Charlene Wang, the Oakland City Councilmember representing District 2, has had a career spanning local, state, and federal governments, leading complex reforms in housing, homelessness, transportation, education, public safety, and environmental justice policies, including leading the $4 billion federal Reconnecting Communities initiative, a landmark infrastructure program repairing the damage caused by highways that displaced and divided disenfranchised communities nationwide. Earlier in her career, she restructured homeless response systems, helped implement universal preschool and Head Start programs and advanced environmental justice and civil rights enforcement at the U.S. EPA. Shaped by firsthand exposure to gender-based violence, Charlene has made combating violence against women and vulnerable people a core focus of her work. On the City Council, she chairs the Public Safety Committee and chairs Oakland’s anti-human-trafficking task force. Charlene centers community, especially voices that are often left out of policy spaces, in her mission to help build an Oakland where safety, opportunity, and justice are lived realities for every resident.