Jesus Gonzalez is a Daniels Scholar who studied Political Economy at Colorado College before transferring to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. At the University, he developed a keen interest in the Middle East and studied Arabic before teaching in Madaba, Jordan for two years. He later earned a Master’s degree in Migration Studies from the University of Oxford. He has applied lessons from his studies to better support refugee and immigrant communities in Denver through past work at Lutheran Family Services. In 2019, he was awarded a Fulbright research grant in Jordan that was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In his return, he worked as the Community Organizer supporting refugee and immigrant communities with the East Colfax Community Collective and scaled up our East Colfax Housing Access Campaign. Jesus is now working as the Community Realty Associate at Elevation Community Land Trust and works to connect communities with affordable homeownership opportunities across the State of Colorado.