Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Viviana Becerra

27. Viviana Becerra

Becerra brings an incredible set of skills to the table in her job as chief of staff to Attorney General Rob Bonta. A short list of the programs she oversees in the AG’s office includes: the Office of Communications, Office of Native American Affairs, Office of External Affairs, Community Awareness, Response, and Engagement Team, and the Office of Legislative Affairs. She is also a critical conduit to the governor’s office. It isn’t surprising that she has been granted this much juice: she also previously served as chief of staff and legislative director to then-Assemblymember Bonta before he took the AG job in 2021. During that time she was also the lead staffer on numerous key legislative efforts, from ending the uses of for-profit private prisons in immigrant detention and expunging criminal cannabis convictions to overtime pay for farmworkers. Given her boss’s ambition, who’s to say she won’t someday be chief of staff for a California governor? A Sacramento native, Becerra is the daughter of Mexican immigrants. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara.