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District 9 Supervisor-Elect Jackie Fielder’s four picks for legislative aides includes two members from current supervisor Hillary Ronen’s team, and two from the campaign team that catapulted her to a 19-point victory over her closest contestant, Trevor Chandler.
Fielder’s team will be composed of Jennifer Ferrigno, Ana Herrera – both current aides to Ronen – and political outsiders Sasha Gaona and Feng Han.
“I’m so excited to work with these four amazing folks who are stars in their own right and are ready to fight for our communities,” said Fielder.
Fielder praised the work both Han and Gaona did in the campaign that delivered her a victory with “stunning margins.”
The supervisor-elect also celebrated the experience both Herrera and Ferrigno bring to her team, “Ana and Jennifer have been serving in Supervisor Ronen’s office on some of the district’s most pressing issues, and both have a really solid background in immigrant rights advocacy.”
Gaona and Han will be holding their first government jobs. Responsible for a multitude of responsibilities, legislative aides do everything from talking to the community, writing legislation, scheduling, press communication and advising.
“You’re really a jack of all trades, and most importantly you’re also a representative and a proxy for your boss,” said Sunny Angulo, longtime legislative aide and chief of staff for District 3 supervisor Aaron Peskin.
Angulo, who has 13 years of experience as a legislative aide, said she did everything from policy writer, scheduler, social worker, mentor to interns and sometimes cover for Peskin when the supervisor could not attend a meeting.
Ronen recalled her years as a legislative aide to David Campos as the best job she’s ever had.
“The legislative aides write the laws. They do all the organizing, and talk to the people in the community,” said Ronen. “That was my favorite time in City Hall.”
Political consultants said Fielder’s team strikes a balance of City Hall experience and outsider perspective, one some say can be beneficial to Fielder’s tenure.
“In a lot of ways, it’s actually really helpful to be a little bit of an outsider in city government because it gives you fresh perspectives,” said longtime Bay Area political consultant Jim Ross. “It gives you a little bit more willingness to push because you don’t have long relationships with somebody.”
Sheila Chung Hagen, a legislative aide for Ronen for last year staffing issues such as the Mission vending ban, agreed.
“Sasha and Feng have gotten a chance to go door to door and talk to constituents in the district to know what things they feel are going well and where they could see improvements,” she said. “They’ve got the freshest information of how people are feeling, that really good temperature gauge that is going to be so helpful in knowing where she should prioritize her attention.”
The information Han and Gaona have, combined with Herrera and Ferrigno’s experience is a winning formula, Chung Hagen added.
“There’s a real advantage to having that be married with, in this case, two other legislative aides who have now had experience working in City Hall,” Chung Hagen said.
All illustrations are by Neil Ballard. Here’s a list of Fielder’s tam:
Sasha Gaona
Residency: District 9.
Education: B.S. — Kinesiology and Exercise Science. Indiana University.
Languages: English.
Email: Coming next month.
Gaona worked as the campaign manager in Fielder’s supervisorial contest. In 2020 the new legislative aide volunteered for the supervisor-elect’s race for state senate against Sen. Scott Wiener.
Gaona previously worked in the service industry at Donkey & Goat Winery in Berkeley, and as a general manager at The Riddler, the Hayes Valley’s champagne bar that closed during the pandemic. She also held a corporate general manager position at the clothing retailer, Watesland, and later co-founded Bisou! Bisou! Wines, an importer of French natural wine.
Fielder has repeatedly praised Gaona’s collaboration and called her addition to the team in December last year a turning point in her campaign.
“She just exploded onto the scene and completely exceeded all expectations,” said Fielder during an interview last month. “I’m just so proud of her for stepping into something completely unknown.”
Fielder described San Francisco’s political scene as intense and competitive, two qualities necessary to navigate the field.
“There’s no other way about it,” said Fielder. “She rose to that level of intensity that I also have because that’s what our city deserves. That’s what District 9 deserves.”
Gaona is also a member of the board of directors of the Mission Cultural Center for the Latino Arts.
Jennifer Ferrigno
Residency: District 9.
Education: B.A. in Latin American Studies. University of Vermont. M.A.in Education with a focus on Adult Education & Curriculum. San Francisco State University.
Languages: Spanish and English.
Email: Jennifer.Ferrigno@sfgov.org
Ferrigno has worked closely with the Salvadoran community since the early to mid ’90s, both in El Salvador and in the United States. She co-founded a nonprofit in El Salvador after the civil war ended to help foreigners learn Spanish and Salvadorans learn English. She also served as the west coast regional director for the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, a Washington, D.C-based grassroots organization supporting the country’s struggle for social and economic justice.
Ferrigno worked as a consultant both in the nonprofit sector and the public sector starting in the late 90s; for 11 years at CAMINOS, a Mission-based nonprofit providing technological education for women, and for a year and a half as an adult learning and teacher trainer for the Vermont Department of Education.
Ana Herrera
Residency: Oakland.
Education: B.A. Sociology, History and Women’s Studies. University of Florida. Doctor of Law. UC Berkeley Law.
Languages: Spanish and English.
Email: Ana.Herrera@sfgov.org
Herrera has been a legislative aide for supervisor Hillary Ronen since Jan. 2022 where she focused on land use, immigration, transportation, business and worker’s rights policy. Previously, she worked for nine years at Dolores Street Community Services, now Mission Action, as an immigration attorney at its Deportation Defense & Legal Advocacy Program.
A native of Colombia, Herrera was admitted to the State Bar of California in 2012.
Feng Han
Residency: District 9.
Education: B.A. in Computer Science. University of Michigan.
Languages: English and Cantonese.
Email: Coming next month.
Han worked as the field director for Fielder’s campaign managing volunteers and the operations that knocked on thousands of doors throughout District 9.
Up until November 2023, Han had worked as a software engineer at companies such as Zillow, Postmates and Uber. Han joined Fielder’s team in May.
In an interview last month, Fielder described Han as “extremely smart,” “extremely principled” and as an “effective organizer.”
“He’s just got this amazing brain and was able to crunch all the different numbers and dispatch us to all the different places that we needed to go,” said Fielder. “We were data driven and it was largely thanks to Feng.”
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Source: missionlocal.org