Above: Jasmine Nájera accompanies Congressman Jimmy Panetta to attend President Joe Biden’s State of the Union in March 2024.
Jasmine Nájera comes from a family of helpers. From a young age, she knew she wanted to live a life that helped those around her, and with a three-decade career in social work and currently serving as the CEO of Pajaro Valley Prevention and Student Assistance (PVPSA), Nájera (Oakes ’97, history) has done just that.
PVPSA serves children, youth, and families in the Pajaro Valley region by providing health education, mental health and substance-use services, and family-centered programming, and advocating for public policies that protect community well-being.
“We’ve always been a family of helpers, all the way back to my great-grandfather,” Nájera said. “It was very much instilled in us that if you’re given opportunities and access, you should help others, mentor those coming up, and create opportunities.”
Nájera’s aunt and uncle—Santa Cruz County–born and raised, as was Nájera—attended UCSC in the 1970s. Her aunt, Olga Nájera-Ramírez (Merrill ’77, history and Latin American studies), who became a UC Santa Cruz anthropology professor, was always a role model for Nájera. Another one of her aunts, Alicia Nájera, attended Stanford University and later San Jose State University, earning a master’s in social work and becoming a licensed clinical social worker. Nájera quickly realized she wanted to follow a similar path into social work.
“I grew up seeing her in the role of social work and feeling like that was something I wanted to pursue,” Nájera said.
“I had a high school counselor who told me, ‘Don’t bother applying to college, you won’t make it.’ But my aunt [Olga], who by then had become a UCSC professor, was like, ‘Nobody’s going to tell you or anybody else that,’ and her guidance and mentorship were key in supporting me along the way.”
After her UCSC graduation in 1997, Nájera worked for Fenix Services, supporting youth who were under juvenile probation supervision, and then a year later transitioned to Children’s Behavioral Health with the County of Santa Cruz, where she worked for eight years. There, she sharpened her focus to provide counseling services.
In 2003, Nájera followed in both her aunts’ footsteps by attending the University of Texas at Austin, graduating with a master’s in social work in 2005.
“My aunt Olga took me to visit UT Austin when I was 11 while she was in graduate school there, and it formed a positive in impression my mind,” Nájera said. “So, I moved out to Texas to attend UT Austin’s social work program.”
In 2005, Nájera returned to California and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area and at Juma Ventures in San Francisco, supporting positive youth development with counseling and case management services, financial literacy, and college and career development. After a year, she decided it was time to come home to Santa Cruz County.
She worked with adults at the county jail through the Santa Cruz County Behavioral Health Division for 16 years in total, but always knew she wanted to return to work with youth. When a position opened up, she took the opportunity, but three months later, the COVID-19 pandemic shut the world down. For Nájera, working from home and being unable to assist her community in person was a difficult transition.
Eventually, Nájera found her way to PVPSA. She began providing contracted clinical supervision for students interning at PVPSA in master’s-level social work programs and then served as the interim executive director. She quickly fell in love with the staff, organization, and community-centered work and officially took the helm at PVPSA in 2022.
For Nájera, the most rewarding part of her job is giving back to her community and “growing their own staff.”
“Mentoring and hiring directly from our community, creating a workforce development pathway, is required for us to continue to staff our organization and offer services to our community,” Nájera said. “We are proud to have supported the supervision and clinical growth of staff for our larger community for the past 30 years.”
Najera was honored to recently accompany Congressman Jimmy Panetta as a guest at President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in March.
“It was an honor to be there, and a once in a lifetime opportunity—I never once thought that would be on the horizon,” Nájera said. “It was an amazing experience and I am so grateful Congressman Panetta uplifted our organization and the importance of youth behavioral health needs and services.”
In every aspect of her life, Nájera continues to embody the spirit of service instilled in her by her family.
“I fell in love with the staff, with the organization, and found my home [at PVPSA],” she said. “I found a space where we are a nonprofit that mentors and trains service providers and primarily provides mental health, counseling, and wellness support across the spectrum to youth and families. I am proud of that.”