Bio

Sixto Cancel moved through several foster homes since 11 months old. Cancel is a member of the National Foster Care Youth and Alumni Policy Council, where he works to present policy recommendations and youth perspective to the Acting Assistant Secretary for the Administration for Children and Families under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He currently severs on board of Directors for the National Foster Care Coalition. As a Young Fellow at Jim Casey Youth Opportunity, an organization that work works to influences changes in the foster care system for aging out youth, Cancel has had the opportunity to participate in national conversations on how to improve outcomes for youth who leave foster care. He has been invited to the White House four times and presented at over 20 conferences including the Governor’s Association, Harvard Law, and the Center for Enterprise Development about foster care issues. As a 2012 FosterClub Allstar, Cancel was invited to the Inauguration of President Obama to represent youth in foster care. As a high school student, he founded and secured funding for a SAT/remedial education program for high school students in foster care called Stellar Works. Cancel’s has been involved since the inception of Rising Tides, a crowd-funding website that helps youth leaving foster care raise money for college needs and matched savings accounts and severs on their advisory board. He has appeared on NPR’s “Tell Me More,” CNN, Huffington post and other media outlets. In addition to his work Sixto currently serves on the advisory board for Together We Rise, American Institutes Research (AIR) Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, and Allied youth and als AIR's advisory board, Improving Outcomes for African American Males in the Child Welfare System. Sixto is the founder of Think of Us, a commitment of action for the Clinton Global Initiative America to get youth and alumni from foster care working, educated and experience well-being.