Francesca Menes is the Deputy Organizing Director of Local Progress, a movement of local elected officials advancing a racial and economic justice agenda through all levels of local government. She is also a Co-Founder of The Black Collective, a movement committed to promoting a shared agenda to elevate the political consciousness and amplify the economic power of Black communities. Francesca is a political educator, legislative and policy strategist, entrepreneur and former television host committed to creating spaces to educate, inform and engage our people on the issues that are important in their daily lives; helping them to understand the personal is political and democratizing knowledge. She is the daughter of working-class Haitian immigrants raised in Miami’s Little Haiti community and mother of Joie. For over a decade, Francesca has led coalition building, legislative, policy and advocacy campaigns with undocumented families, immigrants, refugees, students, Black and communities of color with a focus on policy-making process. In these spaces, she successfully led organizing efforts to draft, introduce and pass local, state, federal resolutions, policies and laws on the issues of education, immigration, housing, wage protections and job security. Other key issues for advocacy: preemption/state interference and local democracy/governance. Francesca graduated from Florida International University, earning her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Women’s Studies with a minor in Philosophy and a certificate in National Security Studies and her Master’s in Public Administration, with a certificate in Community Development. Francesca is the former Treasurer for the Florida Democratic Party, former State Committeewoman for the Miami-Dade Democratic Party. She currently serves on the Miami-Dade County N.W. 79th Street Corridor Community Redevelopment Agency.