Jose Mercado
Jose Roberto Mercado is an Associate at D&P Creative Strategies and is responsible for performing a wide range of duties including managing special projects, monitoring developments in Congress, and providing quality support to D&P clients at-large.
Most recently, Jose served as a Congressional
Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) fellow in the Capitol Hill office of New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez. As a CHCI fellow, Jose helped introduce legislation on behalf of the Senator and navigated the Senate appropriations
process to secure robust funding for programs that genuinely matter to the American Latino
population at-large.
Jose also has experience working as a liaison to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) and has coordinated with its leadership and staff to
determine comprehensive policy solutions to push the needle forward on issues of high interest to historically underrepresented groups, including American Latinos.
In addition, Jose had the privilege to represent CHCI on a congressional delegation to the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Hokkaido, popularly known as the KAKEHASHI Project, to promote the alliance between the United States and Japan.
Prior to working on Capitol Hill, Jose managed a
contracts database and implemented more effective and efficient procurement practices to streamline contracting operations for a
community health center based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Jose’s passion for social justice and helping others is best exemplified in his academic capstone project, which afforded him the
opportunity to teach recently arrived refugees the Spanish alphabet and other common Spanish expressions at a non-government
organization (NGO) based in Madrid, Spain.
Jose’s global experience was preceded by an internship with the National Institute of
Food and Agriculture (NIFA) where he collaborated with federally appointed and
senior-level career officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to enhance
NIFA’s digital outreach toolkit by capturing visual and oral testimony of more than 50 grantees and program beneficiaries
representing all corners of the United States and Puerto Rico.
Jose is a proud graduate of the University of California, Berkeley where he earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in Legal Studies and Social
Welfare.
Lastly, Jose attributes his career successes to his family and friends who have provided him with unwavering support, including when he accepted an unpaid internship in Washington, DC. From crowdsourcing the means to intern with NIFA to being selected as the CHCI
PepsiCo Foundation Pre-Law Public Policy Fellow, Jose understands the importance of mentorship and paying it forward.