Meet the dedicated professionals behind our success—passionate, experienced, and committed.

David Vela established strong working relationships with elected officials, media outlets, and stakeholder groups within the State of California and led numerous successful transportation-related projects in the County of Los Angeles and the State of California, including the California High-Speed Rail project and the Alameda Corridor East project. Mr. David Vela is a bilingual (English/Spanish) community outreach and government affairs professional with over 15 years of experience working with a variety of different stakeholder groups including homeowners’ associations, business groups, schools, and faith-based organizations. His experience includes working with and on behalf of elected officials and public agencies and creating and implementing successful media and public awareness campaigns. He has facilitated large town hall meetings and overseen the creation of informational and collateral materials including fact sheets, newsletters, and public meeting notices. Mr. Vela is adept at effectively managing staff and budgets to ensure the successful and timely completion of projects. Mr. Vela served as a special advisor to the CA Employment Development Department, Senior Advisor and Chief of Staff to members of the CA State Legislature, Deputy to a Los Angeles County Supervisor and Senior Vice President at a full-service Public Affairs firm. 

 Paulina Velasco specializes in public policy, civic engagement, and strategic communications at the local and state levels. Having developed an intimate knowledge of Los Angeles' communities and a strong network of relationships with civic, labor, and political leaders across California, Paulina works within the public and private sectors to develop engagement strategies to increase consensus and maximize objectives. 

As a Senior Vice President of Communications for VELADA Consulting, she leads the implementation of outreach plans and crafts of cutting-edge communications and marketing campaigns. Paulina is a creative strategist specializing in the development of compelling and resonant content that shapes and informs public opinion on behalf of agencies and municipalities. Ms. Velasco has a proven record of success, managing many challenging projects; her experience and expertise have ensured the successful completion of notable and challenging multilingual electoral campaigns and engagement programs. She utilizes her knowledge and ingenuity to provide clients with solutions that combine a big-picture vision with real-world solutions to generate tangible results. 

 Kathia Velasco has vast experience in event planning, graphic design, database management, live/virtual community meetings, social media, and media relations. Kathia is proficient in graphic design and utilizes cutting-edge technology for graphic design to create collateral material and social media posts. She also uses programs to assist in project management for scheduling and document management. Prior to joining Velada Consulting, Kathia worked on various projects such as the City of Carson, Port of Long Beach, SCAQMD, Metro, and much more. Kathia's experience in media relations, content development, and social media has given her the knowledge to advance quickly at Velada. 

She is well-rounded in all aspects of Media and Public Relations and is heavily involved in all projects providing community outreach, social media, media relations, and government relations. In addition, she assisted many project managers with coordinating outreach efforts to promote stakeholder engagement, public participation plans, digital and social media strategies, account management, stakeholder research, data analysis, and media management. She is well-versed in all aspects of public and media relations.