Anna Marie Caballero

Anna M. Caballero
Secretary


Secretary - Anna M. Caballero Biography

Anna M. Caballero serves Governor Jerry Brown as a member of his cabinet and as Secretary of the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency. Her mission as Secretary mirrors her 34 year career fighting for working families. Caballero’s responsibility as Secretary includes the oversight of departments charged with funding affordable housing, civil rights enforcement, banking and financial transactions, consumer protection, and the licensing of three million working professionals.
Prior to her appointment, Secretary Caballero served as a member of the California State Assembly for four years and Mayor of Salinas and council member for fifteen years; she carries with her local and state government expertise that make her uniquely qualified to help the Governor achieve his goals: to transform state government to be more efficient, open and transparent and consumer, service oriented.

A graduate of UCLA law school and UC San Diego, Caballero has dedicated her professional life to families in the Salinas Valley. She first put her legal acumen to work representing farm workers as an attorney for California Rural Legal Assistance. Dedicated to representing working families at a price they could afford, Caballero and two colleagues formed the law firm of Caballero, Matcham and McCarthy, opening offices in Salinas and Hollister. The firm received numerous awards for excellence during its 25 year history, and Secretary Caballero personally received the Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce’s most distinguished award, the Athena, for Entrepreneurial Excellence and commitment to the community.

Born to a family of copper miners from Arizona, Caballero has dedicated her working life to empower working families and to create opportunities for them and their children to be successful. While in the Assembly she received numerous awards for her work in youth violence prevention, protection of local government, support for public school construction, and water reliability and sustainability.

Prior to her election to the Assembly, Caballero established a non-profit organization dedicated to youth violence prevention. Partners for Peace helped parents and youth develop stronger family bonds and encourage healthy behavior. PFP focused on supporting literacy, after school activities, early childhood development, youth employment and high school dropout prevention strategies in partnership with other organizations.

Secretary Caballero is a wife, mother of three adult children and grandmother of five. Her husband, Juan Uranga is the executive director of the Center for Community Advocacy in Salinas.