Paulina Gonzalez-Brito (she/they) is the Chief Executive Officer of Rise Economy. Paulina identifies as Xicane, Purepecha, Mestize. Their great-grandparents were Mexican Arizona copper miners who took part in the historic Metcalf-Greenlee strikes in the early 1900s, their father was an immigrant union hotel worker and their partner is a Teamsters' organizer. Paulina has dedicated more than 20 years of their life to leading economic justice organizing campaigns to expand worker rights, immigrant rights, and the rights of low-income and underrepresented communities of color.

Under their leadership, Rise Economy has expanded its work to directly challenge systemic and structural racism within the U.S. financial system and to focus Rise Economy’s work on building collective political and organizing power amongst and with frontline communities to close the racial wealth gap.

Paulina has testified before the U.S. House, Senate and California Legislature on the need for greater oversight and accountability in the banking sector to prevent financial actors from extracting wealth from Black and Brown communities. They are frequently called upon to speak as an expert in the fields of Wall Street accountability, discrimination in lending, equitable reinvestment by financial institutions, racial and economic justice, and democratizing finance through alternative and community-owned financial models, and has been profiled/quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The L.A. Times, NPR, Univision, La Opinion and other national media outlets.

Paulina currently serves on the CalAccount Blue Ribbon Commission and on the board of Community Change, a national advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.They previously served on the Board of Directors for the National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders as well as on the Community Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the San Francisco Municipal Bank Feasibility Task Force, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Consumer Advisory Board.

Paulina has a long history of fighting for racial and economic justice, re-elect Paulina to Peralta Board of Trustees Area 2 to continue this fight for our community college students.