California’s Department of Finance director has a number of firsts on her resume. Ana J. Matosantos is the youngest, the first Latina and the first openly gay person to hold the position.

Matosantos grew up in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, a semi-urban residential area of about 100,000 people southwest of San Juan. Her father was a businessman and her mother was her english and history teacher as well as high school principal. She took flying lessons at 17 before going to college where she received a bachelor's degree in political science and feminist studies from Stanford University in 1997. After graduating, Matosantos spent two years working at the San Francisco-based Equal Rights Advocates, a public interest law firm that focuses on women’s rights.

She considered law school, but instead began her state government career as a consultant to the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services and as the human services consultant to the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review. Matosantos moved to the executive branch in 2004 as a member of the Health and Human Services Agency, where she served as an assistant secretary for programs and fiscal affairs and associate secretary for legislative affairs. In 2007, she became deputy legislative secretary for Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs in the office of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger where she worked on the administration’s comprehensive health care reform proposal.

From April 2008 to December 2009, Matosantos was the chief deputy director for budgets, and from December 2009 to December 2010, she served as director of finance.  She was appointed director of the Department of Finance by Governor Jerry Brown in January 2011 and 10 months later was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, pleaded no contest to driving while over the legal limit for alcohol and was sentenced to three years probabtion.

Matosantos lives with her partner, Sally Espinoza, who she met a decade ago when they worked together in the Senate.

State Fiscal Exec Rolls Up Sleeves (by Wyatt Buchanan, San Francisco Chronicle)

Political Odd Couple United by Crisis in California Budget  (by Jennifer Medina, New York Times)

Official Biography (DOF website)

CA Finance Director Pleads No Contest to DUI Charge (by Andy Furillo, Sacramento Bee)