About Andy Flores

Jorge Andres “Andy” Flores was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, to a Panamanian mother and a Mexican father. In the aftermath of their separation, Andy spent his early years in Panama City, Panama. There, he recalls frequently waking to the smell of his grandmother Wita’s fresh ojalda in the mornings. In the afternoons, he would help his grandfather, Wito, a carpenter, as he shaped wood into armoires and rocking chairs. This vivid childhood, full of love and acceptance, grounded Andy’s values in compassion and community.

At five, Andy reunited with his mother in Mississippi. She raised him by herself, working three jobs at once to pay the bills. Ultimately, those sacrifices ensured that Andy could go on to college: he enrolled at the University of Mississippi on a full Pell grant, studying public policy leadership and the philosophy of education. He quickly began to identify as an advocate for education access. On campus, he served as president of the First-Generation Student Network and as the student body’s director of inclusion. In 2021, Andy founded HelpSaveHELP after the Mississippi Legislature threatened to eliminate the HELP Grant, the state’s only need-based aid package for students at or below the poverty line. The grassroots campaign mobilized over 2,000 students, parents, and educators, persuading legislators to ultimately preserve the program. He graduated as class marshal (first in his class) and became the first Latino from Mississippi to receive the Harry S. Truman Scholarship.

After college, Andy worked at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, supporting the attorneys who defended race-conscious admissions before the Supreme Court of the United States in SFFA v. Harvard and SFFA v. UNC. His passion for public policy and higher education later brought him to Nashville, where he worked with Professor Ganesh Sitaraman to launch the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator. He went on to launch the Aspen Institute’s inaugural Youth Advisory Council and cofounded the Public Interest Law Association, a nonprofit cultivating the next generation of public interest lawyers.

Andy is now a JD candidate at Yale Law School, where he is pursuing coursework in constitutional law and education policy. He hopes to become a civil rights attorney and law professor, returning to the Deep South to expand opportunities for vulnerable learners and communities. Ultimately, his goal is to help transform education in the South and to lead a renewed, national culture of public service in America.