Susi, you have been called, "a powerhouse Latina immigrant rights advocate and diversity, equity and inclusion champion in the Pacific Northwest." What would you say has most shaped and informed your work today?

I immigrated to the US sixteen years ago from Lima, Peru. My experience as an immigrant has shaped how I navigate the US culture and motivated me to use my privilege to advocate for people who have less access due to the way they look or sound. For example, I serve as vice president of the board of directors of Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, a Seattle-based nonprofit organization that believes access to justice shouldn’t depend on where you are born or how much money you have. Their main goals are to keep families together, protect people from violence, and stand up to injustice. In addition, as a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practitioner, I aim to bring a racial equity intersectional lens to the work I do in order to increase awareness about the disparities between underrepresented groups.

What does roaring mean to you? Can you share a time you felt silenced and a time that gave you voice?

Roaring means standing up for another’s justice and dignity, even when that person or group of people isn’t present. I have often experienced exclusion throughout my journey in the US due to my accent. This expression of my Latinx identity has both made me feel silenced as well as given me voice at different times in my career. When I was younger, I used to try to cover my accent and I was embarrassed of the way I sounded. However, my experiences and people of color role-models have helped me grow to be proud of my accent, my heritage, and my brownness. In a way, being a recipient of exclusion and bias has helped me to better understand and advocate for folks who have multi-language abilities and/or an immigrant status.

You immigrated from Peru and are a pillar for immigrant advocacy work here in Seattle. What is the most heartbreaking and rewarding thing about the advocacy work you do?

Through serving on the board of Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP), I have had the opportunity to learn more about how the family separation crisis as it continues to evolve and how this awful practice affects people in Washington state. One year ago, over 200 asylum seekers – many of whom had been separated from their children at the Southern border – were detained at a federal prison in SeaTac, Washington. During that frantic summer of 2018, the staff and volunteers at NWIRP worked around the clock to meet with every one of those individuals. Since then and thanks to generous support from our community, NWIRP has been able to take their cases, advocate for their release, and reunite every one of those parents and guardians with their children. But the stories of these asylum seekers haven’t ended. Immigration cases can take years to complete, and NWIRP is committed to supporting their clients on their entire journey through the US immigration system.

You are heading up the 2nd annual fundraiser for the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project to reunite families at the border, and families here in the PNW! What are your hopes for this fundraiser and how can people be involved that are local to Seattle?

Yes! This Friday, I’ll be hosting the second edition of ‘A gathering to benefit Northwest Immigrant Rights Project’ event at The Collective in South Lake Union. For this year’s event, I am hoping to continue to increase awareness about immigrant rights and the urgent need to unite immigrant families that have been separated due to senseless laws. This year, we will also have an amazing art silent auction and live paintings by local artists who are advocates for equity and inclusion. Tickets are $40, which includes food, drinks, and the program. We welcome everyone to the event so if anyone in the community cannot afford the ticket price, please contact me and I’ll sponsor your ticket (susicollins.sf@gmai.com). If you are unable to attend this event but would like to learn about the work by the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project , please go to their website to get important information and resources to support immigrant and asylum seekers. We also appreciate if you can donate and use your social capital to advocate for their work.

How can businesses better support immigrant's rights and create safe spaces for those feeling hurt and alone?

It's important that businesses create spaces in which all people feel welcome. For example, I love my local coffee shop ‘El Diablo Coffee’ in Queen Anne because they have signage that embraces inclusion and acceptance of all people and they have a space for children to play, which makes it super easy when I bring my two boys with me. Oliver is 5 years and Joaquin is 5 months old.

If you could stand on a stage and tell womxn one thing today, what would you want them to know?

Don’t tolerate discrimination regardless of who is or isn’t in the room and advocate for womxn of color in order to achieve gender equity across the board.

What message would you give to 8 year old Susi if you could go back in time and counsel yourself?

Be fearless and proud of who you are, regardless of what society tells you.

Susi Collins is the board Vice President of the board of directors of Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, a Seattle-based nonprofit organization and a Senior Program Manager at Nordstrom specializing in diversity, inclusion, and belonging.

Roaring For Justice with Immigrant Rights Advocate Susi Collins