What is RPA?

Francisco is an experienced educator and union leader who advocates for public education and equitable policies. He serves as President of the United Teachers of Richmond, representing over 1,500 educators in the West Contra Costa Unified School District. A passionate advocate for student success and teacher empowerment, Francisco also served as a liaison for the California Teachers Association and brings valuable insights as a former board member of Californians Together, where he championed multilingual education and equitable opportunities for all students.

As a proud alumnus of WCCUSD, Francisco remains deeply connected to the community he serves, continuously working to improve conditions for students, teachers, and families alike.

Nicole is a Bay Area transplant and a native Angeleno. She has worked in Richmond since 1995  and has lived in Richmond since 2005. 

Nicole builds metaphorical bridges in the service of the idea of the beloved community. She is committed to the practice of the cultivation of joy and justice that must be created, discovered and  maintained in order to sustain ourselves as activists and changemakers. That is part of what attracted her to the RPA back in 2005. She  values reciprocity as a practice, and gives back to the individuals and communities that have given so much to her. She has been either an RPA  member, or a Steering Committee member since then. Nicole has been involved in a volunteer capacity in every Richmond local election, and she has supported her spouse in two RPA endorsed State electoral campaigns.

"I hail from a city consumed by a ghetto frame, in a migrant household of meager salaries and government-issued meals. Scarred by the blows of systemic injustices that have tainted the futures of those like me, but standing in resilience, chanting "Si se Puede". My name is Pedro Ruiz, I am a first-generation Chicano student at San Francisco State University majoring in Law & Philosophy."

Kathleen joined the RPA almost simultaneously with moving to Richmond in 2010 and was soon invited to join the Steering Committee. That year, she worked to elect Jovanka Beckles to the City Council and against Measure U, which would have turned Point Molate into a Las Vegas-style casino. Kathleen helped RPA turn into a member organization with by-laws and served as the first Membership Committee Chair. She continues to work on elections of corporate free candidates, to participate in and support RPA and its activities. Should she be elected to the SC, Kathleen hopes to work with members to arrange ongoing pathways to participation between electoral campaigns and to help increase the number of members.

I (BK), am a native San Franciscan and have happily resided in Richmond for over 30 years.

I bring a strong belief in volunteerism. I served as a Richmond Arts and Culture Commissioner for eight years; Board Chair for Queer Women of Color Media Arts (QWOCMAP) where social justice issues were routinely addressed and stories of underrepresented people of color are documented; Vice President and a founding member of Richmond Rainbow Pride, an organization that formed to better understand and address the needs of the LGBTQI community in and around Richmond and increase the visibility in the community

I look forward to stepping aside from Co-chair and remaining on the SC and lending support to helping create a transition in our organization that builds community and that reaches and fights for the diminishing and often forgotten black community in Richmond.

Marisol is a third-generation Richmond resident on Ohlone Land and a professor at Contra Costa College, where she teaches English as a Second Language (ESL). Beyond the classroom, she is an active community leader and organizer in Richmond. She currently serves as a lead of the AB617 Community Steering Committee, a researcher with Reimagine Richmond, and a Community Research Scholar with UC Berkeley. Her advocacy work primarily intertwines racial, social, and environmental justice, building people-powered campaigns, strengthening community, governmental, and academic partnerships, and advocating for policies that bring systemic change.

Martha has nearly 30 years’ experience organizing and leading grassroots groups for labor rights and environmental protection. Her labor work was aimed at empowering unions through internal democracy. Her environmental work included community organizing for air quality and connecting urban residents with nature through wildlife habitat protection. Those roles included volunteer coordination, administration, and newsletter editing. Recently she has worked part-time as a freelance editor.

Martha has been active in the RPA since she moved to Richmond in 2017 – in each election since, she’s knocked doors, raised money, recruited volunteers, and more. Martha wants the RPA to pioneer a better model of democracy, where people-power wins elections AND drives our city’s decision making between elections.

Alyssa Kang represents California Nurses Association/National Nurses United on the Richmond Progressive Alliance Steering Committee. CNA/NNU is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the nation with more than 100,000 members in 200+ facilities throughout California and more than 225,000 RNs nationwide.

She has worked at CNA/NNU for over 2 decades.  Most of those years were devoted to assisting nurses throughout the country to unionize and build collective RN power at their respective workplaces to challenge their employers and the corporate healthcare industry that prioritizes profit over patients' and workers' needs. Currently she continues her work as a CNA/NNU Community and Political Organizer in the Bay Area and nationally.  

Claudia was elected to Richmond City Council by District 6 voters in 2020. She is a mother and an immigrant who deeply loves the diversity and warmth of the Richmond community.

As an organizer, she has led several campaigns in Richmond and Contra Costa County, including the “Invest in People not Prison” campaign in collaboration with the Safe Return Project and CCISCO. That campaign forged an alliance of African American and immigrant community leaders in Contra Costa County to end the sheriff’s cooperation with the ICE Secure Communities program and redirected $5.2 million in state realignment funds toward services for people in Contra Costa County returning home from incarceration.