Lorena Peñaloza became Chief Campus Counsel for the University of California, Riverside, one of the ten campuses in the University of California (UC) system, January 2023, after serving as the Chief Campus Counsel of UC Santa Cruz for nearly six years. She provides advice to the campus on a broad range of legal issues, including employment, land use, police, student safety and conduct issues. She reports jointly to UCR Chancellor Kim Wilcox and UC system Senior Vice President and General Counsel Charles Robinson and serves on their respective leadership teams.
Lorena previously worked for the Office of General Counsel for the California State University system, where she first served as a litigator and then as University Counsel for two of the system’s twenty-three campuses. Prior to joining CSU, she served as Assistant City Attorney with the City Attorney’s Office for the City of Santa Ana and began her legal career with the Social Security Administration’s Office of the General Counsel in Maryland through the Presidential Management Fellowship (formerly known as Presidential Management Internship) program.
Lorena has been a NACUA member since 2008. She has served on several committees, including the 2009 and the 2018-2021 Annual Conference Planning Committees. She holds a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and a J.D. from the University of California, College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly known as UC Hastings College of the Law).