Michael Espinoza Email and Phone Number

Michael was born and raised in Houston, Texas. After earning a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA, Mike returned to Houston, where he taught high school government and Chicano Studies at Raul Yzaguirre School for Success in Southeast Houston. There, he began organizing students around the DREAM Act- a piece of legislation that, if passed, would grant undocumented students a path to citizenship. In 2005, Michael was named a Center for Mexican American Studies Fellow at the University of Houston, where he completed coursework to earn a master’s in Sociology. He also served as the coordinator of Houston United, a grassroots activist coalition which led advocacy campaigns for Houston's immigrant community, and also organized the massive immigrant’s rights mobilizations between 2006 and 2013. In 2006, inspired by the victorious strike of 5,000 commercial office building janitors in Houston, Michael joined the staff of SEIU Local 1- Houston Justice for Janitors Campaign. There, he served as Political Director and Lead Organizer, where he helped Aramark workers win a union in Houston in 2007, led efforts to build and sustain a worker-centered healthcare clinic for the janitors in 2009, and coordinated the successful renegotiation of the janitor’s collective bargaining agreement in Houston in 2010. Since then, Mike has worked & consulted on a wide range of social justice projects and organizations, including Stand for Children, Mi Familia Vota, Leadership for Educational Equity, Fight for $15 Campaign, and has managed political campaigns throughout the South and Western US.