My name is Forest Peterson–a North Star Progressive Democratic candidate–and I would be honored to continue representing this district as an AD23 delegate. I am a business founder, an engineer, a union activist, a parent, a teacher, a public servant, and a construction laborer with a deep understanding of what working people in the Bay Area need.

Time and again, I have been an advocate for those in need in our community. As a working PhD student, I fought for affordable housing, universal childcare, and dependent healthcare through the Stanford Solidarity Network, and succeeded in obtaining nearly $15,000,000 in grants to make doctoral studies affordable for students with children as well as establishing a monthly free food distribution for graduate students. As a founding engineer and labor-compliance lead for a fifty-million-dollar tech startup, I helped build technology to empower blue-collar workers and increase safety in the workplace. And when COVID-19 hit, I was a key member of Students for Workers’ Rights, organizing to protect contracted service workers on campus from layoffs and unfair treatment.

As a delegate, I will continue the work that I have begun as Santa Clara County’s first-ever labor standards investigator, to ensure the safety and fair treatment of workers throughout the district. I will continue the struggle to give every resident and every family the same opportunities not just to survive, but to succeed.

Elected, appointed, and membership positions

• Candidiate for Foothill-De Anza College District Board of Trustees to represent the Palo Alto - Stanford District.

• Santa Clara Valley Water District–Safe, Clean Water & Natural Flood Protection: Independent Monitoring Committee 

• co-Chair, Digital Twin (Building Information Model and Artificial Intelligence) sub-group of the Committee on Visualization in Transportation at the National Academies' Transportation Research Board

• California Democratic Party Caucuses Environmental, Chicano Latino, Progressive, and Labor–a crosssection that covers infrastructure public policy

• President, Silicon Valley Working Blue Democratic Club (associated with the Central Labor Council)

• Executive Board, Movimiento Democratic Coalition

• Steering Committee, Santa Clara County Wage Theft Coalition

• Past State Delegate to the California Federation of Teachers

• Nonprofit Board member, The Santa Clara County Construction Careers Association (S4CA)

• ASTM International, Committee E60 Subcommittee on Water Use

• The American Planning Association–Northern California (urban planning)

• California Association of Environmental Professionals–Monterey/Silicon Valley 

Thank you,

Forest (he/him)
forest@ad23.vote