Staff

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...

Paula Silva is the Director of Professional Development for the Puente Project statewide office where she imagines, plans and implements culturally responsive professional development for community college faculty with the intent of creating more humane and equitable educational spaces for underrepresented students. Prior to joining the Puente team, she taught English in California Community Colleges for 13 years, including serving as a Puente instructor and co-coordinator. Paula is a first-generation college student, queer Chicana who found her own voice in a community college...