Janet Hernández is the Associate Director of the Elections and Voting Program at Democracy Fund, an independent foundation working to ensure that our political system is able to withstand new challenges and deliver on its promise to the American people. In her role, Janet oversees two initiatives: Voting Power, which seeks to build the power of communities of color around voting and elections, and Resilient Elections, which aims to strengthen the election administration system.
Janet has nearly 15 years of experience leading national community-grounded programs in leadership development and organizing, naturalization, voter engagement, and issue campaigns. During her time at UnidosUS (formerly the National Council of La Raza), the largest Latino civil rights organization in the country, Janet led a number of programs that strengthened the voter engagement ecosystem and worked with Latino and immigrant communities across the country to push for policy changes on issues affecting them. More recently, she dedicated her time to strengthening the voting power of multi-racial communities through a national voter registration campaign and providing low-income people of color access to life-saving COVID-19 vaccines through the Made to Save campaign.
Janet is the daughter of a community organizer who taught her early on about the need to organize. She is a native of the US/Mexico border and a Kellogg Foundation Community Leadership Network Alumna. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Management from the American University in Washington, D.C., and a Certificate in Leadership, Organizing, and Action from the Harvard Kennedy School.