Jackie Bueno

Founder and Executive Director (She/hers)

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Jackie is the proud daughter of two parents from Nicaragua and the Philippines, born and raised in the East Bay. She is also a proud graduate of UC Berkeley. (Go Bears!) 

 

Jackie began her political career as an Education intern in the office of the Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín, the first-ever Latinx Mayor of Berkeley in 2017. At the same time, Jackie was a Restorative Justice facilitator and Social Media Manager of the Restorative Justice Center at UC Berkeley from 2017 to 2018. 

 

Jackie then became an intern for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2018. Jackie's experience interning for the Speaker inspired her to take a full-time job in Washington D.C. to work on the 2018 midterm elections at Priorities USA Action, the largest Democratic super PAC in the U.S., as a Digital Media Strategist. There, Jackie spearheaded the first-ever Latinx digital voter outreach campaigns for gubernatorial and Senate midterm races in Nevada, Missouri, Maine, and Arizona. 

 

Shortly thereafter, Jackie had the honor of becoming a full-time digital staffer for Congressman Jesús “Chuy” García of Illinois' fourth congressional district on Capitol Hill and the first-ever Mexican immigrant to become a Congressman in the state of Illinois. 

 

Jackie came all the way out to Washington D.C. to be one step closer to achieving her professional goals of building a progressive movement with principles of Restorative Justice and a progressive political transformation in mind, but quickly realized the exciting time she had in the nation’s capital was not where she needed to stay to achieve these goals in the long run. 

 

Jackie decided to transition to a career in tech to become well-rounded as a young professional, but ultimately, she realized starting Empower To Change was the way she could collectively organize with others to be one step closer to achieve her initial goals.

 

We invite you to join Jackie as she mobilizes young BIPOC to make real and authentic change in 2020 and beyond.

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