Staff

Carlos Aguilar, Development & Operations Associate
Sonia Gonzales, Executive Director
Natalia Merluzzi, Program & Policy Director
Joe Swimmer, Development & Communications Director

Carlos Aguilar, Development & Operations Associate
caguilar(at)calbarfoundation(dot)org, (415) 856-0780 ext. 301

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Carlos Aguilar joined the California Bar Foundation as Operations & Development Associate in March 2013. Before joining the Foundation, Carlos served as a campaign director, specializing in orchestrating and running field campaigns for various non-profit and political groups.

Carlos is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, where he earned two B.A. degrees in Political Science and Philosophy. While attending UC Davis, Carlos worked part time for the Office of Development as a student fundraiser. Throughout his academic and professional development, Carlos has remained committed to working in the non-profit sector in order to empower those with the greatest needs. 

Sonia Gonzales, Executive Director
sgonzales(at)calbarfoundation(dot)org, (415) 856-0780 ext. 303

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The Board of Directors of the California Bar Foundation appointed Sonia Gonzales as the Executive Director in January 2012. 

Since joining the Foundation, Ms. Gonzales has focused on leveraging the philanthropic power of California’s legal community to expand access to justice for the state’s most vulnerable populations.  She has prioritized collaborative funding efforts to support the most pressing needs in legal services.  As head of California’s only statewide legal foundation, Sonia leads a team dedicated to funding grants and scholarships to California’s innovative legal services organizations and the next generation of attorneys.  She speaks on issues of diversity in the profession and the practice of law in the public interest.

Ms. Gonzales gained broad legal, political, policy and management experience over the last decade working with both the grass-roots and the grass-tops from the private, public and not-for profit sectors building and maintaining coalitions of support amongst a diverse array of lawyers, elected officials, advocacy organizations, grass-roots and community leaders, donors, volunteers and voters. 

Sonia Gonzales joined the Foundation from the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, a nonprofit, nonpartisan legal organization that advances, protects and promotes the rights of communities of color, immigrants and refugees –  by leveraging the power of the private bar to support direct service, impact litigation and policy advocacy legal strategies.  After joining the Lawyers’ Committee in January 2010 as its Managing Director, Ms. Gonzales worked closely with the Board and staff to reshape the organization’s systems, infrastructure and programs and to create the first new strategic plan in over a decade.  She was named Interim Executive Director in August 2011.  

Before joining the Lawyers’ Committee, Ms. Gonzales was Assistant Director of the ACLU of Northern California, where she partnered with the Executive Director in managing operations of the nation’s largest ACLU affiliate with a 60- person staff, 50- person Board of Directors and 53,000- person membership.  Previously, she worked at Morrison & Foerster LLP in San Francisco and, as a law student at the National ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.

Prior to law school, Sonia served on Capitol Hill as a political director for a major presidential campaign in 2004 and for the Democratic National Committee during the 2000 presidential election cycle, and as a legislative assistant and press secretary for a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Sonia currently serves on the Board of Directors for Centro Legal de la Raza in Oakland and was a member of the Civil Rights Task Force for California Attorney General Kamala Harris’ Transition Team.  She is an advisory committee member and graduate of OneJustice’s Executive Fellowship as well as a participant in the NYU Wagner School of Public Policy’s Lead the Way Fellowship for Women of Color Leaders in the Non Profit sector. 

Sonia received her J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) and her B.A. from Stanford University.

Natalia Merluzzi, Program & Policy Director
nmerluzzi(at)calbarfoundation(dot)org, (415) 856-0780 ext. 302

Natalia Merluzzi joins the California Bar Foundation from the Department of Justice where she prosecuted cases on behalf of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.  At the Justice Department, Natalia also served as Special Assistant to the Hon. Tony West while he was Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division.  In that capacity, she monitored and coordinated the Civil Division’s national litigation and policy efforts, which included national security matters, litigation related to the constitutionality of DOMA, and state-immigration preemption litigation.  Prior to working at the Justice Department, Natalia was the Racial Justice Project Fellow at the ACLU of Northern California.  There she focused on criminal justice issues related to school pushout, voter disenfranchisement, and disproportionate minority incarceration.  She began her career as a litigation associate at Morrison & Foerster LLP.  Natalia is a graduate of Berkeley Law where she was Articles Editor for the California Law Review and the Berkeley Journal of African American Law & Policy. 

Joe Swimmer, Development & Communications Director
jswimmer(at)calbarfoundation(dot)org, (415) 856-0780 ext. 304

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Joe Swimmer joined the California Bar Foundation (CBF) as the Director of Development and Communications in November 2012. Before to coming to CBF, Joe served as the Associate Director of Annual Giving and Gift Officer for the University of California, Berkeley Law School (Boalt Hall). 

Joe graduated with a degree in history and religion from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. He studied for his MA in American Indian History at the University of Tulsa and holds his law degree from Stanford Law School. He is a member of the State Bar of California. 

Over his career, Joe has been active in numerous civic and professional organizations, having served on the boards of Academy of Friends, the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association and Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom, holding leadership positions with each. Joe also served on the vestry of St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church and currently serves on the Stewardship Committee for St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in San Francisco. 

After practicing law in San Francisco, Joe worked with LexisNexis in business development, marketing and market planning for almost a decade. Returning to Stanford, Joe worked with alumni on the East Coast for the Stanford Alumni Association. Following his time at Stanford, Joe worked with the Georgetown Law School Alumni Association in Washington, D.C., before returning to San Francisco and joining Boalt Hall.

Joe is a member of the Cherokee Nation and has served his tribe in a variety of advisory and support roles over the years. He lives in Hayes Valley in San Francisco.