Demi has more than 15 years of policy advocacy and community organizing experience related to racial equity, environmental justice, transportation equity and land use planning.
Demi (she/her) is the daughter of working class Mexican immigrants and the youngest of ten siblings raised in Riverside, California. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology at California State University San Bernardino and is currently completing a Master’s degree in Urban Sustainability and Applied Spatial Analysis for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from Antioch University in Los Angeles. Demi is a 2020 Switzer Fellow, graduate of Nature for All’s Leadership Academy, certified as a California Naturalist and is on the student advisory board for the California Native Plant Society.
Prior to joining NPCA, Demi served as the Senior Equity & Policy Manager for Safe Routes National Partnership, where she worked to improve options for environmentally sustainable active transportation in the Inland Empire. Demi has also worked on policy advocacy with a coalition of 20 community-based organizations of color elevating racial equity and climate justice.
Demi’s love of nature and desire to restore our relationship to land have led to graduate work that centers public lands conservation, land stewardship and improved access to the outdoors for environmental justice communities. She draws inspiration from queer, indigenous authors and advocates that center social change within ecological justice movements, like Aurora Levins Morales, Berta Caceres and Winona LaDuke. In her spare time, Demi enjoys hiking with her two dogs, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers.