Rising Stars: Cynthia Alvarez, Chief of Staff to Sen. Lena Gonzalez

For Cynthia Alvarez, the two weeks leading up to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s approval of a major climate package in September 2022 were “insane,” as she worked to secure votes on one piece of legislation in that package to create a 3,200-foot buffer zone around new oil and gas wells near sensitive areas like schools, homes and parks where people could be harmed by emissions.

As chief of staff to California State Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach), Alvarez worked furiously on Senate Bill 1137, negotiating on a piece of legislation that had faced significant opposition. This was a “very big win” for communities of color and environmental justice advocates, says Alvarez, 34. “It felt great, very humbling to do something for communities it means a lot for.”

Alvarez considers this a milestone in her career as a public servant. She’s had an affinity for helping people since childhood, growing up in Inglewood. When she was around 13 years old, her family moved to Palmdale and then in her senior year of high school they relocated to Vacaville, where her parents still live.

Alvarez graduated from Sacramento State with a bachelor’s degree in government. While in college, she did the Sacramento Semester Program for students interested in policymaking, which gave her the opportunity to intern for Mark DeSaulnier. The experience was enjoyable, the atmosphere positive and her colleagues helpful: She was eager for more.

That led to internships with the California Special Districts Association and Capital Fellows program, where she worked for then-Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian, who was in his first term. Alavarez was one of his first legislative staffers. We “hit the ground running,” she says. She started as a legislative aid and was later promoted to legislative director. Then she looked for a new opportunity.

“I always knew I really, really liked transportation policy,” she says. “My dad’s a truck driver, I always lived in and around ports and or major transportation corridors, and I’ve always really liked the intersection between transportation and climate emissions.”

She applied to be a consultant for the Assembly Transportation Committee, a role she held for nearly two years, before her attention turned elsewhere — to the campaign of Gonzalez for Senate, who was sworn in after a special election.

“She was looking for chief-of-staff and I thought to myself: What a unique opportunity to work for a woman of color, someone who represents the area somewhat similar to where I was raised,” Alvarez says. Plus both women had experience working on transportation issues. (Gonzalez is now chair of the Senate Transportation Committee — the first Latina appointment to this role.)

Alvarez has been with Gonzalez’s staff since November 2019. Transitioning from consultant to chief-of-staff was a challenge, Alvarez says, noting how she entered the position not long before the pandemic. Becoming a manager, developing new relationships, hiring a legislative director, learning a new boss’s working style, handling a large influx of Employment Development Department unemployment cases and making sure everything ran smoothly from her home office wasn’t easy.

Beyond her day-to-day duties, one of the most fulfilling aspects of Alvarez’s job is the mentorship she provides to her staff, and her efforts to create solution-minded individuals.

Not to mention she had a 10-month-old and a 3-year-old also at home at the time. Over time, things settled into place, and structure and procedures cemented. “I grew up tremendously,” she says, “like if I could do this job to the pandemic, hold on.”

During the pandemic, Alvarez also helped Gonzalez get a broadband package passed, which secured funding for middle-mile broadband and an extension of California broadband services. The timing, she says, couldn’t have been better, helping close the gap for people who had been without internet access.

Beyond her day-to-day duties, one of the most fulfilling aspects of Alvarez’s job is the mentorship she provides to her staff, and her efforts to create solution-minded individuals, she says. Alvarez — who is one of only two Latina chiefs of staff in the Senate — takes a special interest in mentoring young Latinas.

“I hope that one day they’re encouraged to serve in this role or in any other policy role they think they would want to do,” she says. “I think that’s also incredibly important for not only our office, but this institution as a whole.”

Jennifer Fearing, who runs Sacramento-based Fearless Advocacy, says while Alvarez fits the career-trajectory mold of someone who might have already left to become a lobbyist and make more money, instead Alvarez is “in the role she’s in with intention. She’s staying there to serve the public.”

Fearing also notes how Gonzalez doesn’t shy away from big fights — and has picked several with the oil and gas industry. The senator is considered an environmental justice leader capable of successfully securing votes from colleagues on tough issues related to system-level change.

“Threading the needle and being able to find policy that can make enough change to hold the support of the communities that you’re fighting for, but also get the votes against well-funded industry opponents, that takes talent to negotiate and that takes trust,” says Fearing, who credits Alvarez with being a partner to Gonzalez in cultivating this trust.

Alvarez says helping her boss on a progressive agenda that has resulted in policy change has been rewarding. “We already accomplished so much in the last three years,” she says. “Landmark pieces of legislation, some with lots of opposition, some with a lot of heartaches and headaches, and even some losses.”

Recently, Alvarez and her family moved from Elk Grove to Sacramento. As a mom, she’s taking her children to karate and baseball practices, attending PTA meetings and making time to volunteer in the classroom. She says anytime she’s not working, she’s with her kids. And while she is working, it’s her focus on making real change that keeps her motivated, she says, once more referencing the passage of SB 1137.

“Being able to work on that and thinking about the real impact on communities of color — people like my mom and dad, like our constituents,” she says. “It’s super rewarding.”