Zabrae Valentine has worked to engage policy makers and the public in actions that strengthen the nuts and bolts of democracy – so that it can respond to the needs of the broad public efficiently and productively – for over 25 years. Her career has included working with the CA State Legislature in Sacramento, the U.S. Senate in Washington. D.C., and the National Democratic Institute in Washington, D.C. and Lilongwe, Malawi. Since 2003, she has been back in California building and advising organizations and initiatives that work to improve policy aimed at making people’s lives better, and currently provides strategic advice to individuals, organizations and start-ups with an emphasis on multi/non-partisan opportunity and collaboration. 

In 2004, Zabrae developed and led the Commonwealth Club’s Voices of Reform Project, which was instrumental in building robust bipartisan support for statewide redistricting reform (enacted in 2008). In 2007 she co-founded CA Forward, which she helped lead until 2012. In 2016 she organized and co-led the Economic Mobility Collaborative (CADream4All), a bipartisan statewide coalition of professionals from a wide range of backgrounds and expertise identifying concrete actions that could improve economic opportunity in the state. Recent projects include designing methods for increasing access to civic dialogue that enables people to learn about critical issues together, discover being different can be both useful and fun, and send supported signals to policy makers - in ways that will produce results. 

In addition to her consulting practice, Zabrae serves as a commissioner for the Alameda County Elections Oversight Commission, advises the Commonwealth Club’s ‘Creating Citizens’ Civic Education Initiative and CA Common Cause, promotes new approaches to civic education for middle and high school students at every opportunity, and is very involved in her younger son’s school. She has an M.P.P. from the University of Michigan, a B.A. from Grinnell College, IA.