Gabriela D. Lemus, Ph.D., Co-Chair of the National Latino Coalition on Climate Change

Dr. Gabriela D. Lemus is the first woman to hold the position of Executive Director at the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA). She was formerly Director of Policy and Legislation at the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). Prior to her work at LULAC, Dr. Lemus was an adjunct professor at the University of Memphis, San Diego State University, and the University of San Diego. While at LULAC, Dr. Lemus founded the LULAC Democracy Initiative Voter Project, a national Hispanic civic participation campaign focused on voter education, registration and get-out-the-vote.

Currently, in her work at LCLAA, Dr. Lemus advocates for Latino workers and families, with a specific focus on issues related to globalization, trade, and immigration; U.S.-Latin American relations, and ending border militarization and vigilantism among others. She is the founder of Latinos for a Secure Retirement - a campaign to fight the privatization of Social Security and has begun ground-breaking work on universal health care reform; climate change and job growth.

Under both the Clinton and Bush administrations, she was invited to travel to Nicaragua and Argentina to promote democracy and civil society participation.

Dr. Lemus has been an outspoken advocate for Latino issues appearing in both English and Spanish language media outlets, including CNN, CNN en Espanol, NBC's Hardball, Fox's Neil Cavuto, Univision and NBC-Telemundo among others. She received her doctorate in International Relations from the University of Miami in 1998.