Elizabeth Cervantes is co-founder and the director of organizing with the Southwest Suburban Immigrant Project (SSIP), an immigrant rights organization in Chicago’s southwest suburbs. In her current role, she oversees the implementation of civic and youth leadership programs and leads the advocacy efforts for issue-based campaigns that SSIP is part of, at the local, state, and federal levels. Elizabeth has been advocating for change and justice for the immigrant community since 2009. Her involvement with policy and community organizing begun in college as an immigrant student herself. She obtained her bachelor’s in sociology in 2012, becoming the first college graduate in her family. Today, Elizabeth actively works to empower immigrant youth and families. Part of her life’s mission has become building SSIP to be a sustainable community-based organization in Chicago’s southwest suburbs, that will continue the work of empowering directly impacted leaders that will spring into action and transform their communities.
