Alum Alexander Walker-Griffin Takes Politics to Heart

Politics grad Alexander Walker-Griffin ’21 happily utilizes the Lasallian principles he learned at Saint Mary’s every single day. The busy vice mayor of Hercules—a city he moved to at the age of six and remains devoted to—transferred to SMC from Contra Costa College in 2016, and has been engaged in a whirlwind of activities ever since. He was appointed to the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges in 2017 by former Governor Brown, and he became vice mayor last December 2021. He serves as the project lead of the Hercules Waterfront Cleanup and is a member of the Hercules Education Foundation Board of Directors. And those are just his extracurriculars: He also works full-time as a political account manager. We asked Walker-Griffin to talk about his time at SMC, how he uses what he learned in his work, and where he hopes to promote change going forward. He is definitely an SMC alum to watch!

SMC: Briefly, what do you do?

AWG: I wear a couple of hats. I work for Comcast and their political team. I'm their political account manager from the Central Valley, all the way up to the Sacramento region. I work with elected officials, helping them run their campaigns. A good chunk of my time is spent working with them and trying to figure out that magical number that they need to win that election, and using our special tools and systems that we have in place to identify their target ranges. I did a lot of it in my campaign, so basically, I'm just helping them with the same model. Somebody gives me a district that they're running for, say, city council school board. I say, Okay, well, here are your consistent voters. Here's the demographics you want to reach out to, and here's how we're going to carve this out. That's the day job.

And outside of that, I have the pleasure of serving as Vice Mayor of Hercules. I've lived here since I was six years old. It's my hometown. I sit on a bunch of different committees, and I sit on a couple boards outside the city council. And the last thing I do is I’m an officer in the [National] Guard. And I sit on a couple nonprofit boards, and advisory boards for a variety of things. One of them is the California Young Leaders Advisory Council through California Forward. And this year, we're working on a lot of higher education stuff and a lot of criminal justice reform. So, I probably wear three, four different hats every single day.

SMC: What do you love about what you do?

AWG: No day is ever the same, and every single day, whether it's the city council or it's my actual day job, or it's something with the [National] Guard, there's always a new challenge. I'm always about what's next, and I always want to progress. There's never a dull moment. These past few years, I just wanted to take the opportunity to explore as many things as I possibly can. But then at the same time, knock out a bunch of personal goals as well.

SMC: What are your greatest challenges right now?

AWG: The greatest challenge for me is time: remembering that I'm 24, and then at the same time just prioritizing—everyday life stuff. I feel now time just kind of flies by. And in the past two weeks, I've actually lost two friends tragically. And just this past Saturday, I was at one of their funerals. And so really for me, it’s remembering that time and people are extremely valuable.

SMC: Did someone at Saint Mary’s inspire you to do what you do?

AWG: Definitely, Professors Patrizia Longo and Susan Weissman were my two biggest inspirations. One because they were ruthless and steadfast in their beliefs and everything that they did. But they were also compassionate. And that was one of the reasons why I was excited about Saint Mary's. I transferred to Saint Mary's from Contra Costa College [CCC]. And I was student body president at CCC. So basically, I was running the campus! And at the same time, just days before, I actually accepted my [National Guard assignment] paperwork at Saint Mary's. I was at the Camp Fire [the devastating 2018 fire in Northern California]; my unit got activated and we were sent up to Paradise.

I needed a school that was going to have professors who were understanding. And I heard a lot of good things about Saint Mary's. I had friends who went there, and I graduated with a couple of people that I grew up with. [People at Saint Mary’s] had been nothing but supportive—with tough love in some cases—and at the same time open and honest, and really just willing to make things work out and help navigate that crazy process of college.

SMC: How did Saint Mary’s help prepare you for your career or otherwise affect who you are today?

AWG: Definitely the stuff that we would read—a lot of it was social justice–related, a lot workers' rights–related. Stuff that I use especially with my work on the city council. When it comes to understanding workers’ rights, when it comes to understanding socioeconomic issues, it's really opened my eyes to a plethora of issues. And actually, fun fact: My very first council meeting, I introduced two items. One was to get our Police Chief Advisory Board off the ground, which is now up and running. And the second item that I introduced that same night was Hercules’ equal pay ordinance. Now it's a law in Hercules. I was able to get it passed and got unanimous support the entire way, but I can definitely guarantee you, my thinking wouldn't have been in the direction of making sure that people who live at Hercules are paid equally if it wasn't for my Gender Studies class. And if it wasn't for my Politics of Labor class, because this very day, I'm still thinking about a lot of those books, and the conversations that I've had that really sparked my interest.

SMC: How was your experience transferring to Saint Mary’s?

AWG: It was actually pretty easy. Again, it was kind of a crazy time as I was transferring. The Camp Fire was going on; I was just about to get activated. And so, I'm sending in my college application just as fast as I'm sending in my paperwork, so I can go on this fire mission. But then at the same time, I was leaving the school that really set the tone and foundation for my success. Again, I was the student body president, and at the same time, too, I was serving on the California Community College Board of Governors, the system that runs the community college system here in the state. I chose Saint Mary's because of its process and accessibility. I didn't want to feel like a number. I wanted to feel still like Alex just as much as I felt when I was at Contra Costa College.

SMC: Did your military experience play a part in your choosing Saint Mary’s?

AWG: Without a doubt. I'm still an active service member. I was coming back from the Camp Fire when I got to Saint Mary's; it had only been a couple weeks since I came back home. My unit is really active; California's always having emergencies. I needed a school that would understand that I don't know when I'm going to be gone, but should I disappear for however long, here are my orders, please don't push back my graduation date, and understand that if you send me an assignment, I'll do it to the best of my ability. I needed that flexibility and that understanding. Little fun fact: I was still at CCC during the time that the Camp Fire was going on, and I did an assignment in a tent when one of my shifts ended.

I chose Saint Mary's because I needed that school that could allow me to be flexible. And I wouldn't have gotten that at a bigger institution where it's 200 other people in my classroom.

SMC: Anything else you’d like to say to current SMC students?

AWG: My doors are open especially to people who are interested in getting into politics. I'm more than happy to help point somebody in the right direction because I know how confusing it is trying to figure out an internship and figure out this community in college. So, if anybody is interested, you can send him or her my way!