Former Mission District supervisor Hillary Ronen remembers her toughest job interview: It was in 2010 when Sheila Chung Hagen, the legislative aide to then-District 9 Supervisor David Campos, grilled her about joining the team.
“She put me through one of the most rigorous hiring processes I’ve ever had. I had to take tests and answer all these questions,” laughed Ronen from Spain, where she is currently living. “It was a typical Sheila style: high level, rigorous and thoughtful.”
Hagen is now set to serve her third District 9 supervisor in a row: She is returning as a legislative aide for Supervisor Jackie Fielder after being selected last month to fill the opening left by Fang Han, who left the office abruptly in March.
Jennifer Ferrigno, one of Fielder’s other legislative aides, said the district office was seeking an experienced hand: Fielder has been out on leave since mid-March after checking herself into a hospital for mental health issues. She has sought a leave until at least June 30.
“Given that Supervisor Fielder is currently on leave, we wanted to make sure we had somebody who really understood City Hall and could kind of just jump right in,” said Ferrigno. “She’s a very strategic thinker and she understands the systems at play in the city — that really is a helpful kind of component to the work that we do.”
Hagen will focus on the budget, public health issues, immigrant rights and the Portola neighborhood, said Ferrigno. She officially starts today.
“I was just really honored to have the opportunity to go back and support the office during this time so that Supervisor Fielder can do the healing that she needs to do to be able to support the district,” said Hagen.
“I just really love district nine and want to be able to support it.”
Former District 9 Supervisor David Campos, who hired Hagen as a legislative aide in 2009, said she came highly recommended from a number of people at the time, including the city administrator’s office, which was led by Ed Lee at the time. Hagen had worked there for a year.
“I have, as a supervisor, as a lawyer, as a deputy city attorney, worked with many legislative aides, and I think I can honestly say that Sheila Chung Hagen is as effective of a legislative aide as you can find, top notch,” said Campos.
Hagen worked for Campos for nearly six years, with a break in between where she worked as a policy and government affairs manager at the city’s Public Utilities Commission.
In 2017, Ronen tapped Hagen to join her office when she was elected District 9 supervisor. She worked there for four months in 2017 and again in Ronen’s last year in 2024. She has been consulting since.
“Sheila is a superstar and she could do anything she wants,” said Ronen. “She has an unbelievable reputation in the community. She is a consummate professional. Pretty much anyone who works with her adores her and wants to work with her again.”
Former District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who’s known Hagen for nearly 20 years, described her as a “star legislative aide.”
“She’s as good as they get. She’s experienced, smart, operational, capable, well-liked, smart on policy and hard working. She’s as good as they come.”
She’s also a bit of a “trash talker” — at least during inter-office softball games — and can make others at City Hall laugh, said Ronen. She also organized Ronen’s farewell roast in 2024.
Sunny Angulo, who worked as a legislative aide for 14 years and most recently served as Peskin’s chief of staff, said Hagen understands the in and out of City Hall, and that she was often the one she turned to when she needed advice.
“She was just always so precise,” said Angulo. Hagen “really always had her eyes on sort of what the bigger picture was.”