Lorena Tobar

Lorena came to the United States from Guatemala when she was eight, her family seeking asylum after political unrest threatened their safety. Growing up in Los Angeles, she watched her parents struggle through the immigration system, an experience that planted the seed for her career. She put herself through UCLA and then law school, driven by the memory of every caseworker who showed her family dignity—and every one who didn't. Now, as a senior attorney at a nonprofit immigration clinic, she fights for families facing deportation, asylum seekers fleeing violence, and Dreamers building lives in limbo.

Outside the courtroom, Lorena is a keeper of her Quiché Mayan heritage. Every Saturday, she volunteers at a community center in Pico-Union, teaching language classes and traditional weaving to second-generation kids who hunger for roots. She learned these skills from her abuela, who passed down stories, prayers, and patterns that connect Lorena to centuries of ancestors. Her apartment is filled with textiles she's woven herself—geometric patterns in crimson, indigo, and gold—and the scent of incense she burns during quiet moments of reflection.

Lorena is principled to her core, sometimes to a fault. She doesn't compromise on her values, which has cost her relationships with people who wanted her to be less intense, less committed. But she's also deeply warm, the kind of person who remembers your coffee order and checks in when you've gone quiet. She believes in showing up—for her clients, her community, and the people she cares about. Beneath her quiet strength is a fierceness that emerges when injustice rears its head, a fire that's both her greatest asset and her heaviest burden.