Carlos Adolfo Gonzalez Sierra

About Carlos Adolfo Gonzalez Sierra

When Carlos Adolfo Gonzalez Sierra lost his father at the age of eight, his mother enrolled in trade school and started a pastry business to try to support Carlos and his two sisters, but no matter her efforts, it was not enough. She moved her family from the Dominican Republic to Pennsylvania three years later. They became undocumented after their visas expired.

Buoyed by his mother’s example, Carlos overcame a language barrier, financial hardship, and his undocumented status to graduate from high school, community college, and later Amherst College. His academic success did not shield him from his immigration status though; a vulnerability that has motivated Carlos to commit his career to giving back. 

After college, Carlos moved to Illinois and later returned to Pennsylvania to begin a career focused on grassroots engagement, advocacy, and policy. The implementation of DACA allowed Carlos to return to school, pursuing an MPhil at the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar and then becoming a Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University. 

Carlos then spent a few years working to uphold immigrant rights in Pennsylvania before enrolling in a joint Juris Doctor and Master in Public Policy program at Harvard Law School and Harvard Kennedy School. While at Harvard, Gonzalez Sierra was elected president of the Harvard Graduate Council, the student government organization representing all twelve graduate and professional students. He graduated in 2023 and began his legal career in the Washington, DC area.