Carlos Saavedra

Carlos Saavedra migrated to Boston, MA at the age of 12 with his parents as an undocumented student. At age 16, he became active in the immigrant rights movement fighting for equal access to higher education for undocumented youth and in 2005 became a co-founder of the Student Immigrant Movement of Massachusetts.

Carlos became the national coordinator for the United We Dream Network in 2009, the first immigrant youth national organization. He led the organizing and campaign efforts that took the network from a loose coalition of 7 organizations to 52 member organizations. After the intense 2009-2010 Dream Act campaign, Carlos was chosen as the 2010 Progressive Activist of the Year by Nation Magazine. He was key in organizing the End Our Pain and Right to Dream Campaigns (2011-2012) that led to the victory of legal relief called DACA.

In 2013, Carlos founded the Ayni Institute to provide training, coaching and incubation of new projects towards social change. Since then, the Institute has trained over 12,000 people in movement building, political education and organizational development. Carlos is also a co-author of the Funding Social Movements Guide, you can contact Carlos at carlos@ayni.institute