Mario Enriquez

Hi! I’m Mario Enríquez and I’m a proud resident and committed advocate to Stockton and the Central Valley – a region I’m honored to call home. I’m running for Stockton City Council because I know the importance of working with and for the community in creating effective solutions. I’m a proud son of immigrant parents, a first-generation college student, and a public servant who is prepared to bring fresh, new ideas to help tackle the biggest issues in our community.

At a young age, I’ve held on to my Central Valley roots and pursued various opportunities in part due to the sacrifices that my mother made for me to pursue the American Dream. It was in middle school when my mom gave me a newspaper clipping to join the Lathrop Youth Advisory Commission, a group I led as President. Since then, I’ve had a strong record of public service, elevating diverse voices and amplifying young leaders. I most recently engaged and informed the nation’s network of LGBTQ-elected and appointed leaders as Victory Institute’s Director of Constituent Engagement in Washington, DC. There I trained and supported LGBTQ+ individuals around the world to run for elected office – and win!

In 2010 after graduating from the University of the Pacific, I moved to Washington to work for UnidosUS (formerly National Council of La Raza), the nation’s largest Latino civil rights organization focusing on building a pipeline of Latinx youth leadership. This opportunity was much in part thanks to my internship with El Concilio in the Stockton office. I wanted to continue to advance my leadership training for Stockton so in 2013, I was selected as a National Coro Fellow in Public Affairs in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – the nation’s oldest leadership development program. Coro focused on exposing young professionals in the nonprofit, government, and business sectors and acquired their decades-long training on consensusbuilding and adaptive leadership.

In 2016, I completed my graduate studies at a Top 10 public policy school at the University of Southern California. Eager to learn the policy-making process, I returned to Washington where I was selected as a Post-Graduate Fellow with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI). I’ve had the unique lived experience to travel the world, live in various cities, all with bringing best-practices and solutions right back home in Stockton. In my current professional role, I serve as the Director of the Center for Identity & Inclusion and a professor in leadership at University of the Pacific – my alma mater. I’m ready to bring a bold, fresh perspective to the region and to the people of Stockton and District 4.