Ofelia Medina, director of First 5 LA’s Public Policy & Early Care and Education Department, leads the agency’s policy and advocacy priorities by advancing federal, state and local policymaker understanding and engagement in early childhood development. In her role, Ofelia frames and advances First 5 LA’s Policy Agenda to emphasize legislative, budget, and administrative policies that support young children and their families. She is a member of First 5 LA’s Leadership Team and serves as an advisor to the vice president of Community Engagement and Policy.
Ofelia joined First 5 LA in 2017 as a senior program officer managing the organization’s initiatives focused on early care and education (ECE) systems, ECE local policy and kindergarten readiness. She later served as senior policy strategist responsible for development of First 5 LA’s ECE legislative and budget advocacy priorities, implementing and advising on the organization’s policy positions and strategies, and strengthening relationships with local, state, and federal policymakers. More recently, she served as interim policy director during development of First 5 LA’s 2024-2029 Strategic Plan.
Her career has been guided by a belief that public policy is most powerful when shaped by the communities it serves. Evidenced from past roles as a National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund director of state civic engagement policy, working to expand language accessibility in the electoral process and facilitating the full participation of Latinos in the American political process.
She also served as policy director at Alliance for a Better Community, leading the organization’s ECE policy and advocacy efforts, and coordinating grassroots campaigns to engage communities in education reform.
Ofelia is a current LA Leads! Fellow, and serves on the LA County Policy Roundtable for Child Care and Development and the LA County Joint Committee on Legislation, roles she has held since 2017 and 2020, respectively. Her past service accomplishments also include serving as a member of the California Secretary of State’s Language Accessibility Advisory Committee under Secretary Alex Padilla.
Ofelia holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Chicana/o Studies from Loyola Marymount University. She currently resides in Southeast LA.
