About Zabrae Valentine
Zabrae 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 public effectively – 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 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. Separately, she was a key player in drafting the Voters First Act, campaigning for it's 2008 enactment, and actively monitoring it's subsequent implementation.
In 2007 she was part of a four-person team that proposed, designed and launched CA Forward and the CA Fwd Action Fund, which she co-led 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 enable people to learn about critical issues together, discover being different can be both useful and fun, and send actionable, widely supported signals to policy makers - in ways that will produce results.
She has an Masters degree in Public Policy from the University of Michigan, a B.A. from Grinnell College, IA, two super sons - one with dyslexia (wanna talk?), a husband with a pretty good sense of humor (fortunately), and two endlessly shedding, very friendly dogs.
Pro Bono/ Volunteer Advising
Alameda County Elections Commission, Commissioner
Creating Citizens Commonwealth Club, Advisory Council Member, chair
California Common Cause, Advisory Board Member
New Hampshire Together Advisory Council Member
Escuela Bilingue International Parents Association, President
Clients/Partners/Projects
Engaged California (CA Office of Data and Innovation/Carnegie Endowment)
I’m one of three civic deliberation design experts advising the State in their development of a new flexible “digital democracy” model they can use to better engage the public on key policy issues. Their first pilot will seek to assist Californians affected by the 2024/25 Los Angeles area fires in determining what is needed beyond the initial emergency response, both for effective recovery as well as forward-looking rebuilding and preparation for future resilience.
Public Policy Institute of California's Economic Policy Center
I served as the primary consultant to the vice president and director of PPIC's economic policy center to conceptualize, design and then launch the center in February 2024. Led by PPIC’s Sarah Bohn, the Economic Policy Center provides nonpartisan data and research with a labor market focus, to help policy makers understand how the state’s economy affects both businesses and workers, and where there may be opportunities for greater economic well-being. I continue supporting the EPC Director in her efforts to ensure the Center is effective at providing relevant, actionable information in a timely way.
I designed the full arc of a statewide Citizens Assembly process in New Hampshire, and then lead the organization and execution the plan on behalf of my client, The People. This work culminated in a three-day, in-person event in Manchester, NH, in June of 2024, where 50 delegates, demographically representative of the state’s population, deliberated and then agreed (with over 75% support) to support four reform proposals to improve state legislative representation and reduce partisan polarization in the state. Volunteers from the engagement are moving forward to secure the reforms identified and prioritized through that process, including the introduction of state legislation, and a new state nonprofit (New Hampshire Together) has been formed to manage the process, support volunteers and plan subsequent assemblies. I now serve on the New Hampshire Together Advisory Council.
In December of 2024 I helped develop an idea with the CA Volunteers Fund CEO that would broaden access to economic mobility for high school and college age youth statewide.
California Forward/Stanford's Deliberative Democracy Lab
On behalf of event cosponsor California Forward, I helped organize and project manage a Deliberative Poll on Climate and Energy Policy, and in this capacity was deeply involved with multiple facets of the project. (This was an America In One Room event) (May 2022 - Dec 2022). Immediately following this project, I designed and ran a pilot of Stanford’s online deliberative platform to test its viability as a “civic knowledge building tool”. This was called “Table Talks”, and it was sponsored by Helena.
Benefits Access and Equity Initiative
I helped the team who originally imagined the potential of this initiative organize and launch the project, managed it for its first year, and then joined their advisory council. BAE brings together policy makers, benefits, administrators, direct service providers, and people with expertise navigating public benefits to explore and promote policies that can improve the efficacy of our social safety net, for the purpose of providing a reliable path to economic productivity, freedom and resilience.
The Economic Mobility Collaborative (CADream4All)
This was a handful of friends of varied political persuasions, who came together in the fall of 2016 in Half Moon Bay, CA, to do some brainstorming on what was working and what was not in our state, what needed more attention, and what (more) could be done to really move the needle toward greater economic security and freedom. (I and another good friend who lives in Half Moon Bay issued the invitation and I continued to organize and facilitate the work going forward.) Everyone – all political stripes represented – agreed there was a moral imperative to secure progress on this front, and until that happens, it will block all else that is essential to building a productive, resilient and happy future society-wide – “life liberty and happiness”. We made some progress.
While the COVID crisis in March, 2020 forced this initiative itself into mothballs, the substance has lived in in the form of some of the above work, as have the relationships formed. This issue is the flip side of a strong democracy: for a political system to persist, it’s gotta deliver.