Steering Committee
October 2025 – January 2027
Co-Chair
Joel Berger
(any/all)
Growing up in Sonoma County and being a part of this community since I was 2 years old has meant so much to me. I see this county’s challenges in a large light, but more importantly, I see the people that live here. I know they love it here too, but they also want things to be better, and so do I.
We have seen leftist action and values make an immeasurable positive impact on people here, and I am elated to help make more of that happen in our community. I couldn’t ask for a better chapter to represent.
The people here have heart, charisma, and energy within them to make a real and lasting impact here in Sonoma County, and I am honored they elected me as a Co-Chair.
Co-Chair
Estel Quintana
(they/she)
I am a proud democratic socialist because I believe in a world where everyone is guaranteed dignity, respect and the ability to thrive in their lives.
I grew up in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Santa Rosa and to Latine immigrant parents. Their struggles to adapt to late-stage capitalism and being economic refugees told me that it is time we make this country live up to the promises that it hasn’t fulfilled. And I want to empower ordinary people to have a voice in this society and create the space for people to fight for the world they deserve.
I have always dreamed of a world where the fear of scarcity no longer exists. I have seen what the lack of resources to get healthcare, rent, food, or personal enrichment has done to people. I want a world where anyone who lives is able to live a fulfilling life and centers working class people as the final authority on how things are done.
Secretary
Cameron Kaiser
(he/him)
Secretary Cam here, I write notes and stuff.
I believe in a better future where work affords us luxuries, not the right to exist. Currently, we have the opposite: the people work to survive, and the rich enjoy decadent luxury without having to work in the first place. America is the richest country in the world and yet all we have to show for it are super-yachts and mass-poverty? The big boss gets to decide if the mother fostering children and working two jobs is valuable enough to be able to afford rent and feed her child? There’s only one path forward to empowering the people and deconstructing old-money hierarchy: Socialism. The only ones who lose under socialism are the ones who have exploited the people in the first place, and it’s about time we pull the Musks and Thiels of the world back down to Earth.
Together we can achieve radical change. Together we can make a better world for ourselves and our children.
Membership Coordinator
Nick Cameron
(he/him)
As Membership Coordinator, I am dedicated to growing our chapter, forming a strong community for members, and integrating us into the fabric of Sonoma County. There is a joy in standing together to improve the lives of our neighbors, and I intend for that to be my guiding light.
Though I am a newcomer to political organizing, I have a design background and a long history of event organizing in my personal life. I intend to leverage these skills in my role, as well as empower others to build up our fantastic chapter!
Electoral Co-Chair
Paul O’Connell
(he/him)
I’m a socialist organizer with experience working in student, electoral, and community organizing. My political journey started in 2015 when Bernie Sanders’s first presidential run showed me that a better world was possible, and that the cost of things like healthcare and education didn’t have to be a constant ongoing source of looming economic stress.
By 2020 I had become a socialist, and in 2022 after years of organizing alongside DSA comrades, I finally became a member myself as I took on the role of Campaign Manager for DSA-endorsed State Senator Omar Fateh’s re-election campaign. I recently moved back home to Sonoma County to be closer to family, and got involved with SoCo DSA in July.
I firmly believe that everyday people have the intelligence and the capacity to change the world, if we put in the work. And every day I spend with our chapter affirms that belief.
Electoral Co-Chair
Jay Belmonarch
(he/him)
I was first radicalized as a teenager, at the Occupy Wall Street protests in Sonoma County. Profoundly disappointed, I have since worked to learn how to organize something more useful: a resilient and sustainable organization capable of coordinating a united front to win working-class policies and local independence from capitalist systems.
My vision for the Sonoma County Democratic Socialists of America is of an organization that can direct the righteous passions of our community into building alternative support networks, winning material policy gains, and forming a mass political movement of the proletariat and precariat of Sonoma County.
In the face of nascent fascism, socialists have a duty to exercise solidarity with democratic reform and revolution, and it is my mission to create a robust organization that can host and collaborate with diverse pro-democracy efforts in an inclusive and comprehensive socialist movement.
Media Officer
Brenna Thompson
(any)
SoCo DSA is working hard for a better world, and I want the world to know! I’m a former journalist and ASL interpreting intern with a passion for communication. As Media Officer, I oversee all of our chapter’s communications, including the website you’re reading right now, the posts on your social media feeds, and the newsletter in your inbox. (Go read it!)
My politics are rooted in community, in the actions we take and the meaning we make together. Just as many hands make light work, many voices make a chorus. Our chapter is home to a diverse, powerful range of voices, and I’m honored to be their loudspeaker.
Over my tenure, I hope we become too loud to ignore, that our demands and calls to action are heard across Sonoma County and beyond. And I hope that your voice is among them.
Treasurer
Ian Munc
(he/him)
Since 2016 Ian has known what he was fighting against, but it wasn’t until he found DSA that he knew what he was fighting FOR.
He now firmly believes that the purpose of holding political office is to try to make as many people’s lives as possible better, and that those that have achieved great success owe a great debt back to the community in which they thrived.
There is no denying that we are living in late-stage capitalism; the only question is what comes next. Oligarchic autocracy or democratic socialism? I’m pretty clear on which one I’d prefer.
Contingent Steering Officer
August Smith
(they/he)
I’m an artist and writer who moved to the Bay Area a couple years ago after growing up in Arizona. The self evident failure of capitalism made me a socialist; DSA made me an organizer. Working with DSA has bolstered my hope in a way that my years of solo protesting never did.
I believe in a future where we all are free and people are cared for over profit. I’m passionate about mutual aid and using art, play, and creativity for personal and community development.
“The only way to learn is by playing. The only way to win is by learning. And the only way to begin is by beginning.”