Ariana Cantu

Her 28-year journey in social justice work spans migration and border issues, health care, housing, mental health, community organizing, advocacy, environmental justice and restoration, organizational leadership and anti-oppressive education with a focus on equity and inclusion.
Ariana identifies as an activist-scholar and is from Burien, WA. She operates an organizational development consulting firm, where she provides coaching and adaptive, systems change processes for public and non-profit organizations. She is Assistant Teaching Professor in the School of Social Work, as well as an adjunct faculty member for the Honors College and the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington, where she co-Instructs interdisciplinary courses on community inclusion and equity in the changing public realm. In 2023, she launched the first Well-Being Community of Practice for the Department of Social Work, focusing on employing strategies for wellness in the classroom and among faculty and staff. In 2022, she was awarded the Honors Community & Curriculum Innovation Scholar, as well as the 2021 recipient of the Global Innovation in Curriculum award for her trans-global teaching partnership with the University of Namibia’s Department of Psychology and Social Work. She lives half of the year in Tucson, Arizona, where she works with No More Deaths in the borderlands.