Jesús Guzmán serves as Generation Housing’s Policy & Advocacy Director.
Jesús grew up in the Sonoma Valley, graduating from Sonoma Valley School, after which he earned a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies at Sonoma State University, and a master’s in public policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley.
Prior to his position at Gen H, Jesús led the data and policy research initiatives with the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color team at PolicyLink, a national research and action institute dedicated to advancing racial and economic equity. Before PolicyLink, Jesús spent five years with the Graton Day Labor Center organizing with day laborers and domestic workers for immigrant and worker rights. As a trained-community organizer and popular educator, he led efforts for fair wages, safe and healthy working conditions, and ending family separations and deportations.
Jesús also brings prior policy and economic research experience having published pieces on labor and immigration policy in both the Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy and the Berkeley Public Policy Journal, as well as authoring and oft-cited report estimating the impact of the housing shortage on economic growth prepared for the for the Marin Economic Forum.
Housing policy has been influential in Jesús’ life having been raised in farmworker housing and his family experienced first-hand the housing consequences of the Great Recession. His experience and training as a community organizer, policy analyst, and advocate combined with solid IT and social media chops, a love of learning, strong values in equity, and a creative spirit, make Jesús an indispensable part of our start-up’s team. Jesús is committed to ensuring that Sonoma County remains as welcoming to future generations as it has been to him and his family.
Jesús lives in Healdsburg with his wife, Stephanie Bedolla, a pulmonary Nurse Practitioner, and his two daughters, Valentina, 1, and Victoria, 3. When not with his family or leading Gen H’s eggheady policy work or educational webinars, Jesús enjoys sports of all kinds (most recently, Korean professional baseball), plays guitar, reads voraciously, and builds his encyclopedic pop culture knowledge.