Cynthia Brito
PhD Student, Urban Planning and Policy
Research Assistant
Pronouns: she,her,hers
Email:
About
Cynthia Brito is a 4th year Ph.D. student in the Department of Urban Planning and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Cynthia’s research examines how practices of the informal economy like mutual aid and co-ops allow Black and Latinx communities to survive and thrive in an era of multi-scalar crisis. She is a community organizer in areas of racial justice, abolition, and immigration. She serves as the advisor to the Revolutionary Oak Park Youth Action League (ROYAL) a community youth organization of BIPOC youth working on issues of racial justice, LGBTQIA+, and police violence.
Cynthia originates from a working-class, first-generation Mexican family that settled in Uptown, Chicago. She now resides in Oak Park with her two teen daughters, Jocelyn and Marlene, two sons Remy and Santi, husband Mario, and cat Ohtli. She enjoys biking, camping, playing soccer, dancing, and spending time with family and friends. She continues to work on various issues including immigration, education, reproductive justice, and youth issues.
Service to Community
Cynthia is an organizer with Freedom to Thrive, an abolitionist organization in Oak Park working on reimagining public safety. She is also the advisor and mentor for the Revolutionary Oak Park Youth Action League, (ROYAL), a community youth organization of Black and Latinx youth working on issues of racial justice. As a scholar-activist consultant, she bridges her academic knowledge with movement space experience to cultivate bilingual workshops on the topics of:
*Racial Justice, Identity, and Equity
*Adultism and Youth Agency
*Building Community Safe Space/Brave Space
*Community Dialogue Facilitation
*Anti-Blackness in the Latinx Community
*Radical Motherhood
*Abolition: Flexing your Radical Imagination
Notable Honors
2018-2022, Pipeline to Inclusive Faculty Fellow (PIF), University of Illinois at Chicago
Education
Cynthia holds a Master's and a Bachelor's degree in Latin American and Latino studies with high distinction from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC).
Research Currently in Progress
Cynthia currently serves as a research assistant for the Social Autopsy of COVID19 Racial Disparities Study. She is responsible for recruitment, development of research tools, interviews and translation. Additionally, she holds a second research assistantship for the Andrew Mellon Funded Sawyer Seminar Radical Alternatives, Radical Care podcast series being released Spring 2021.