Cecilia Lapetina (she/they) is a dynamic student, artist, and activist focused on empowering incarcerated people, LGBTQ+ members, and minority communities. One of the many ways Cecilia has demonstrated leadership was through starting an organization that sends free educational materials to incarcerated people and helps to design magazines sent to women’s correctional facilities and transgender prisoners for the organization Let’s Get Free.
While interning at The League of Women Voters and The Liberation Foundation, Cecilia advocated for expanding the right to vote to incarcerated people and facilitated voting throughout D.C. prisons. In their time as a Mikva Challenge Fellow, Young Women’s Project Intern, and Policy Fellow for Leveled Legislation, they worked relentlessly to uplift underrepresented voices within D.C. Public Schools. Cecilia will be attending University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Honors College studying public policy in fall of 2024.
“I truly believe if queer and trans voices were heard more often, there would be more tolerance and understanding. In order to get there, queer and trans leaders need to be supported and reassured that their voice matters and they too belong in positions of leadership.”