Meet Benny
My Story
Benny Corona is an American civil servant, advocate for agriculture-based and rural communities in California, and a former farmworker. He was born and raised in Tulare County, in the city of Lindsay where he attended Tulare County K-12 schools and graduated from Lindsay High School at the top of his class. He is also the first born in a family of 8, and son of ag-based business owners from Michoacán, Mexico who worked as farmworkers for over 25 years. At an early age, Benny’s passion for public service began to ignite by working with his parents in farms throughout the San Joaquin Valley during his childhood. Through their example and guidance, Benny learned the importance of hard work, faith, and education. As the first in his family to graduate from both high school and college, he made local and national headlines for his leadership and educational accomplishments while still working the fields of the Central Valley.
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Benny on a farm tour, 2023
Benny sharing blueprints of South Shafter's wastewater project to local leaders, 2019
Benny discussing water management with Tulare County farmer, Frank Schiro, 2023
In 2015, after excelling in his community college classes in Porterville College and the College of the Sequoias, Benny received his bachelors from UC Berkeley with highest honors, and in 2021 he graduated from the UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy with the Chancellor’s award for public service for his commitment and contributions to California’s rural communities through political activism, policy advocacy, and community development. Benny is also a recipient of The Wonderful Public Service Graduate Fellowship that aims to foster the next generation of San Joaquin Valley bi-partisan leaders and was also awarded the The Jacob K. Javits Political Leadership Scholarship from the UC Berkeley Goldman School for his commitment to public service.
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In his public service career, Benny's work has already resulted in over 80 million dollars secured and invested in Central Valley and rural communities. As a community developer, Benny worked with various water boards & small water companies throughout the Central Valley to build water and wastewater infrastructure in rural communities. Some of his proudest achievements in community development include helping unincorporated communities like South Shafter secure over $10 million dollars in funding for wastewater infrastructure and helping the community of Athal, CA build a $500,000 water filtration system for their pipelines.
During the pandemic, Benny got to work for our communities by leading an investigation into the impact COVID-19 was having in our communities by consolidating death and hospitalization rates data in Central Valley counties, including Tulare County. Through this work, Benny as able to prove the disproportionate impact COVID-19 was having on our essential workforce communities that work in agriculture and the trades. This resulted in a $52 million dollar investment throughout the Central Valley to combat COVID-19 for our essential workforce communities.
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Very recently, Benny worked to improve telephone and broadband internet access and quality for rural and tribal communities in multi-million-dollar rate cases. Born and raised in Tulare County, Benny continues to reside in and work for the communities that raised him. He feels it an immense privilege to carry the legacy of Central Valley agriculture worker service to humanity and to the nation.
Benny working in the fields, 2021
Benny hosting a town hall for South Shafter to provide updates on their wastewater project, 2019
Workers installing water filtration system and new pipelines for Benny's project in Athal, CA, 2019
