Arnoldo Avalos

Arnoldo Avalos emigrated with his family from a small agricultural town in Mexico to another small town in the upper Sacramento Valley. He and his family worked as migrant farmworkers, following the seasonal fruit harvest. After graduating from high school, he worked as an intern for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture before arriving at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a history degree, graduating with honors. He earned a master’s degree in government from Harvard University.

Avalos has worked as a manager for major global companies including Cisco Systems, Google, and Facebook. Arnoldo sits on several nonprofit community boards, including the Latino Community Foundation, and Hermanos Unidos. Avalos also served a six-year term on the California Community College Board of Governors. In 2012, he and his wife, Alma-Ruth, established the Avalos Foundation to provide scholarships, mentorship, and a support network to low-income high school students from the Upper Sacramento Valley who are attending a University of California school.