Metztli Garcia
METZTLI GARCIA is a first-generation college student born and raised in East Los Angeles, California. She is currently a fourth-year undergraduate student majoring in Public Affairs with a special interest in education policy, foster care reform, and women’s rights. As a former foster youth, she continues to take responsibility to speak on the issues that her community is faced with every day and create the change she wants to see in both the education and child welfare systems. She has worked as an Advocacy Intern in the Office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, where she focused on expanding affordable housing and COVID-19 pandemic response efforts, and as a University Programs Recruiter at SurveyMonkey, where she supported diversity recruitment efforts. Metztli is very involved on campus, serving as a Financial Wellness Peer Coach, as Vice President of Recruitment for the Latin Business Student Association, as a Co-President for a Latinx Affinity Group, and as a member of Lambda Theta Alpha, a Latina sorority. Her research interests in child welfare, incarceration, and education stem from her lived experiences in foster care. At the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute, she hopes to address the countless policy challenges facing communities of color through research, advocacy, and mobilization.
