About Gabriela
Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero, MSW, is an immigrant from Mexico, raised in Southwest Detroit, and an active organizer in Michigan. She’s the former Policy and Research Director at a state-based movement organization. She has spent her whole life fighting for justice and will continue to bring her core value of putting people first to local government.
Gabriela’s love for her community has led her through many paths that include supporting young girls of color through leadership programs such as Girls Making Change, leading statewide policy change with local electeds like Senator Chang, and recently during the Southwest floods she directly served constituents’ needs by connecting them to resources and creating mutual aid paths in collaboration with other leaders and non-profits in the community.
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck her community, Gabriela connected with community leaders to form a mutual aid fund that has created lifelines of resources for the people hardest hit by the COVID crisis. This resource allows low-income families to pay bills and secure food.
In her own words, “Growing up an immigrant in poverty in Southwest Detroit has forced me to see and learn things the hard way. I know our family isn’t the only one in our community that has experienced these struggles. Too many families in our community have struggled to make ends meet, have been pushed out of their homes by foreclosures, and have struggled to get to jobs or school due to the lack of reliable public transportation.”
On City Council, Member Santiago-Romero Chairs the Public Health and Safety committee. She’s co-chair of the city’s Immigration Task Force and the Equitable Development Task Force. She helped create the city’s Downpayment Assistance Program that will provide over 1,000 Detroiters to become homeowners for the first time, the city’s Community Violence Intervention program that has lead to a reduction of crime, and the city’s Paratransit services for seniors, allowing them to access same day ride services.
Before Detroit City Council, Gabriela was Student Union President during graduate school at the University of Michigan, School of Social Work. She was the first in her family to pursue higher education and graduate with a Master’s degree. After grad school, she continued her education at Harvard Kennedy School in the Executive Education Certificate Program, in which she received training from qualified social justice leaders while also gaining a global perspective on issues that impacted communities like hers.