Luisa Peña Lyons is the Founder/CEO of the Bridge Forward, an economic mobility organization which supports individuals and families affected by the racial wealth and benefits gap. At Bridge Forward, Luisa leverages her lived experienced growing up low-income to support the journey of others who seek to make progress. Her expertise is at the cross sections of civic engagement, philanthropy and entrepreneurship with a focuson supporting women, people of color, and those of low-income and working-class backgrounds. Ultimately, Luisa is always thinking of ways to redesign processes and spaces to ensure they are more people and community centered. Luisa started her career in nonpartisan civic engagement and then politics. She served as Political Director for Ayanna Pressley's Congressional race. She has had many different roles throughout her career including serving as Chief of Staff, Field Leadership at New Profit a venture philanthropic fund that lends philanthropic, strategic and scaling support to non-profit organizations. She also served as Deputy Director of Personnel for Governor Deval Patrick, where she focused on providing access and opportunity to a diverse pipeline of candidates for state level positions and was Deputy Field Director on the winning campaign of Massachusetts’ first Latina State Senator, Sonia Chang-Diaz, where she also served as Legislative Aide. Luisa Peña Lyons is originally from Lawrence and Methuen, Massachusetts. Luisa is a graduate of the Kennedy School with a Mid-Career Master’s in Public Administration where she was a first-generation college student and a Center for Public Leadership Fellow. She also has a Bachelor’s from Northeastern University, where she majored in Political Science and International Affairs. Luisa studied abroad in Cairo, Egypt where she participated in election monitoring and pro-democracy work. Luisa’s past and current affiliations have included working with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy, Hispanics in Philanthropy, Amplify Latinx/ Latina Circle, and the Institute for Nonprofit Practice. She currently resides in Milton, MA with her husband, Jesse and daughters, Ellie and Mia.