Monique Limón is an experienced elected leader and educator, whose strong record working for Democratic values and proven ability to build broad coalitions and support within the Central Coast make her the strongest candidate to continue serving as State Senator for California’s Senate District 21.
Monique, who is serving her first term as state Senator for the area, also served four years as State Assemblymember and six years as a Santa Barbara Unified School Board Member. She is a lifelong resident of the Central Coast, and her extended family includes small business owners from who are active in the community. For more than 14 years, Monique served as an educator, including serving in the role of Assistant Director of the McNair Scholars Program at UCSB, which prepares students for doctoral programs in all fields of study. Prior to her work at UCSB, she served as the Student Program Advisor for California Student Opportunity and Access Program (CAL-SOAP) at Santa Barbara City College. Monique mentored and assisted hundreds of local students in successfully transitioning to college and graduate school at both Santa Barbara City College and UCSB.
Monique is also a champion for women. As a former Commissioner on the Santa Barbara County Commission for Women, Monique helped create awareness of private and public resources for women in the County. She has a strong trajectory of community involvement which includes serving as a current board member of the McCune Foundation, ex-officio member of the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments, and the government representative for the Santa Barbara Rental Property Association. She has also served as past member of the Board of Directors for nonprofits Leading from Within, New Beginnings Counseling Center, and the Community Engagement Committee for the Granada Theatre, as well as a former Katherine Harvey Fellow through the Santa Barbara Foundation.
In the California Legislature, Monique served as the Chair of the Banking and Finance Committee for both the Assembly and Senate and Chair of the Select Committee on the Nonprofit Sector. Her colleagues elected her to serve as the Vice Chair of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus, where she worked in a bipartisan and bicameral way to advance issues impacting women and families in our State. Monique also served as a member of the Health, Natural Resources, Budget/Education Financing, Housing, and Community Development, Transportation policy committees in the California State Assembly and Senate.
Monique holds a Master of Education from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts from UC Berkeley. Monique, her husband, child, and pets reside in Santa Barbara County.
