Mónica has dedicated her professional career to advocating on behalf of low- income students and broadening their access to higher education. She has served as Executive Director of the East Bay Consortium since the year 2000 and serves as Director of the East Bay and Solano County Consortium, a Cal-SOAP Project. Mónica started working at EBC while she was a student at Cal. She was hired full time when she graduated from Cal.
Mónica came from Chile with her parents and three of her five siblings when she was 16. She graduated from Richmond High School where she was an active member of Alma Latina, a Mexican dancing group. She attended Contra Costa College and worked at the EOPS office recruiting students to register to attend CCC. She transferred to Cal and majored in Chicano Studies and Spanish. She lived at Casa Joaquin Murrieta, where she found support and met some of her close friends.