Norma Palacios serves as the Policy Coordinator at DPA’s California Policy Office. In her role, she supports legislative advocacy at the state and local level to advance policies that treat drugs and drug use through a public health approach and that promote equitable community care. Her experiences living in a working-class Latino community have served as her main motivation for advocating and implementing new forms of community-based safety measures in opposition to the inhumane carceral state. Norma has experience in developing alternatives to incarceration strategies and advancing legislation at the intersection of immigration and drug policies. She completed her undergraduate studies at California State University, Long Beach and obtained her B.S. in Criminology and Criminal Justice and is a native Spanish speaker.