Camille Zapata

Digital Director, Office of the Governor

This story is part of our July 2025 Young Professionals issue, photographed at Bradshaw Animal Shelter. To learn more about adopting at Bradshaw, click here.

It’s been a busy year for Camille Zapata. In June, the political strategist marked her first anniversary as the digital director for Gov. Gavin Newsom, in a year marked by the devastating LA fires and the return of the Trump administration.

“I have a very hectic life,” laughs Zapata, 29. “My mom is always like, ‘When are you going to just breathe a little bit?’ But I have the endurance. I’ll just keep going.”

The self-described “Zillennial” — on the cusp between Generation Z and Millennials — leads a team of three that handles everything from graphic design to social media, as well as rapid response. “We are living in a crazy time,” she says. “So rapid responses on Twitter, Threads, BlueSky, are really essential.”

Gov. Newsom’s TikTok audience recently went from 500,000 followers to 1.5 million after his clash with President Trump over the LA protests. The governor’s TikTok is telling California’s story through bold photography, direct-to-camera videos and trending audio. Zapata says she and her team have a unique advantage because their generation has grown up in the digital space since day one, noting that most people under 40 get their news primarily from TikTok.

Zapata’s first spark for activism began while growing up in Stockton, where moving between neighborhoods gave her an acute awareness of the environmental and social disparities around her. “I had such a stark understanding of the difference in terms of resources, where trees are planted, the air quality, and my mom being really intentional about wanting to move us out of south Stockton to north,” she says.

After earning a degree in cultural anthropology from UC Santa Cruz, Zapata returned home to the Central Valley in 2018 during the height of then-Mayor Michael Tubbs’ administration. “He was a highly visible young Black man from south Stockton who told profound stories around the city and how media outlets have always said it wasn’t worth investing in,” she explains. He also talked about its potential for reinvention and being named the most diverse city in the U.S. “So that turned my attention back home.”

Through that movement she met her first mentor, Dr. Nancy Huante-Tzintzun, an assistant professor in Sac State’s ethnic studies department. “Nancy used academia as a way to engage in movement building,” Zapata explains. She also taught her about concepts like the school-to-prison pipeline. “So I felt very culturally rooted and very inspired to organize around issues of poverty and help those disparities.”

Meeting former Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman was another turning point. “I thought she was so cool! She was a lesbian, a veteran and an assemblymember,” says Zapata, who identifies as queer and was hired on as her San Joaquin County field organizer. She went on to lead Eggman’s senate campaign in 2020. “She specifically told me, when a door opens, have the confidence to step through it. That’s something I always carry with me.”

“The reality is that, especially as you get into more places of power, you’re going to be pressured to be smaller. But just refuse that. Just tell yourself, ‘No, I know that I’m bright and talented as the person next to me.’ Operate from a place of knowing you deserve as much space as the next person.”

The mentorship from other women in her life has been central to Zapata’s growth. That’s why she says she’s happy to have recently taken the helm of the California Women’s List, a political action committee that endorses and raises funds to elect pro-choice Democratic women to public office. “There’s no patriarchy we’re competing against there. It’s just a space for us to come together and think about how we are going to fundraise and leverage our own power to build power for other women. And to me, that’s a really sacred cause,” she says.

Her advice for young women today? “The reality is that, especially as you get into more places of power, you’re going to be pressured to be smaller,” she says. “But just refuse that. Just tell yourself, ‘No, I know that I’m bright and talented as the person next to me.’ Operate from a place of knowing you deserve as much space as the next person.”

Outside of politics, Zapata is settling into a new home with her husband of two years Davis Harper Zapata and indulging her passions for painting and photography. “I want to capture the process of being in this job — to remember what it was like to work for a California governor during the second Trump administration, after Roe fell. It’s something I’ll always look back on.”

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