Bio
Born and raised in the Salinas Valley, Verónica Montoya is a proud daughter and granddaughter of farmworker and cannery worker parents and grandparents, and is the first in her family to attend and graduate college. Having been raised in an agricultural community, Verónica has spent more than twenty years in working with underserved communities in the way of advocacy, education, and resource development. She was influenced by her family who were active members of the United Farm Workers (UFW), including her grandfather who served as a lead organizer for the UFW out of San Benito county. It was this legacy that framed Verónica’s early interest in community organizing. While an undergraduate student at San Diego State University, she led the “Fast for Life” campaign in coordination with the UFW Support Coalition, a two-day fasting event that highlighted the “Five Cent for Fairness” campaign and advocated for farm worker rights. She later joined the Union Summer program and worked with ACORN and SEIU to organize home health care workers in the Little Village and
Pilsen communities of Chicago.
Through her later work in organizing with the CFA, Verónica became interested in policy and advocacy work. She participated in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s summer internship program where she was placed with Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard, the first Mexican-American woman elected to Congress. After completing her undergraduate degree, she continued her legislative work through the Senate Select Committee for Citizen Participation chaired by then Senate President Pro Tem John Burton. She also continued her campaign work when Simón Salinas, the first Chicano elected in her home district, ran for California State Assembly and won. While on his campaign, she spearheaded outreach and GOTV efforts for San Benito County and was responsible for the majority win in the most contentious part of the Assembly district. She was later asked by Assemblymember Salinas to serve as his District Director. After being selected as a CORO Fellow in Public Affairs, Verónica completed her Master of Science degree in Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. She would later return to Sacramento where she eventually served as Deputy Director for the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California (LCHC), a statewide advocacy organization for Latino health and advocated for increased representation of Latinos in health professions and STEM fields.
Today, this passion continues in serving other first-generation college students in higher education. Verónica Montoya previously served as the Transfer Student Success Activity Director, and then as Interim Director, for the Student Academic Success and Equity Initiatives (SASEI) Department with CSU Channel Islands. Today, she currently serves as HSI Director for Berkeley City College where she continues to design, develop and implement programming to support Latinx and first-generation college student populations using high impact practices and culturally relevant interventions.
As BCC's HSI Director, Verónica serves on the President's Leadership Team. As part of President's Cabinet, Verónica works to leverage the work of HSI grants at the institutional level while continuing to center on student and Latinx student success. She remains committed to serving the community that she comes from.