Meet Aretha Welch

Name: Aretha Leah Welch
Title: EEO Manager
Division: Executive Office
CPUC Tenure: 6 months 
Headquarters: Sacramento 
 
CPUC role: As the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) manager, my team and I ensure the CPUC is a workplace where every employee has an equal opportunity to succeed, feel safe, respected, and included. I work on programs that promote equity, inclusion, accessibility, and compliance with state and federal civil rights laws, while partnering with leaders across the organization to strengthen workplace culture, resolve concerns, provide training, and develop policies that foster fairness and belonging. Ultimately, my role is to help build a workplace where every employee can do their best work and every Californian can have confidence in the fairness of the public servants who serve them.

What initiatives at the CPUC make you proud to work here? 
Working with my director, Nancy Diaz, is an honor. She is deeply committed to making sure no one within the CPUC, or within the communities we serve, feels sidelined, unsafe, or unwelcome. Equal employment work is emotionally demanding and mentally challenging, but the CPUC's ongoing commitment to strengthening equity and inclusion makes me proud to be part of this organization. 

What does the CPUC’s newest core value, inclusion, mean to you?
To me, inclusion reflects the minimum standard of how we should treat one another. We are all human, and we all deserve dignity and respect. There should never be qualifiers someone has to meet before they are treated with humanity. Inclusion means making sure everyone has the opportunity to belong, contribute, and be respected, regardless of who they are. At its core, it means simply being decent to one another.

What’s something people might be surprised to learn about you?
I have visited more than 20 countries and lived on four continents. Those experiences have shaped how deeply I value diversity. I learned at a young age that every country and every culture has something awe-inspiring to contribute if we’re willing to learn from one another. Travel has also made me a big foodie. My love of food has made me learn so much about different global cultures and human survival throughout the ages. 

What’s one hobby or activity you really enjoy outside of work?
Writing. It has always been a dream of mine to publish a novel. I had my first national newspaper byline at 16, and that was a big milestone at the time. Where I really hope to see my name one day is on the cover of a work of fiction. I want to create worlds readers can immerse themselves in and imagine a different, perhaps even better reality. I am currently working on my first trilogy, As the World Warms, which I would describe as Afrofuturist climate fiction (cli-fi).  I'm incredibly excited about it.

Do you have a favorite book, podcast, or show you recommend?
If you’re interested in climate and speculative futures, I highly recommend Parable of the Sower, The Fifth Season, Who Fears Death, Rosewater, and The Water Knife.