
Sebastian Fernandez is a Colombian American pursuing a Master in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, after college to support the state’s growing Latino population in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. He served his local community at the Louisiana Supreme Court, where he provided legal outreach to Spanish speakers and prisoners, and developed Spanish-language websites and tools. During his free time, he taught a volunteer ESL course for recent Latin American immigrants in Jefferson Parish through the New Neighbor Project. In 2022, Sebastian graduated with a B.A. in English from Cornell University, where he held leadership positions as editor of the Cornell Business Review and executive board member of the Cornell Media Guild. Sebastian credits his immigrant family and his two public educator parents with cultivating his professional interests. He is passionate about urban policy, education, economic equity, ecological disaster aid, immigrant rights advocacy, and the Latino community. After graduating from HKS, he plans to return to the northeastern U.S. to pursue a position in public or non-profit leadership, where he will continue to expand social inclusion and services for underserved populations.
Sebastian is supported by funding through the Lisa Garcia Quiroz Graduate Fellowship.