Alejandra Ponce De León

Alejandra de Dios Ponce de León is the Senior Manager of Political Voice at Catalyst California. She leads coalition and advocacy campaign efforts, and provides policy research and analysis to strengthen our democracy by advancing governance policy reforms that eliminate racial disparities and institutional barriers to authentic public participation in decision-making and increase the representation of low-income communities and communities of color.  

At the end of 2021, she successfully finalized a three-year campaign leading the Integrated Voter Engagement (IVE) Redistricting Alliance to ensure communities of color across the state engaged in and effectively advocated for fair district maps in California’s redistricting process. As a result of the Alliance’s advocacy and mapping efforts, as well as its capacity-building of residents of color to fully participate throughout the redistricting process, the final maps kept many of our partners’ communities of interest together and contributed to an increase in the number of minority-majority and minority-influence districts, setting the stage for greater opportunities in representation in the next ten years. 

Currently, her work is focused on two policy areas. The first area is centered on making governments more responsive to racial equity by co-anchoring the California Racial Equity Coalition (CREC) to ensure racial equity is centered and operationalized throughout our state government’s policy, budgets, programs, and decision-making processes. CREC is actively engaging and leading advocacy efforts to inform and strengthen the California Racial Equity Commission’s work as it develops our state’s first Racial Equity Framework for 2026.

The second area of work is centered in advancing our governance reform efforts in the City of LA with the Organize | Unite | Reform LA (OUR LA) Coalition. Alejandra is the primary policy and ballot campaign lead to ensure LA City and LAUSD establish independent redistricting commissions (IRC) in 2024 that integrate the priorities and vision of BIPOC and low-income Angelenos. In order to develop OUR LA’s policy recommendations for IRCs that reflect the needs of communities, Alejandra led the process to design, organize, and execute two series of community convenings across the City of LA to engage and gather feedback from community residents and coalition partners. Their feedback enabled OUR LA to develop their policy recommendations and lead a successful advocacy effort that culminated in the LA City Council approving two charter reform ballot measures to establish IRCs: Measure DD for the City of LA and Measure LL for the LA Unified School District.

Prior to joining Catalyst California, Alejandra was the Statewide Campaigns Manager at Californians for Justice, where she laid the infrastructure to engage and mobilize thousands of young voters of color across the state to vote in order to hold elected officials accountable, as well as to support progressive ballot measures that address the needs of low income, communities of color. As Lead Organizer with Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development (OCCORD), she was instrumental in bringing together and leading the coalition’s initial legal strategies, organizing plans, and actions that brought about district-based elections in Anaheim. In addition, Alejandra was a union organizer with UNITE HERE! Local 11, where she co-led a successful campaign to unionize food and retail service workers at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, as well as gain higher wages and better health benefits through contract negotiations with LAX and Ontario Airport food and retail service workers.

Alejandra received her Master’s in City and Regional Planning from UC Berkeley and her Bachelor’s in International Development Studies, including minors in Chicana/o Studies and Political Science at UCLA. She currently lives in Jurupa Valley with her husband, Adán, and their two children, Ameyaltzin and Ollin.