Gabriel Medina

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Gabriel’s more than 20 years’ experience in policy, government, nonprofits and leadership have demonstrated the innovation, compassion, and integrity that have defined La Raza Community Resource Center’s (La Raza CRC) culture. While he lived most of his life in the Excelsior and Portola neighborhoods, he was born and raised in the Mission. A 100% product of SFUSD schools, Gabriel serves his community on the Community Action Group member for UCSF and his local Mission YMCA Advisory Board. Working for the CEO’s of both the Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) and Mission Neighborhood Centers (MNC) since 2013 has given him a well-informed perspective on serving the Mission community. He is the current Co-Chair of Commissions for All, which successfully passed Proposition C (2020) so all immigrants can serve on City Commissions, regardless of their status. He was the Campaign Manager for Proposition N (2016) the Immigrant Parent Right to Vote Act, winning the right to vote for School Board for Aspiring Citizen Parents with children in SFUSD schools.

Gabriel learned the fast pace of tech startups under the CEO of a small San Francisco, now international, company for 4 years. After which he then learned public administration and the legislative process working in Sacramento for the California State Assembly. These experiences motivated him to take on some of the community’s most daunting challenges like: democratically coordinating a coalition of over 20 Latinx nonprofits to secure $2.1 Million in new services; organizing community and presenting at the California State Senate to reform the Ellis Act to help stop rising evictions; leading Prop I (2015), the first ever Mission District-born measure that collected 15,000 signatures in 20 days to battle gentrification; leading the distribution of $350,000 donated from the community for the 129 victims of 22nd & Mission and 29th & Mission fires from over 3300 donors in 30 days; and successfully advocating for $1.3 Million in rental subsidies and a Fire Victims Preference for Affordable Housing to give these fire victims a fighting chance to stay in San Francisco.

He graduated from Lowell High School and studied Political Science and City Planning at UC Berkeley. He has been elected twice as an Assembly Delegate to the California Democratic Party (CDP), elected Secretary of the Chicano Latino Caucus (CDP) for the past 6 years, and is a past President of the San Francisco Latinx Democratic Club, the San Francisco Young Democrats and the District 11 Democratic Club.