Sara Arce

Sara’s passion for higher education attainment was first instilled in her by parents whose dream it was to see their daughters go to college. It was after her own college experience and completing an internship in the State’s capitol that she became interested in working to promote policies that help ensure all students have access to affordable public higher education.

As the Vice President of  Policy and Advocacy for the Campaign for College Opportunity, Sara leads the Campaign’s state legislative and advocacy agenda to ensure students access and succeed in higher education. In this capacity, she has led efforts to create clearer paths and more equitable outcomes for tens of thousands of community college students across the state. Prior to her work at the Campaign, she served as a Legislative Aide to Assemblymember Das Williams between 2011-2015 where she was responsible for staffing multiple policy areas and bills through the legislative process, managing his higher education portfolio, and served as a staff liaison for the Assembly Higher Education Committee during his chairmanship. In this role, she managed ambitious community college legislation to boost student completion. Sara’s experience also includes working on several political campaigns and fundraising in the non-profit sector.

Sara is an alumnus of the University of California Center Sacramento policy program and the Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE) Leadership Institute, as well as a graduate of the Leadership Women Pipeline and Rockwood Leadership Institute programs. She holds a B.A. degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a double major in Communications and English.

Alma Mater(s): University of California, Santa Barbara

Your role in one sentence: Advancing the Campaign’s policy priorities at the statewide level.

When I am not at work helping students get to and succeed in college I am…making a mess in the kitchen, trying new recipes (:

If not higher education then what cause? Fighting to end hunger and improving access to healthy food for all communities.