Board of Directors

CESAR JUÁREZ RUIZ was first exposed to social justice while reading about the Zapatista movement in Mexico during high school. At age 18 he became involved with Voluntarios de la Comunidad in San José providing community education and engaging in mobilization efforts. Cesar then became a community organizer in different capacities. First with Student Advocates for Higher Education (SAHE), an undocumented student organization at SJSU, and then with UNITE HERE! Local 19, a hospitality workers union in San José, CA. In 2008, he became a community organizer and then Director of Organizing at Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN). Cesar has a B.A in Social Science and a Single-Subject Credential from San José State University. He is currently a high school teacher teaching ethnic studies and world history. His hobbies include gardening, reading and spending time with his family.

JULIE SOLOMON is a program evaluation consultant in the health sector. Through J. Solomon Consulting, LLC, she works with non-governmental organizations, grantmakers, government agencies, universities, and coalitions in the U.S. and internationally to assess program results and support learning and program improvement. Julie has a B.A. in linguistic anthropology and Spanish literature from Brandeis University and an A.M. and Ph.D. in linguistics from Stanford University. She serves on the City of Mountain View Human Relations Commission, through which she has co-led needs and assets assessments of the LGBTQ+ community and immigrant community, as well as implemented community engagement and educational activities pertaining to police-community relations and the history of discrimination in housing.

RICHARD HOBBS is the Executive Director and a co-founder of Human Agenda. He works to democratize our economic, financial and political institutions via worker-owned cooperatives, public banking, and the South Bay Progressive Alliance, where he serves on the steering committee.  He heads Emulation Tours with trips to Mondragon, Spain, and Cuba and also serves as an immigration attorney with CLARO (the Human Agenda legal collective) and his own law office.  Richard previously served as the Director of Citizenship and Immigrant Programs and the Office of Human Relations of Santa Clara County and as a trustee for the San José-Evergreen Community College District.  A former Peace Corps volunteer in Afghanistan and Ecuador, he has lived, worked, made presentations, or studied in over 50 countries, including a presentation to staff members of the Gross National Happiness Commission of Bhutan in 2011. Richard has master’s degrees from the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM) and San José State University (California) and a Juris Doctor from Golden Gate University (San Francisco, California)

SAM HO has worked in the areas of community building and human, social, and community services for over 20 years. He is currently a human resources manager specializing in diversity for the San José-Evergreen Community College District (California). Previously, he served as the Executive Director of a non-profit community-based organization in Southern California. In that capacity, he served low-income at-risk populations and worked with diverse communities and leaders representing all ethnic groups and backgrounds. Sam has an MBA in management from National University (La Jolla, California).

BRENDA L RODRIGUEZ, MPH hails from the Little Village neighborhood in Chicago. For over a decade, she’s leveraged her organizing skills to uplift workplace standards and advance health equity. Her background includes building worker and community power through organizing and policy in Texas, New Mexico, Illinois, and California. In May of 2019, she graduated with her Master’s in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and seeks to advance health equity and racial justice across her work. She currently works as the Director of Communications for the Alliance of Health Care Unions, a union federation that represents over 52,000 healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente. In her spare time, she enjoys catching the latest sci-fi tv-series and going on walks with her partner, blue heeler, and calico kitty.