For nearly 30 years, Val has provided political guidance and communications management to drive public education initiatives and develop high-impact public infrastructure projects that have strengthened schools, ports, freeways, railways, and water management throughout California.

VMA’s foundational work was based in supporting internal and external communications for public schools across California. Val has worked with more than 30 school districts, providing strategic counsel and implementation of a full suite of communications programs, from facilities outreach and enrollment campaigns to LCAP engagement and bond campaigns.

Val is also working to modernize and progress infrastructure in California and beyond. She has worked on the design, environmental review, and construction of transportation systems for the California High-Speed Rail Authority, LA County Metro, and Metrolink; critical water systems, such as the Delta Conveyance; and green-tech and biotech firms such as Ricardo, Stanadyne, Ocular Science, and Wind River (an Intel subsidiary).

VMA has also led broad, multilingual communications programs to create a more equitable society by supporting environmental justice in neighborhoods throughout the state, including facilitating AB 617 Community Steering Committees establishing hyper-local clean air programs and developing culturally competent outreach to support equity in education and land use projects with community benefits agreements.

Val’s expertise also extends beyond political and grassroots outreach.  She is a former newspaper reporter, working for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and Long Beach Press-Telegram, and she wrote and produced editorials at KHJ-TV (Ch 9). She is the former chief consultant to California’s Latino Legislative Caucus, where she worked with 17 members of the State Senate and Assembly to shape culturally competent and ethnically inclusive education, transportation, immigration, healthcare, and insurance policies.

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