Staff

Wendy Santamaria
Santa Barbara Organzier

 

Wendy is the Community Organizer in Santa Barbara, where she organizes adults and young college-age adults to fight for worker's rights, tenant's rights, immigrant rights, and environmental justice. Her passion for social justice comes from her experiences as a Latinx woman, daughter of immigrants and first generation college student. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara in June 2020 with a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy, where she first began organizing with students to advocate for basic needs such as funding for food and housing insecurity, increased financial aid for low income students, resources for sexual assault survivors, and more. During this time, Wendy first began her work around the housing crisis, first lobbying representatives for increased funding for housing for low income students, and later worked with the City of Sacramento to begin an affordable housing program for college students and senior citizens in the area. In response to the exacerbated housing crisis during COVID, she quickly organized with other community members in Isla Vista to deliver tenant's rights information and to hold landlords accountable who were exploiting tenants in light of the confusion of the start of the pandemic. Named the Isla Vista Housing Crisis Coalition, the group organized to distribute resources to the community, connect tenants with legal assistance, and successfully launched a know-your-rights campaign. In addition to community organizing, Wendy has worked on multiple political campaigns, from the Measure R 2018 campaign to fund the first government in Isla Vista, to organizing for the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2020.

 

Wendy has been advocating for marginalized communities for the last 4 years in a policy and organizing capacity before joining the CAUSE team in August 2020. In her spare time, she serves as an Assembly District Delegate to the California Democratic Party, a 2-year term in which she plans to push for a more inclusive and progressive party for all. While not working, she loves going on roadtrips, hiking, and playing with her 4 month old pup, Pebbles. 

(805) 850-3028