Sonja Diaz, J.D., M.P.P., is the founding executive director of the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative (LPPI) at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. She is a practicing civil rights attorney and policy advisor. At LPPI, she cofounded the first multiissue policy think tank focused on Latinos in the University of California system. Ms. Diaz is is a regular contributor to the organization’s research portfolio, coauthoring The Current State of the Latino Physician Workforce: California Faces a Severe Shortfall in Latino Resident Physicians. Prior to LPPI, she served as policy counsel to Vice President Kamala D. Harris during her first and second terms as California’s attorney general. Ms. Diaz also managed domestic policy portfolios at three California nonprofits, clerked in the White House’s Domestic Policy Council under President Barack Obama, and supported litigation efforts at MALDEF, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and California’s Bureau of Children’s Justice. She received her J.D. from the UC Berkeley School of Law and an M.P.P. from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.
Sonja Diaz
Founding Executive Director, Latino Policy and Politics Initiative, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs
