José Luis Marantes

José Luis is a community organizer, trainer, and social entrepreneur who brings a passion for unlocking people’s full potential and getting leaders unstuck and on mission. As a co-founder of the United We Dream Network, he helped establish the internal structures that took a small movement-building startup to an established national organization with more than 50 affiliates and dozens of staff leading the fight for immigrant justice. He co-developed the Education Not Deportation Campaign, which won deferred action from deportation for over two million immigrant youth in 2012 and set a new precedent in relief from deportation. As a state director for Mi Familia Vota in Florida, he led a team of 60+ staff to motivate 40,000 voters to go to the polls. He has led campaigns and managed teams for the PICO Network, Center for Community Change, and the Florida Immigrant Coalition, and was selected as an Emerging Innovator by Ashoka Changemakers for his work in bringing communities together in Orlando across language differences. He holds a Masters in Entrepreneurship from the University of Florida and a B.A. in Sociology from Wesleyan University.