Silvia Paz is the Founder and Executive Director of Alianza Coachella Valley, a nonprofit organization that works to expand economic, environmental, and community justice for the Coachella Valley and the Salton Sea region of Eastern Riverside County and Imperial County through policy and systems change campaigns.
Silvia is dedicated to improving the communities she calls home, and has served in various volunteer, appointed, and elected positions. In 2021, she was appointed by California Governor Gavin Newsom to the Blue Ribbon Commission on the Extraction of Lithium, where she served as Chair, and has served on the Coachella Valley Unified School District Board of Education since 2018.
Throughout her 18 years of organizing and facilitating dialogue between constituents and decision makers, Silvia has driven the transformation of communities and systems alike; from the building of the first medical clinic in the community of Mecca and the first skate park in Coachella, to the creation of Common Spaces at Harvard University, and the establishment of the Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD) in the eastern Coachella Valley. She was also instrumental in the implementation of California Assembly Bill 1318’s environmental justice provision, which allocated funding to mitigate air quality impacts of a new electrical generating facility in the Coachella Valley.
Silvia received her B.A. in English from the University of San Diego and holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government with a concentration in Housing, Urban Economic Development, and Transportation. Prior to founding Alianza Coachella Valley, Silvia was a high school teacher at Coachella Valley High School, a fellow at the Harvard University Planning Office, and a senior policy analyst in the office of Assemblymember V. Manuel Perez.
Silvia has received the Hispanas Organized for Political Equality Latina Advocate award and the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s Environmental Justice award.
Silvia lives in Thermal, CA with her husband and three children.
