As the mayoral race steps into its next phase, candidates are quick to highlight the city’s urgent need for affordable housing. Yet the rhetoric rarely addresses the real issues.

Between schools like McGeorge and UC Davis School of Law, as well as an array of respected firms, the state Capitol and various courts including a federal courthouse, the Sacramento region is a strong draw for the legal industry.

Born in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, to parents from Durango, Mexico, she says the military was the first place she felt like “your background, what you look like, what neighborhood you lived in” didn’t matter. 

When Thompson attended college at Notre Dame of Maryland University, she chose to pursue her interest in psychology, hoping to “help people with their problems.” But, as fate would have it, she ended up doing that through policy rather than therapy.

One chat with Katrina Salazar, and the word “dynamo” comes to mind. Along with her day gig as CFO of a major nonprofit, she leads numerous boards and committees, goes skiing and off-roading, runs marathons and scuba dives.

“I did not get here by myself,” says Dr. Dawnté Early about her journey to her two primary leadership positions in the Sacramento area: West Sacramento City Council member and president and CEO of United Way California Capital Region. “It’s full circle.”