Charmaine Manansala is the Chief Advocacy Officer at Compassion & Choices. Charmaine is in charge of the state teams to authorize, ensure access, protect, and improve medical aid in dying and the full range of end-of-life options. She was instrumental in California’s successful campaign to authorize medical aid in dying in the nation’s most populous state. Charmaine also led the teams that passed similar legislation in the District of Columbia, Hawai’i, and New Jersey. Charmaine is now in charge of the state teams to authorize, ensure access, protect, and improve medical aid in dying and the full range of end-of-life options.
Prior to joining Compassion & Choices Charmaine served in the highest levels of government, as a presidential appointee in the Obama administration and senior legislative officer at the U.S. Department of Labor. During the Clinton administration, Charmaine held the position of senior policy analyst for the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI).
Charmaine worked in Congress as senior advisor to Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi focusing on Social Security, health care and labor, and lead advisor on policy affecting Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. She also served as the AAPI vote director for the 2008 Obama for America campaign, area political director for the Services International Union and vice president for the Asian Pacific Islander American Health Forum. Charmaine brings broad campaign experience, having worked on over two dozen candidate and issue initiatives.
