Graciela Guzmán (she/her/ella) has organized healthcare advocacy and policy in Chicago since 2012 and currently serves as the Director of Policy and Advocacy at Aunt Martha’s Health and Wellness. Prior to this role, Graciela served as Campaign Director for the Healthy Illinois Campaign where she led efforts to make Illinois the first state in the nation to expand healthcare to low-income seniors regardless of their immigration status and then to older adults 55 and over. She has also led advocacy and policy campaigns on topics ranging from defending the Affordable Care Act from repeal, efforts to increase community enrollment in Medicaid and the Health Insurance Marketplace, and mobilizing community leaders’ response to COVID through mutual aid.

Graciela’s passion for healthcare, community, and helping others is derived from her family’s early experiences immigrating to the United States from El Salvador to escape the Salvadoran Civil War and her experiences navigating services as a multi-immigration status family on public benefits. Graciela graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa.