Jessica Iniguez is a first-year Master’s student in Urban and Regional Planning at UCLA and a proud Los Angeles native. Her commitment to climate and energy justice is rooted in something far deeper than academia, it begins with her father, who comes from a long line of rancheros from a small village in Mexico. Growing up with his teachings about farming, land stewardship, and the sacred responsibility of caring for the earth, Jessica developed an understanding early on that the health of the planet and the wellbeing of working communities are inseparable. That inherited wisdom continues to shape everything she does.

Guided by that foundation, Jessica has spent years bridging grassroots organizing, education, and policy work across continents. She spent five years as a teacher in Madrid, where she went beyond the classroom to help establish workshops on climate and energy justice — bringing community-centered environmental education to an international stage. Back home, she has designed solar equity programs for community-based organizations, led climate education workshops in her own neighborhoods, researched heat and labor protections for farmworkers, and co-developed energy equity toolkits alongside rural communities — always centering the people most impacted by environmental harm. Her work lives at the intersection of the technical and the deeply human, translating complex policy into tools that communities can actually use and own.

Now bringing that wealth of experience into her graduate studies, Jessica is thrilled to be interning at the Mayor’s Office as a David Bohnett Fellow, working alongside the Energy and Sustainability team. In this role, she hopes to bridge the gap between policy and the communities most impacted by climate change, ensuring that the decisions made in city hall reflect the realities, needs, and wisdom of the people living on the frontlines. For Jessica, this fellowship is not just a professional milestone; it is the next step in a lifelong commitment to building a more just and livable city for everyone.