Legislative Advocate
The Quintana Cruz Company

Campus:  UC Davis

Term:  Winter 2015

UCCS Program:  Public Policy

Internship:  California Forward

Major:  Psychology

Hometown:  Sacramento (a “Navy brat” raised in many locations)

Current book:  “Milk and Honey” by Rupi Kaur

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Less than three years after graduating from UC Davis, Caity Maple is well into a career she loves and one that matches her life goals – legislative advocacy. As a lobbyist for the Quintana Cruz Company, Caity is becoming a fixture in “the Building”.

Caity’s progress from student to established advocate has been unusually quick and propelled by several key stops; first and foremost, UCCS and a 2015 internship with California Forward, a nonprofit involved with various aspects of government reform. Connections from quarter at UCCS helped secure a paid internship with the office of Assembly Chief Clerk Dotson Wilson and a subsequent job with her former internship where, as a project manager, she was immersed in the 2016 election and issues related to campaign finance. In early 2017, she jumped to the private sector as a lobbyist with California Advisors. In December of that year, she moved with partners David Quintana and Steve Cruz to their new firm.

Caity has never lacked motivation and drive, but she credits UC Center with providing opportunity. “The mentorship, and the applicable skills and connections were invaluable,” she says of her time at UC Center. “It was hands-on experience and gave me many of the connections I have today.”

Caity says she is especially grateful for help and mentorship from Bev Hansen, a lobbyist and former assemblywoman who served as UC Center Governance Fellow in 2015. “It’s hard to place a value on real-world experiences, but I could not be where I am today without that help,” she says of Hansen.

Her career doesn’t absorb all of Caity’s time, as her list of volunteer activities attests. She serves on the Ann Land and Bertha Henschel Memorial Funds Commission, a Sacramento entity that distributes resources from an endowment to poor and underserved neighborhoods. She also volunteers at a food bank, is fund-raising director for Fem Dems, was a board member for the Midtown Neighborhood Association, and an alternative for the Sacramento County Democratic Central Committee.

For fun, Caity is a passionate about the outdoors, especially on the trail. In 2017, she took that passion to the extreme by completing the “52-Hike Challenge” – one hike each week for the entire year.