Tonantzin Carmona ’08

Tonantzin Carmona is deputy policy director and director of the Office of New Americans for the City of Chicago. The granddaughter of immigrants and community volunteers, Carmona was born and raised in Chicago’s “Little Village,” a community of predominantly Mexican immigrants. Prior to joining the office of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, she earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Northwestern University.

“I am a young, brown woman, and people underestimate me. I should not question or be apologetic about who I am. The women I’ve known, in immigrant communities, get things done. They begin by looking out for their children; they get involved and take off from there.”

— quoted in “New Americans Will Power Chicago’s Future,”
by Cathleen Everett, Milton Magazine, Fall 2014