Join us for the Power of US Speaker Series featuring Congressman Greg Casar and Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez for a timely conversation about building power, advancing economic opportunity, and creating meaningful change. Together, they will explore how communities can turn collective action into lasting progress and build a stronger future for all.
Free and open to the public.
5:00 pm Networking Reception. Lite bites provided.
5:30 pm - 6:30 pm The Power of US Speaker Series.
Speaker:
U.S Congressman Greg Casar (D)
Congressman Greg Casar represents Texas’s 35th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, which runs down I-35 from East Austin to Hays County to the West Side of San Antonio.
Congressman Casar was sworn into office in January 2023 and serves as the Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, composed of more than 100 members of Congress standing up for progressive ideals in Washington and throughout the country. A labor organizer and son of Mexican immigrants, he is fighting to raise wages for millions of American workers, expand immigrant rights, restore abortion rights and voting rights, protect veterans and seniors, and tackle the climate crisis.
Prior to being elected to Congress, he served on the Austin City Council for seven years. There, he championed and passed progressive policies including protections for renters from corporate abuse, bold affordable housing programs, and paid sick leave ordinances in Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio.
In the U.S. House, Congressman Casar has pledged to build a government that works for working people. In his first term in Congress, Congressman Casar successfully pushed for the introduction of the first-ever federal heat rule, which will protect over 30 million American workers facing extreme heat on the job. Additionally, he authored legislation to connect the Texas grid to neighboring power grids that would save billions and prevent future mass blackouts.
Hosted by:
Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez was named “Hero of the New South” by Southern Living Magazine and People of the Year by Tribeza Magazine. Cristina has spent the last twenty years founding and leading some of the most creative organizations to raise wages, tackle the climate and student debt crises, and fight for immigrant rights.
Cristina is co-founder and Partner at Ascend Strategy Labs - a leading social justice consulting firm that supports mission -driven leaders and organizations achieve unprecedented impact. She is also currently a contributor at ABC News.
Cristina began her social justice career when she was a college student and co-founded Workers Defense Project (WDP), a workers’ rights organization with the mission to win better working conditions for immigrant workers in Texas. She built WDP from a small volunteer project into a statewide organization that was named “one of the most creative organizations for immigrant workers in the country” by The New York Times. She helped lead the organization for over a decade, taking on two of the most powerful special interest groups in Texas – the construction and real estate industries.
After the 2016 election, when Cristina was 6-months pregnant, she founded Jolt — a Texas-wide organization that lifts up the voice, vote, and issues impacting Latinos. Founded in 2016, Jolt seeks to win the nearly 11 million Latinos living in Texas the power and respect they deserve. Jolt’s work has reached tens of millions of Americans, mobilized thousands to action, and built the leadership of young Latinos across Texas.
Most recently, Cristina also served as President of Nextgen America, the nation’s largest youth voting rights organization.
Cristina was a 2020 U.S. Senate candidate and taught at the LBJ School of Public Policy at the University of Texas at Austin.