BART's Aileen Hernandez is working to increase access and opportunity

Aileen Hernandez with her mother, father, and grandmother.

This Hispanic Heritage Month, BART is proud to celebrate employees with Hispanic and Latino heritage, who enrich our organization and the community at large. Over 15% of BART's workforce identifies as Hispanic and Latino, and we will be celebrating them throughout the month with stories and internal gatherings. Read our first profile, of BART's new Director of the Office of Civil Rights, Rudy Garza, here. 

Hispanic Heritage Month runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.

After Aileen Hernandez’s parents came to the United States from Colombia in 1968, they moved around a lot – Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and finally the Bay Area, where Aileen was born.

When she talks about her parents’ journey in search of better jobs and opportunities, Hernandez doesn’t just think about them, she thinks about the constellation of people surrounding them.

“My parents didn’t do it all alone. People were helping them,” she said. “That’s something I want to continue because I've been blessed by being a receiver of that help through many great mentors in my educational and professional life.”

Hernandez is the BART Interim Manager for Grants & Funding Advocacy Division, Funding Strategy Department. She has spent her career — in Sacramento, New York, and Bay Area— running complex programs to ensure the ladder of opportunity extends to those who need it most.

Aileen at her Columbia University graduation in 2010. 

Her past work connected first-generation community college students to four-year universities, given military veterans access to job training, expanded workforce development services in San Francisco, and ensured BART provides opportunities for small businesses and Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs) to get access to construction contracts. 

In her current role, Hernandez makes sure BART has access to local, state, and federal funds. Recently, Hernandez and her team navigated and implemented the complex funding strategy for BART’s new fare gates.

“I really enjoy my work because I know that every dollar we bring to BART is going to have an impact and create a better system for our customers,” she said. “And those customers are real people. It’s our moms, grandparents, tourists, and people with disabilities.” 

Hernandez is all about finding ways to uplift Latinos, and for her, Hispanic Heritage Month is an opportunity to educate others about the rich tapestry of Latino culture and expand how people think about who makes up the community.  

“It's an important time to promote and educate people about Latino culture and their contributions to the U.S.,” she said. She is especially passionate about bringing attention to the communities that do not get as much representation in the media or the corridors of power. 

“I think there's a huge lack of education about the history of Central America and South America,” she said. “Not everyone knows the about the colonization of America, migrations across the continent, and the reasons why people migrated to California and or why they never left.” 

Hernandez grew up in the Bay Area, but her family returned to Colombia for a spell before moving back to the U.S. when she was 12. She went to Chabot College to obtain an associate’s degree and UC Davis for her bachelors. Along the way she participated in student government and ran cross country before going to work for California Community Colleges in Sacramento.  

Aileen and rest of the Chabot College Women’s cross-country team in 1998. 

After a spell in the workforce, Hernandez enrolled in a social work program at Columbia University. She stayed in New York after graduation, training workers for jobs in transportation and launching a veteran's career center before her work brought her back to the Bay Area. But her time in New York had a long-lasting impact on her.  

In New York City, Hernandez was exposed to a vibrant hub of Colombian and Colombian American culture. New York has the second-highest concentration of Colombian Americans in the United States after Florida. Hernandez often found it difficult to see her Colombian culture reflected in California, where Mexican American culture is more prevalent. 

“You don't see yourself in movies or shows,” she said. “In California, people always assume you're Mexican. So you have to explain that you're not Mexican, and how you're different, and why you're different.” 

Aileen with her mother, aunt, and cousins in Medellín, Colombia, in 2023. 

In New York, she helped form a foundation to fundraise money for high school students of Colombian descent going to college. The group brought together doctors, lawyers, journalists, and fashion designers of Colombian descent to inspire youth and expand their conceptions of their futures. She continues that work to this day. 

Hernandez and her colleagues have recently started a new affinity group at BART called ¡Vamos! for BART employees who identity as Latino, Latinx, Latina, Chicano, and Chicana. ¡Vamos! will work to promote cultural awareness and highlight the community’s efforts and contributions to BART and the Bay Area. 

Aileen taking BART with her bike in 2020.