Gov. Newsom Announces Appointments

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Gavin Newsom April 22 announced the following appointments:

Sophia Carrillo, of Santa Monica, has been appointed assistant general counsel of enforcement at the California Environmental Protection Agency. Carrillo was an assistant United States attorney at the United States Attorney’s Office, Central District of California from 2023 to 2025. She was a deputy attorney general at the California Department of Justice from 2019 to 2023. Carrillo was a judicial law clerk at the United States District Court, Eastern District of California from 2018 to 2019. She was an associate director of the mayor’s office of talent and appointments/D.C. human resources at the executive office of Mayor Muriel Bowser in 2015. Carrillo is a member of the Latino Community Foundation’s Los Angeles Giving Circle. She earned her Juris Doctor degree from Stanford Law School and a Bachelor of the Arts degree in Political Science and Sociology from the University of San Diego. This position does not require Senate confirmation and compensation is $174,000. Carrillo is a Democrat. 

Vanessa Ejike, of Cerritos, has been appointed to the State Board of Education. Ejike was a poll worker for the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk and an Intern for Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva in the California State Assembly in 2024. She is the national partnerships director for the High School Democrats of America, local affairs director for California High School Democrats, communications coordinator for the Pacific Coast Coalition of Girl Up USA, student representative for the Legislative and Policy Committee at the ABC Unified School District, and founder and chair of the Principal’s Advisory Council at Gretchen Whitney High School. This position does not require Senate confirmation, and the compensation is $100 per diem. Ejike is not registered to vote.