Seija Virtanen is the Associate Director of State Governmental Relations – Budget. She has been in this role since September 2017. Prior to SGR Seija worked in the budget offices of two UC campuses and was the higher education budget consultant for Senate Budget. Seija has two Masters degrees from University of Washington and two BAs from UC Berkeley.
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Fireside Chat – Assemblymember Alex Lee
Alex Lee (李天明) was elected in November 2020 to represent California’s 25th Assembly District, which includes the Alameda County communities of Fremont and Newark, and the Santa Clara Communities of Milpitas, San Jose, and Santa Clara. He serves his community by being an advocate for the district and fights to address the growing issues in housing, homelessness, traffic, education, and climate change. Alex Lee previously worked on policy and legislation for both the California State Senate and California State Assembly. He has worked on issues that include public safety, housing, education, and climate change. He uses his voice to advocate for South Bay Area residents in Sacramento as the youngest state legislator. Alex has called the South Bay home for his entire life. He is a graduate of Milpitas High School and UC Davis, where he served as Student Body President. Previously, he has worked for California State Senator Henry Stern in Sacramento and Assemblymember Evan Low.
Workshop Speakers – Fixing Financial Aid and the Cal Grant Equity Framework
Jake Brymner currently serves as the Director of Government & External Relations for the California Student Aid Commission. Prior to joining the Commission in June 2020, Jake was the State & Federal Policy Director for the Campaign for College Opportunity, a non-profit policy research and advocacy organization that promotes college access and student success. Jake has also previously held roles in the office of Congressman Eric Swalwell, the Goldman School of Public Policy, and several political campaigns. In addition to his work at the Commission, Jake serves in leadership roles with several non-profit organizations, including as Co-Director for the New Leaders Council, Sacramento and Co-Chair of the Education & Talent Task Force of the East Bay Leadership Council. Jake is also a Board member and volunteer with the Alliance for Education Solutions. Jake is a lifelong Californian from the East Bay and now resides in Sacramento’s Midtown neighborhood.
Gabe Feiner is a sophomore at UCLA majoring in political science and economics. He is the Financial Aid Advocacy Officer at UCSA, working to centralize student perspectives in financial aid policy and legislation, as well as the Director of State Relations in the External Vice President’s office at UCLA, where he engages with elected officials, coalition partners, and the Bruin community to advocate for student priorities at the statewide level. Gabe is passionate about California politics and government, and excited to continue to advocate alongside students for a better UC.
Workshop Speakers – Navigating Student Leadership: Balancing Advocacy and Activism with Campus Bureaucracy and Burnout
Vincent Rasso is a senior at UC Riverside majoring in political science. He serves in student government as the Vice President of External Affairs, and was formerly the Government Relations Director, navigating both legislative affairs and university policy advocacy.
Workshop Speakers – Leveraging Past Learning to Close Present-Day Equity Gaps
As Executive Director, Su Jin leads California Competes’s work to develop nonpartisan and financially pragmatic recommendations for improved higher education and workforce policies and practices across California. Prior to joining California Competes, she served as Associate Professor of Public Policy and Administration at California State University, Sacramento. She also served as the Director of the CSU Student Success Network, Academic Advisor for the California Executive Fellows Program, and Associate Director of the Sacramento State Doctorate in Educational Leadership. Su Jin is an accomplished researcher whose work appears in a variety of publications including Teachers College Record, Education Policy Analysis Archives, Research in Higher Education, Community College Review, and Michigan Journal of Race & Law. Through her applied research, she has provided guidance to the California Community College Chancellor’s Office, the California State University system, and California’s Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education. Su Jin led a large scale study of the CCCCO’s Economic and Workforce Development Program and coauthored multiple reports analyzing the role of the California Community Colleges Career Technical Education in the college completion agenda. She has presented across the country and internationally on key issues in higher education and systems change, including economic and workforce development, college readiness and success, student college choice and decision making, and institutional effectiveness. She holds a PhD in education administration and policy analysis and an MA in economics from Stanford University. She received a BA in statistics and a minor in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley.
Workshop Speakers – From Campus to Capital: UC Workers Building Power
AFSCME Local 3299 is the University of California’s largest employee union — representing more than 27,000 Service workers (SX), Patient Care Technical workers (EX), Skilled Craft workers (K7), and more at UC’s 10 campuses, 5 medical centers, numerous clinics, research laboratories, and UC Hastings College of Law. Since 1948, we’ve prided ourselves on effectively representing UC workers while relentlessly fighting to provide social justice and economic opportunity not just to UC workers, but to the greater public that we serve.
