Gabriela Lemus

Dr. Gabriela D. Lemus is president and executive director of both Progressive Congress and the Progressive Congress Action Fund, leading Center through a major reorganization and current rebranding in 2017-2018 into the Progressive Caucus Center and Progressive Caucus Action Fund respectively. As president, she builds inside-outside strategic plans between progressive leaders and visionaries, and the members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), convening progressive dialogues critical to the advancement of people, not corporate-centric policy in Congress.

She served as senior adviser to Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis and director of the Office of Public Engagement from 2009-2013. She has been a Trustee of the University of the District of Columbia, an HBCU since 2012.

Dr. Lemus' trajectory has been one of 'Primeras' or Firsts. She was the first woman Executive Director at the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) from 2007-2009 äóñ an AFL-CIO constituency group and first woman and Labor leader to chair the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA) from 2008-2009. At LCLAA, she co-founded the National Latino Coalition on Climate Change (NLCCC) in 2006, which later evolved into GreenLatinos and was a founding Commissioner for the Commission to Engage African-Americans on Climate Change (CEAAC).

She served as Director of Policy and Legislation at the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) from 2000-2007, where she launched the LULAC Democracy Initiative and Latinos for a Secure Retirement (LSR) äóñ which became an independent non-profit committed to fighting against the privatization of Social Security and Medicare.