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The Sacramento Bee and Nehemiah Leaders Programs are celebrating this year’s 60 Change Makers. Join them at our gala at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 13 at the Grand Sheraton in downtown Sacramento. Buy tickets at sacramentochangemakers.com.
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Growing up in Rohnert Park, Zaire Harris joined “every girls’ math and science program you could imagine,” on the belief that one day she’d become a veterinarian.
But in her free time, she was preoccupied with civics.
Her mother joked that she started debating as a newborn. Harris said she pursued leadership positions “anytime there was something I could run for,” and became her school’s first Black student body president. In her first week at Spelman College in Atlanta, one of Harris’ teachers implored her to switch from medicine to a political science track.
Harris took that advice and never looked back, and has pursued work in policy and advocacy in the years since.
Harris was in Atlanta during Stacey Abrams’ campaign for governor and she said she saw “what voter suppression looked like in real time.” She went on to a fellowship working for the California Senate’s majority leader at the time, Robert Hertzberg. Then at Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, she worked on a slate of policy recommendations in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case that overturned a constitutional right to abortion.
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After four years with Planned Parenthood, Harris was hired as a culture and inclusion program manager for Golden One Credit Union, where she oversees the credit union’s seven employee resource groups, among other things.
She helped revamp the groups’ heritage months. During Black History Month, speakers came to Golden One Credit Union to speak about streetwear culture, Black fraternities and sororities, and members of the Wiltown Riders spoke about the history of Black cowboys.
It’s rewarding, Harris said, to help people feel comfortable bringing their “full selves” to work. And in this day and age, when money is tight, workers want to feel that they — and their efforts — are valued.
“You want to feel like it’s worth it. You want to be seen and humanized,” Harris said. “I think that’s what people need right now. I think people are going through a lot.”
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