke directly with hundreds of voters from Merced informing them about Measure T and how it would create the environment for a voice for every neighborhood at City Hall by creating six single-member districts. Measure T was passed by Merced voters!
In fall of 2015 Samantha joined the Civic Engagement Project lead by the community organizer, Araceli Garcia. The work centered building a base of voters who join the CNCEF South Merced committee who believe investment in youth should be a core city service, as matter of public safety and economic development. As in 2014, Samantha again spoke with hundreds of Merced voters via door-to-door canvassing and phone banking. In addition, Samantha also spoke with voters about the implementation of Measure T and invited voters to participate in the district line drawing process. As a results of Samantha and her teams work, voters in Merced will be better prepared and informed leading into the city's first district elections in 2016.
Samantha is a graduate of the University of California, Merced where she earned a Bachelors Degree in Political Science and a minor in Professional Writing.
Venise Curry, M.D.
San Joaquin Valley Regional Director
Venise began with CNC Education Fund as a door-to-door canvasser and phonebanker in 2011. Her commitment to engaging voters quickly led her to become the Team Leader of the twenty-member Civic Engagement Project team. A highlight for Venise came in 2012 when her non-partisan GOTV team successfully contacted 30,000 voters of which over 15,000 cast a ballot on election-day.
As a result of Venise’s leadership, CNCEF’s non-partisan Civic Engagement Program increased foreign-born voter turnout to 73% of eligible voters. That is 9% higher than the 64% overall turnout among all Fresno County Voters.
The leadership Venise has demonstrated combined with rigorous work ethic she has instilled in her Fresno team members have had a great impact on CNCEF as a whole. Combined, the Fresno, Coachella, and Merced team's programs have become increasingly effective in educating and motivating voters to become consistent in casting their ballots. As CNCEF continue to grow, we anticipate being able to solidify a powerful rural voter engagement infrastructure of voters who are able to influence and shape public policy decisions for their families.
Emilio Vaca
Advisor to CNC Education Fund
Emilio specializes in providing coalition building, field operation, and campaign management and serves as an Advisor to CNC Education Fund. Emilio Via his leadership CNCEF is partnering with small-business owners to increase their participation and influence in shaping public policy in the City and County of Merced.
Emilio holds over ten years experience working in the non-profit sector and the labor movement. His prior experience includes serving as Director of Field of Operations at JPM&M, Executive Director of North Tahoe Family Resource Center, Development Coordinator with the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation in Arizona, an as an organizer with SEIU International in Wisconsin and California.
Anna Lisa Vargas
Eastern Coachella Valley Lead Community Organizer
Anna Lisa Vargas is a life-long resident of the Coachella Valley. Anna Lisa overseas the integrated leadership development and mass voter engagement strategy efforts for CNC Education Fund in the Eastern Coachella Valley. Anna’s area of expertise is skill-building and capacity building for community leaders in the areas of education, advocacy, and public policy change. Anna brings over ten years experience working with the Eastern Coachella Valley Latino community and an array of successful community campaigns and projects.
2012 was a highlight for Anna Lisa with CNC Education Fund. She oversaw a twenty-four member phonebanking and door-to-door non-partisan GOTV canvassing team which contacted nearly 20,000 voters in the Eastern Coachella Valley. Of them nearly 10,000 turned out to vote on election-day. Thanks to Anna Lisa’s leadership. The non-partisan Civic Engagement program increased foreign-born (immigrant) voter turnout to 81% in the Coachella Valley. That is 12% higher than the 69% voter turnout among all voters in Riverside County. Anna Lisa continues to provide leadership and guidance to the Eastern Coachella Valley team and mentorship to Alma Diarte who has taken on the leadership of the Civic Engagement Project team. Thanks to the culture of excellence Anna Lisa established - each CNC Education Fund Civic Engagement Project has improved upon the other.
Anna Lisa received her Bachelor of Science in Political Science and Anthropology from UC Irvine in 2004. Anna returned to Coachella to work on behalf of local families and communities, with emphasis on community health, education, and advocacy.
c/s 2018