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Liat has lived in Vallejo for the last 38 years. She retired from a career with the federal government 10 years ago but has worked on various social justice issues for the last 30 years. She first became involved with the city when her neighborhood became overrun with drug dealers in the 1990s. She learned that you had to get involved within your community to help make it a better place to live for all residents.
She has served on several boards, commissions and community-based organizations. including the Greater Vallejo Recreation District Board of Directors for 15 years, the City of Vallejo’s Human Relations Commission for 10 years, and many social justice groups like the Vallejo Housing Justice Coalition. She is currently serving as board president for both Fresh Air Vallejo and the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum.
Additionally, Liat has collaborated with various community-based organizations that address social justice issues such as the Vallejo Alcohol and Tobacco Policy Coalition, Vallejo Housing Justice Coalition, and Fresh Air Vallejo.
Fresh Air Vallejo is a group of volunteers of all ages who work together promoting environmental justice in the community. The group came together when the city was processing an application for a cement factory planned for the waterfront in south Vallejo. It was clear that this type of industry would be detrimental to not only the people living in that area but the entire city as well as our surrounding Bay Area. South Vallejo is known to have the highest rates of asthma in children and other adult respiratory illnesses in the state of California. It took five years of fighting before the cement factory project was scrapped.
The work Fresh Air Vallejo is doing is of foremost importance, especially now as the city is drafting the first ever Environmental Justice Policy. As someone who has lived in this city for almost four decades, Liat has found that the community needs to work together through advocacy for social change. “When we work together, change happens!”