Juan Cardoza-Oquendo

A child of Puerto Rican parents and raised in the U.S., Juan is the Programs Director at Houston in Action, where he coordinates grassroots organisations to build political power within low-income neighbourhoods; Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) communities; and among young people, LGBTQIA+ people, and women, uplifting the intersections among these constituencies.

At Houston in Action, Juan coordinates the organisation’s Black, Latinx, and Asian American Pacific Islander Voter Engagement Tables. With his coordination, these organisations successfully mobilised over 300,000 voters in the 2023 Houston municipal elections. Juan also facilitates working groups to reform the criminal legal system and expand voting rights and works to foster collaboration among the dozens of organisations in the Houston in Action network, coaching and training them on community organising and advocacy.

Previously, Juan has worked as policy and community affairs staff for local and state elected officials, most recently for Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, where he worked with residents to stop the construction of an industrial facility and created the framework for $2 million in investments in healthy food retail and services. Juan also helped found the Dallas, Texas office of Workers Defense Project, an organisation of low-wage immigrant workers fighting for better working conditions. At Workers Defense, he led a successful campaign for rest breaks for construction workers to protect themselves from dangerous heat. Juan also grew the Workers Defense’s membership base and supported the leadership of key members.

Juan earned his Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Human Geography from the University of Georgia and his Master of Public Affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.