Daniela Medina

Assistant Director, Berkeley Underground Scholars Program
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Daniela Medina earned her M.S.W. with a concentration in Strengthening Organizations and Communities from UC Berkeley in 2021 and her B.A. in Social Welfare from UC Berkeley in 2019.

She is from Oakland, CA, and has worked closely with Underground Scholars for several years supporting formerly incarcerated students like herself. She is an award-winning expert on higher education for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people, an experienced program manager, and a thought leader.

Medina previously worked at Community & Youth Outreach, providing direct service support to those reentering the community after incarceration.

She is a certified life coach, a Young Professionals of Color Fellow with the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, a Latinx Center of Excellence Scholar, and a current Perez Research Fellow at Bright Research Group in Oakland. Medina is also the co-founder and host of the Berkeley Underground Scholars podcast, On The Tier.