Raised by a single mother, Lola grew up watching her mother choose between livelihood and motherhood. As a daughter of a veteran and registered nurse, she has lived experience of the conditions working families face and the harsh economic conditions that drive compounded poverty and social inequities. 

Lola attended Cal-State Hayward where she obtained a B.S. in Communications. She began her career in journalism, where she sought to bring the stories of working families in oppressed communities alive through local journalism. Lola wrote for the Oakland Tribune and held her first union membership with the Newspaper Guild. She had her first worker organizing experience as a young journalist there, where she worked to stop the pink-slipping of several workers and successfully won their fight to keep their jobs. Lola continued on to become a staff writer for other leading local outlets including the Long Beach Press-Telegram and the Chicago Tribune. After experiencing the mass corporatization of local media and documenting the conditions of working people, Lola entered the labor movement. 

She served as the political and community coordinator for SEIU Local 1877 (now SEIU USWW). She was a lead organizer throughout the Justice for Janitors campaign where she organized over 4,000 security officers to a landslide victory securing a 40% pay increase, health benefits, and job security. Lola’s success cemented her as a labor leader in Los Angeles, and she moved on to the UCLA Labor Center where she founded the Center for the Advancement of Racial Equity at Work. Her role in labor education and labor policy at UCLA springboarded her co-founding of the Los Angeles Black Worker Center. The Los Angeles Black Worker Center has now become a national model and has been recognized by Labor Secretary Tom Perez and President Barack Obama. Lola is an instrumental leader in expanding the number of Black Worker Centers nationwide. She holds a leadership position within the Southern California Black Worker Hub for Regional Organizing, where she builds the capacity of community based organizations and labor unions to support the growth of worker centers regionally. Lola served as the treasurer for the LA County Workforce Development Board and in various advocacy positions with the US Department of Labor and the LA County Worker Center Network.

Lola’s work in the labor movement and community organizing is centered in achieving racial equity in the workplace to address societal issues at large. She has an innate and personal understanding of the jobs crisis that keeps far too many Californians unhoused, unemployed, and lacking a social safety net. Lola’s legislative goals include enhancing the role of Cal/OSHA and the Labor & Workforce Development Agency in enforcing workers rights, expanding the right to collectively bargain, expanding social safety net programs that act as supports to working families, and funding public employment benefit programs that create good union jobs. Lola is also committed to achieving a just transition by building a new green economy, progressive justice reforms,  and securing universal healthcare for all Californians. Lola is the most progressive candidate in the race, and identifies as a Working Families Democrat. 

Lola is active in her community and serves as the President of the Inadale Block Club. Lola is married with two school-aged children. They have resided in the View-Park neighborhood for over 20 years.