Cynthia Salazar
Temporary Central Valley Workers’ Advocate
Cynthia (she/her/ella) is a recent graduate of UC Berkeley, where she received her Bachelor’s in Gender and Women’s Studies. She spent the majority of time while in school working in programs where she helped marginalized students through the entire application process, with a majority of the cohort of students getting into their dream schools. Cynthia was a board member for a Central American organization where she did PR & Marketing and did teach-ins on the Mayan destruction at UC Berkeley, Berkeley City College, and the Latinx Research Center. She has worked with asylum seekers by helping them fill out their I-589 forms.
Prior to LAAW, Cynthia was a public policy fellow at Esperanza United, where she focused on ending gender-based violence with a queer lens and how to galvanize survivors to participate in the policy process. Through this work, she was able to present this work in Washington D.C., along with presenting this at the White House, where she met with the Gender Policy Council and the Domestic Policy Council.
Cynthia was a guest panelist at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Oaxaca, Mexico, where the panel consisted of speaking on indigenous lineages and the effects of colorism in their communities. Being born and raised in Fresno, Cynthia is proud to work for LAAW, which has such a special focus on helping out the Central Valley.