Krystina François is a political scientist and strategist with a proven track record of engaging stakeholders across multiple sectors to advocate for the needs of historically excluded communities. She has led migrant and racial justice movement organizations, designing policy, advocacy, and legal strategies for local, state, national, and transnational organizing. Krystina is founder of Diaspora Minds, a lab, oral history archive, and think tank, where rigorous analysis meets the wisdom of lived experience. She also teaches Political Science at Baruch College.
Krystina is a first generation Haitian-American who is driven to amplify the voices of immigrant and diasporic communities. Krystina’s devotion to human rights and social justice began at a young age while attending The United Nations International School in New York City. As a freshman in high school she moved to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, where anti-government protests and political instability gave her valuable perspective on the root causes and country conditions which force many immigrants to seek refuge abroad.
Krystina is currently a PhD candidate in Political Science at the CUNY Graduate center, where her research focuses on the political power of Black immigrants in the Western Hemisphere and Southern Europe. As an interdisciplinary Black feminist public scholar, she leans into geography, demography and decolonial theory for her analysis. Krystina holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and History from CUNY-Hunter College.
Before beginning her career as an academic, recently served as the founding Co-Executive Director of Communities United for Status and Protection (CUSP), a national collective of Black, Arab and Asian grassroots organizations fighting for the rights and dignity of immigrants. Previously in her role as Founding Executive Director of Miami-Dade County’s Office of New Americans, she spearheaded a countywide initiative to bring legal and financial resources for immigrants out of offices and into the community, serving as policy advisor for the Miami-Dade County Mayor, and voice of Miami’s immigrant community in various arenas. In her position as Co-Director of Law for Black Lives, she coordinated a network of more than 3,000 legal professionals to provide legal support to democratize the criminal justice system.
In her spare time she volunteers with several organizations committed to improving the status of women and Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) communities. Krystina is a past board member of the Junior League of Miami, a Co-Founder of The Black Collective, Past Immigration Chair for the League of Women Voters of Florida and past Executive Committee for Leadership Miami.
She has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times, The Miami Herald, NBC6, Bustle, WLRN, NPR, and The Miami New Times for her efforts as an immigration expert and political strategist. Krystina received the 2019 Rebecca Herndon Bush Award by the Junior League of Miami, which is given to a member who displays exceptional community leadership inside and outside the League. She is also awarded the 2020 Haitian American Chamber of Commerce “Top 20 under 40”.
