Jesse Melgar is Senior Advisor for Strategy & Public Affairs at the UC Berkeley Possibility Lab after serving for several years as a Senior Advisor for California 100, a futures policy initiative. Prior to these roles, Jesse worked in state government for nearly a decade, serving as Communications Director and Press Secretary for California Governor Gavin Newsom during the unprecedented crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. He previously led communications for United States Senator Alex Padilla during his first term as California Secretary of State, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara during his tenure as a state senator, the California Latino Legislative Caucus, and Equality California.

Jesse is the Board Chair of the Inland Empire Community Foundation, and the founder and chair of the Cultivating Inland Empire Latino Opportunity Fund, known as the CIELO Fund. The CIELO Fund grants money to support Latino led — and serving — organizations in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. In 2023, Jesse co-founded the Inland Empire LGBTQ Resource Center in Downtown Riverside.

Jesse currently serves as an advisory board member for the UC Riverside School of Public Policy, Equality California, and is appointed by Governor Newsom to the California Volunteers Commission where he is vice chair and where he advocated for Inland Empire colleges and universities to receive millions in state funding for the new California Volunteers College Corps program.

He earned his bachelor’s degree with dual majors in Political Science and Chicano Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his Master of Public Policy from the University of California, Riverside School of Public Policy as a member of the inaugural cohort and recipient of a full-tuition merit scholarship.