Originally from South Texas and a proud Chicana feminist, Ariana has dedicated her career to various endeavors seeking to further racial equity. Ariana has worked as an attorney, advocate, and community organizer on issues including: wage theft; immigrants’ rights; sexual harassment; employment discrimination; health care access; intimate partner violence; and LGBTQIA+ rights.
Ariana has presented workshops and webinars for thousands of participants on subjects ranging from the application of a racial equity analysis; curbing bias in hiring and recruitment; how to effectively address race and racism in various workplace contexts; and how to overcome common obstacles to equity efforts.
Ariana previously served as the National Network Director for the Government Alliance on Race & Equity, a project of Race Forward. There, she strengthened the national movement of local government leaders across the country working to improve local government’s responsiveness and accountability to all their residents, particularly communities of color. Ariana was instrumental in expanding programming to help local governments grapple with new challenges and develop innovative approaches to address inequities in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and national racial (re-)awakening of 2020.
In 2012, Ariana was awarded the Ruth Chance Law Fellowship at Equal Rights Advocates in San Francisco, where she coordinated a national legal advice and counseling hotline for people experiencing sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based discrimination at work and in school. Ariana completed her legal education in 2012 at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle, WA, where she was a William H. Gates Public Service Law Scholar. She her earned undergraduate degree in political science from Tufts University in Medford, MA in 2004.
