2016 Latina of Influence | Ana Cubas
2016 Latinas of Influence
Hispanic Lifestyle is pleased to recognize Ana Cubas President and Founder, Latina Public Service Academy (LAtinas) at Hispanic Heritage Foundation as a 2016 Latina of Influence. Ms. Cubas along with her fellow Latinas of Influence are invited to participate in Hispanic Lifestyle’s Latina Conference to be held on April 8, 2016 at the Ontario Airport Hotel, Ontario, CA. The complete listing of Hispanic Lifestyle’s 2016 Latinas of Influence can be found on Hispaniclifestyle.com
Ana Cubas has devoted her life to public service. She is passionate about helping low-income communities and has worked in the education, non-profit, and Federal, State and City government sectors since 1995. As an immigrant, and the first in her family to attend college, she knows first-hand the struggles of low-income families.
Ana Cubas ran for Los Angeles City Council District 9 in 2013. She raised $550,000 for both primary and run-off elections, setting a record for female candidates in the City of Los Angeles. District 9 stretches from Staples Center, U.S.C., and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to South Los Angeles. She ran a positive, grass-roots campaign focused on back to basics and the empowerment of communities that have been left out of City government. In the primary, Ana beat out five well-funded candidates to make the run off in May. Despite her valiant efforts against her opponent–a well-funded State Senator whose campaign coffers exceeded $2 million– Ana lost the run-off election by less than 600 votes. Undeterred, Ana has founded two initiatives that resulted from the lessons she learned during her campaign: 1) the South Los Angeles Political Action Committee that will register voters in Council District 9 and the 2) Latina Public Service Academy, a leadership program, which will train high school girls on running for elected office.
Ana Cubas
Ana Cubas was recognized for her work in June 2014 by the National Latina Women Business Owners (NLBWA-LA) with the Community Service Award. The Academy teaches 11th and 12th grade Latina high school students about leadership, and its mission is to foster a new generation of Latina public service leaders that are ready to take leadership positions in the public sector. The Academy provides government and public policy training and instruction to 25 female high school juniors and seniors from low-income communities through a three-day Academy. The curriculum includes public speaking training as well as campaign and organizing modules to prepare them to run for elective office, or to work for elected or appointed officials.
Ana obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology with highest honors from U.C. Berkeley, and a Joint Masters’ Degree in Public Affairs and Urban and Regional Planning from Princeton University. She is currently completing her Executive Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) at the USC Marshall School of Business, with a graduation date of May 2016.
Ana began her public policy career working for the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C., and then for the California Legislative Analyst’s Office in Sacramento.Ana Cubas is a professional with 20 years experience working on various transportation, urban planning, public outreach, and policy issues and programs at the Federal, State, and local government levels. Her work ranged from providing fiscal and policy analysis on Caltrans and transportation programs at the State Legislative Analyst’s Office to working for various elected officials in the City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Unified School District. She has focused on public outreach and urban planning solutions in low-income communities.
In her previous role as Chief of Staff to Los Angeles City Councilmember José Huizar, Ms. Cubas worked directly with community leaders to transform government services, create green spaces and combat environmental problems, provide economic development opportunities, and improve the quality of life for residents.
As a non-profit leader and Deputy Director of the Youth Policy Institute, Ms. Cubas grew the organization’s budget from $2 million to $10 million to implement education and workforce training programs for youth and adults in low-income areas of Los Angeles.
