Phil Hernandez is the Senior Policy Fellow & Counsel at The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis, where he advocates for policy changes to advance racial and economic justice in Virginia, including through a stronger minimum wage, criminal justice reform, and a more accessible unemployment insurance system.
Previously, Phil served in President Obama’s White House Office of Energy & Climate Change. In that role, he was part of a team that helped to deliver historic new investments in clean energy technologies, ambitious new fuel economy standards, and the first-ever national standards to reduce toxic mercury pollution from power plants.
In 2019, Phil ran to represent the 100th District in the Virginia House of Delegates, a campaign in which he emphasized the opportunity the Tidewater region has to emerge as a national center of excellence on the issue of sea level rise and coastal resiliency.
Phil was a Gates Millennium Scholar, the first in his family to graduate from college, and holds a B.A. from the College of William & Mary and a J.D. from U.C. Berkeley. Phil is an active member of the Virginia State Bar.