Project: Human Rights Campaign Foundation. Washington, DC. Addressing the Crisis of LGBTQ Violence and Discrimination Abroad

Diego Garcia Blum currently studies at the Harvard Kennedy School as a fellow at the Center for Public Leadership. He serves as the student body Vice President for Diversity and as the Chair of the LGBTQ Caucus. He holds Bachelor degrees in Nuclear Engineering and Political Science from the University of Florida.

Born in Bogota, and raised in Miami, Diego is a community leader, activist, researcher, and engineer focused on issues disproportionately affecting underserved and discriminated populations. Diego’s work focuses on fighting for the safety and acceptance of LGBTQ people living in places where they are unsafe. It is a calling born out of his own story of overcoming oppression as a gay man and witnessing the heartbreaking assault on LGBTQ people in repressive areas of the world.

Diego is an award-winning nuclear engineer, whose work has centered on designing and licensing innovative nuclear waste disposal and nuclear non-proliferation technology in United States and France. As an engineer Diego has also dedicated himself to climate change advocacy, exploring the role of nuclear energy in decarbonizing the energy sector and evaluating the impact of energy policy. He has extensive experience working in nuclear technology policy and politics in the United States.

Growing up, his family struggled to find a foothold in the U.S. immigration system. Under these circumstances, Diego became an immigration reform activist, publishing his story in the Huffington Post, and joining a cohort of young immigration reform campaigners in Washington DC. After college, Diego became a volunteer community organizer with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest LGBTQ rights organization. After five years of community organizing, Diego joined the National Board of Governors of the HRC.