Worker Advocate

She was born and raised in San Diego, CA, to immigrant parents from Mexico. Azucena grew up in a low-income community, San Ysidro, and was raised by her mom. Her mom, Martha, who worked in the fast food industry and as a cleaner, is her strength and inspiration. At the tender age of two, Azucena was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, a developmental disability, and as a result, she has had 18 orthopedic surgeries in both of her legs. Living with a disability has made her aware of all the challenges, barriers, and struggles but also the joy that people with disabilities like her deal with daily.

Azucena graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Communications and Political Science from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She has over ten years of experience advocating for workers' rights and working in Communications and Public Relations for organizations such as SEIU CA State Council and The Center on Policy Initiatives (CPI) in San Diego. 

She is a very active member of her community, volunteering for various non-profit organizations such as the Adaptive Sports and Recreation Association (ASRA) in San Diego and mentoring first-generation Hispanic/Latino students pursuing higher education.

In her free time, Azucena enjoys reading (especially Latin American literature), walking, taking photos, and traveling.

Operations Manager

Benita has spent the last 15 years aiding with the flow and function of companies in multiple sectors, including law firms, tech companies, medical specialists, hotel management and applied behavior analysis. Seeing the structure of these different companies has provided broad firsthand insight into effective organization. Benita believes that by helping people see things from different perspectives, and teaching various organization techniques, she contributes not just to the individual but the establishment as whole, and offers some of the most effective ways to strengthen the foundation of organizations in order to enable rapid growth.

Executive Director

Stephen has been executive director of Worksafe since January 2020. Stephen is a Bay Area native with a deep background as an advocate for social and economic justice – his career has been dedicated to work on economic inequality, poverty, gender equity, and the environment. Stephen has also worked as a housecleaner, house painter, busser, paralegal, editor, and fundraiser. He is a graduate of Yale University (after being briefly expelled for involvement in anti-Apartheid activities) and UC Law SF (where he worked on litigation against Prop. 187).

Program Assistant

Amira-Sade was born in Kingston, Jamaica, raised in Virginia Beach, VA and "grew up" in New York City where they attended School of Visual Arts to study film. Amira graduated with a BFA in Screenwriting, and spent 10 years in the city holding various positions in tv production offices and studios. Experiencing injustice in different capacities within film & TV, Amira stepped away from the film industry to focus on finding ways to bring mindfulness to everyday life, including the workplace. Amira found their way to the Bay Area in 2019 in pursuit of this venture. 

After sustaining an injury on a job in 2021, Amira noticed major flaws in the workplace around the safety of employees, and heard similar concerns voiced by various other coworkers. As of recently, Amira has been dedicating time and energy towards learning and understanding the systems set up in different workplaces, how to make them better, and advocating for mindfulness and safety in these environments. As a creative practice, Amira also expresses these discoveries via abstract painting and storytelling.

Administrative Assistant

Cerina was born in Alabama, with roots that spread across California, Alabama, and Texas, shaping her into the person she is today. She excelled in school, maintaining A/B honor roll, and found her love for teamwork on the softball field, where she first discovered the joy of being a supportive team player. Growing up, Cerina learned the importance of healthy communication, which became a core value she carries into every interaction. She has since dedicated herself to being a positive force for others, always sharing kindness and encouragement, knowing the impact a caring word can have on someone's day.

Chief of Staff & Equity

Jora Trang is the Chief of Staff and Equity of Worksafe. Jora specializes in employment/labor law and has worked for over 30 years to advance social justice issues affecting marginalized populations. Jora joined Worksafe in 2011 and has been instrumental in directing Worksafe’s strategic legal and policy work focused on worker and worker center power; strengthening worker health and safety laws, policies, regulations and standards; ensuring effective remedies for injured workers; and advocating for stronger government enforcement. Jora has also led efforts to increase the capacity of worker leaders, worker advocates, and legal aid organizations to represent vulnerable workers in occupational health & safety issues and advance worker protections. 

Jora focuses Worksafe’s reform agenda on building coalitions and solidarity across intersectional issues with many of the worker and community centers in California. Jora participates in statewide and national coalitions and was the former Chair of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health and serves as the current Chair of the Legal Aid Association of California. Jora is also a member of the Steering Committee for the National Nail Salon Collaborative and the coordinating committee for the California Coalition for Worker Power. 

Jora is also a trained consensus meeting facilitator. Jora focuses on building the capacity of organizations and individuals to develop a deeper understanding of equity issues to ensure equity, diversity, inclusion, and legal access for a diverse constituent. They build capacity through facilitating race equity conversations and providing training and technical assistance. They are trained with Race Forward, the Race Equity Institute of North Carolina, and the Courageous Conversations Academy. They are the Bay Area liaison for REI’s Northern California arm, the California Anti-Racism Alliance (CARA).

Staff Attorney

Karín attended University of Pittsburgh School of Law where she founded the Latin American Law Students Association, reviving and rebuilding a prior organization. As President, she organized panels to engage the community by collaborating with student groups and attorneys from the Pittsburgh Area. 

Also, Karín was a recipient of the GE Global Law and Policy Diversity scholarship and attended a conference receiving training on cultural competency, humility, and implicit bias. She also received a tuition-free scholarship to complete a Healthcare Compliance certification at Seton Hall Law School where she learned how organizations develop appropriate procedures and protocols to comply with regulations.

Outside of school, Karín assisted Spanish-speakers in the Baltimore community access healthcare resources. Her interest in occupational health began when she was introduced to a Latino and immigration advocacy-and-assistance organization where she learned about quality of life issues facing workers. She is interested in evaluating the intersection between work and the social determinants of health. 

Communications Manager

Rachel was born in San Diego but spent most of her young years in Utah. Growing up low-income in a very conservative state, it seemed that the general consensus was that both she and her sisters as well as her parents somehow deserved to struggle and do without, and this, along with her passion for reading, served to raise her class consciousness from an early age. 

While attending University of Utah, she participated in a think tank on Domestic Diversity led by Dr. Lynette Danley, who helped her link that fire for social justice to the narrative of race and its role in our collective oppression. Shortly thereafter, she accepted a role with the National College Advising Corps, which furthered her training and understanding in whiteness theory and critical race theory and allowed her to directly assist underserved students in accessing the resources available to them and maximizing their personal assets to attend institutions which might have otherwise seemed out of reach. 

While pursuing an MFA in Fiction at the University of Alabama, she took a writing pedagogy class centered on the teachings of Paulo Freire, which inspired her to join Teach For America and lead a sixth grade classroom in San Jose. While this was a deeply fulfilling and enriching year, it reinforced to her that her vocation lies in writing and communication.

Having personally worked for more than one institution which approaches its workers in dehumanizing ways, Rachel is thrilled and inspired to join the network of efforts around the nation to ensure dignity, safety, and justice for all workers everywhere.

Staff Attorney

AnaStacia Nicol Wright is born and bred in Oakland. She’s a 2020 law school graduate but began her legal career as a college intern with Bay Area Legal Aid in Richmond. Since then, she’s worked in a variety of places, but her heart has remained in Oakland, with the communities and people she grew up with. 

Throughout those years, her Oakland roots made sure she found a way to service communities similar to Oakland no matter where she was. She’s worked for various non-profit organizations, such as Legal Services of Northern California and the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) program, as well as created her own community campaigns. She ended her law school career by creating an expungement clinic at UC Davis King Hall School of Law. 

Although the majority of her career has been working for women and children, particularly in the African-American community, she spent her 2L summer at the Alameda County Public Defender’s office where she was able to explore how she can better serve those of our community affected by the carceral system. 

Community Organizer

Oraiu Amoni grew up in Watts (Los Angeles) at the height of gang life during the late 80s and early 90s. A child of immigrant parents, he graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in economics and a minor in mathematics. He has spent over a decade working in politics across the state of California – City of Oakland, California State Assembly, Larry Tramutola political strategist, SEIU-UHW.

Oraiu served as the political director with SEIU-ULTCW. While with ULTCW he was responsible for signing up over 10000 South LA residents to the ACA, helping pass Prop 30, and as co director of an independent expenditure taking a candidate from 5th place in the primary to a win for LA City Council.

He is a graduate of the Congressional Black Caucus Political and Leadership Institute. He has previously served as the political director of United Teachers Los Angeles where he was successful in placing the first Republican on the LAUSD School Board in over 20 years. He has since worked as a Senior Associate with Prime Strategies Commerce, Project Organizer for Edison Planners and Designers on behalf of Engineers and Scientists of California, Local 20, Southern California, a Lobbyist for the California Nurses Association, and the Housing and Workers' Rights Director with Jobs with Justice San Francisco.

He joins Worksafe as a consultant and lead Community Organizer for our Black Worker Organizing Project. 

Worker Leader

Worksafe is proud to support a worker leader for our Black Worker Initiative, Leonard Brown. Leonard has joined other worker leaders in National COSH's  "We Rise Leadership Academy" and is embarking on a journey of worker advocacy.  Leonard shares: “I am 59 years of age and I enjoy writing, sharing space and time with friends and family on my off days, and I truly like traveling and meeting new cultures and sampling different cuisines.” Leonard's current employment entails cleaning, hospitality and safety. His work can be very rewarding and emotionally challenging at times due to the level of human suffering that he might encounter on a daily basis. "At first it was difficult to engage unhoused individuals and I often found myself looking away at so many either caught up in addiction or suffering from a mental disorder, but slowly I began to see and honor their humanity because everyone is deserving of love and respect."