Aurea Montes-Rodriguez is the vice president of Community Engagement & Policy. Aurea leads the work of the Communities, Impact & Accountability, and Public Policy & Early Care and Education Departments.
Aurea brings more than 30 years of experience in coalition development, policy and advocacy, and capacity building, with an emphasis on elevating communities impacted by systemic inequities. She served in several leadership positions at the Community Coalition, most recently as its executive vice president. During her time there, Aurea co-founded several sustainable community-led coalitions focused on improving the well-being of children, led advocacy efforts at the local and state levels, and provided strategic leadership to multiple community action campaigns and initiatives. Additional accomplishments include co-founding the Make LA Whole Coalition to bring attention to the needs of children, women and overpoliced communities adversely affected by COVID-19; leading Kinship in Action, an organizing project that mobilized relative caregivers and helped secure tens of millions of dollars to keep children in family care and out of the foster care system; and spearheading campaigns that enabled Community Coalition to transform its headquarters into a state-of-the-art hub for community organizing.
Aurea currently serves on the boards of the Weingart Center and is a founding member of the Movement Innovation Collaborative. Her work has been recognized by the Los Angeles City Commission on the Status of Women, the ACLU of Southern California and the Tides Foundation, among others.
Born in Mexico and raised in South LA, Aurea earned her bachelor’s degrees in political science and Spanish literature from UCLA and a master’s in social welfare from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. She resides in Los Angeles with her husband and three children.
