Sandra was born and raised in the Mission District of San Francisco, a daughter of Mexican born immigrants who have deep roots in SF since before the 1950’s. Her roots began in community organizing in San Francisco’s Mission District with great leaders and elders that developed and fostered in her a great sense of social responsibility through grassroots youth leadership development. She has been directly involved in nonprofit community work in the Bay Area working as part of the local violence prevention movement as an advocate and educator for the past 30 years; a passion that began with her participation in the District-wide walk-outs for Ethnic Studies in San Francisco in 1994.
She is also known for her work as a consultant for trainings around community healing from trauma using an anti-oppression framework while providing mentorship/advisor, and organizational spiritual/healing support to others.
She was brought in back when YWFC was named CYWD to provide the above mentioned support, trainings, and circles and was later brought in by the Center leadership at the time to support in this transition. She was recently awarded to be a Koshland Fellow through the San Francisco Foundation for her past community work in San Francisco and in the Mission District; specifically working with marginally housed women.