María Cristina Chicuén joined Knight Foundation’s 2017 summer internship program in June. She works with the Community and National Initiatives team.

Chicuén, born in Havana, Cuba and raised in Miami, graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts in human biology. Chicuén is an advocate for community building through sound urban planning, sustainable food systems, and design thinking. While at Stanford, she channeled these passions by working with the Urban Oasis Project, the FEED Collaborative, and Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. This year, she co-coordinated the Stanford cohort of 10x10k Cuba, a competition that sought to expose Cuban entrepreneurs to the Bay Area’s tech ecosystem while simultaneously providing guidance to propel their business ventures.

This fall, she is excited to join the Congressional Hunger Center as a Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellow working for the Illinois Hunger Coalition in Chicago on various policy efforts targeting the elimination of hunger, poverty, and social inequality.