While growing up, Cecilia was surrounded by agriculture. As a youth, she cut apricots in the packing shed and helped her father in the walnut orchards in the area. She is still involved in local agriculture to this day as she and her brothers own an 80-acre walnut orchard.

After earning a degree in business administration from San Jose State University, she launched a consulting firm that specialized in public outreach with government agencies.

As mayor of Winters, Cecilia oversaw improvements in the downtown area and worked to improve local schools, including securing computers for every sixth grader in the city. She also brought broadband internet to rural communities, built senior housing and helped the area to become an agricultural and food innovation hub for the region.

With the understanding that employment is central to any successful community, Cecilia helped bring a PG& E training facility to Winters that provided hundreds of jobs for local residents.

Cecilia was also involved in efforts to create the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument in the inner California Coast Ranges that was proclaimed by President Obama in 2015.

She currently resides in Winters a block from her childhood home with her longtime partner, Larry Harris, and has a stepson and two grown daughters.