Graciela Guzmán

“Dime con quién andas, y te diré quien eres — Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are.” 
 
“This saying is what I call my ‘philosophy of being,’” says Graciela Guzmán, WMC board member.
 
The daughter of Salvadorian immigrants, Graciela says the amazingly strong women in her life helped inform her worldview and her commitment to serving others.
 
“I observed the selflessness and sacrifice of my grandmother — who I am named after — while my mother taught me the importance of integrity,” says Graciela, who has dedicated herself to helping others both professionally and personally.
 
Graciela is the campaign director for the Healthy Illinois campaign, which works to provide affordable, accessible healthcare insurance to undocumented people and other uninsurable populations in the state. She previously served as coalition manager for Protect Our Care Illinois (POCIL), a statewide organization that supports and safeguards the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid. While at POCIL, Graciela led a diverse statewide coalition focused on defending and building upon the expansion of health coverage to Illinoisans.

“I am deeply committed to a fair and just health care system,” Graciela says. “Health care is a human right that must be intersectional and must be tied to other causes. My passion for health care, community, and helping others is derived from my family’s early experiences immigrating to the United States in 1988 to escape the Salvadorian Civil War.”
 
As both a Latina and an immigrant, Graciela is particularly concerned with helping Latinx and immigrant populations. “I have a passion for community organizing and social justice work and I have participated in numerous campaigns, including movements for health care access for all, immigrant rights and racial equality,” says Graciela, who is often a featured speaker at Chicago area rallies and marches.
 
Her activism coupled with “a vision of a better Chicago for disenfranchised communities” led Graciela to join the WMC board in 2018, she says.

In her (limited) free time, Graciela enjoys running marathons, going on “food adventures” and watching movies with Alylah, her four-year-old goddaughter. She is also a singer in the Latin band Obra.
 
Graciela was recently named a 2019 New Leaders Council Fellow, a hub for progressive millennial thought leadership. She is also a member of the 2019 Cohort of the Latino Policy Forum’s Multicultural Leadership Academy, a program encouraging intercultural collaboration and collaborative social action between Latinos and African Americans in Illinois.  

Says Graciela: “I feel so fortunate that the things I care so deeply about and put my energy into have the power to effect positive change in my city, in my state, and in my country.”