Elizabeth Barajas-Román

Elizabeth is a member of the organization's senior leadership team and is responsible for advancing the Institute’s policy agenda and legislative priorities, managing the Washington, D.C. office and for directing NLIRH’s dynamic policy team.

In addition, Elizabeth regularly contributes to local and national media and on national conferences, policy panels, and congressional briefings regarding the impact of pending and current abortion, immigration and health care reform policies on the Latina community. She works closely with NLIRH’s Community Mobilization department to support and advance advocacy campaigns including the organization’s Annual Latina Week of Action for Reproductive Justice and National Advocacy Weekend where activists from different states gather in D.C. to experience the federal legislative and policy process.

Elizabeth comes to the Latina Institute with experience as a health care policy analyst, journalist and researcher. Her writing focuses on social justice in health, education and politics. She has worked as a staff reporter for the New York Times Company and as a freelancer for several national and regional magazines. Her investigation on students with limited English proficiency was published in Working with Student Writers: Essays on Tutoring and Teaching, 2nd Edition (New York: Peter Lang, 2010). She co-authored a piece on population and gender published in The Women, Gender and Development Reader II (Zed Books Ltd, 2011), and a paper prepared for the WE ACT for Environmental Justice conference on Advancing Climate Justice: Transforming the Economy, Public Health and Our Environment (January 29-30,2009. New York City, New York).

Previously, Elizabeth served as the Associate Director of The Population and Development Program at Hampshire College, (PopDev), where she directed new and existing programs and developed strategies for a national and international agenda to challenge conventional thinking and policies about population growth. Elizabeth has also worked for the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts as a City Planner and as the Director of Policy and Operations at Justice Resource Institute, an advocacy organization and primary care clinic for uninsured, GLBT, homeless and immigrant youth in Boston. Elizabeth graduated from Oberlin College with highest honors and holds a Master's degree in international policy from Harvard.