Gilbert Placeres grew up between New York City, the Dominican Republic, and Miami. Before Harvard, he was an Organizer, Organizing Director, and Deputy Director at Engage Miami, a local civic engagement non-profit where he built power among young people at the ballot box and in local government. He led campaigns that registered over 20,000 young voters, brought early voting to college campuses, and increased public participation in the county budgeting process. Gilbert graduated magna cum laude with degrees in Political Science and Quantitative Economics from Tufts University in 2016. In 2020, he was selected as one of 20 of Miami's Next Leaders. After Harvard, Gilbert aspires to be a labor lawyer, helping working class people build power and win jobs that pay living wages and provide dignity. He worked as a Summer Associate at labor-side law firm Bredhoff & Kaiser and at the National Labor Relations Board, in the office of Board Member Gwynne A. Wilcox. During his time at Harvard, he has also worked on Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s Policy Team as a Transition Term Fellow, in the Mayor’s Office of Housing as a Joint Center for Housing Studies Fellow, as a Research Assistant at the Center for Labor and a Just Economy, and at the ACLU of Florida. Gilbert is the proud son of Dominican immigrants and the first in his family to attend graduate school.