Texas House Member Representative Diego Bernal is a social worker whose experience includes working with gang members in Detroit and at-risk youth in Harlingen, Texas as well as serving the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). After law school he became a MALDEF staff attorney, advocating and litigating on behalf of working people, children, and immigrant communities. He has championed issues including equitable public school funding, tolerance in schools and in the workplace, and electoral system integrity. As San Antonio City District 1 Councilman, he wrote and passed the strictest payday loan regulation in the state of Texas. Bernal also passed San Antonio's Non-Discrimination Ordinance. Representative Bernal was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in February 2015 and sits on the House Committee on Urban Affairs, and the House Committee on International Trade & Intergovernmental Affairs.