Guisela Marroquín is an immigrant from Guatemala. From a young age, she became a natural advocate as a result of the adversities she and her family encountered. Guisela’s Latinx identity instilled in her a strong sense of community and taught her about the resilient spirit and creativity of those viewed and treated as “others” within society.
Guisela pursued higher education in search of answers to the challenges she’d faced and witnessed —leading her to community organizing as a means of empowerment and transformative change. Guisela holds a bachelor’s degree in Behavioral Sciences with a focus on early childhood and sociology as well as Master’s in Social Work with a concentration in community organizing, planning and development.
Guisela has many years of experience in the non-profit sector, serving in roles as a direct service provider, advocate and crisis manager, an organizational project manager of legislative advocacy and litigation efforts at the New York Civil Liberties Union, and as a trainer and educator for organizers. She has worked to strengthen networks of experts and advocates to push legislative changes and build bilingual tools and training spaces across New York State.
She is currently the Director of Programs at the New York Women’s Foundation, overseeing grantmaking and community engagement efforts across the Foundation’s investment strategies and has also been the point-person for the Justice Fund and Initiative.