Massachusetts House of Representatives Fifth Suffolk District

Liz Miranda is executive director of the Hawthorne Youth and Community Center, which provides youth arts, social justice, and urban agriculture programming. Miranda’s advocacy also includes anti-violence element. “Young people dying in our City is not normal or OK. It shouldn’t be happening here in Boston,” she says. Last summer, that mission suddenly became personal when her younger brother Michael was shot and killed downtown. “It became very real and very painful.” As a graduate of Wellesley College, she saw glaring disparities between Roxbury, where she grew up, and Wellesley. “When I look at my life’s purpose, it’s been focused on empowering young people to design a better future for all of us,” she says.