Norma is a labor and community organizer with more than 25 years of experience building worker and community power across California, Oregon, and Connecticut. She spent 10 years in Oregon with SEIU 503, where she organized workers and negotiated contracts representing municipal employees, higher education workers, and other public service employees.
As a community organizer in California and Connecticut, Norma has led campaigns advancing the interests of working-class communities, immigrants, and young people. Her work has focused on expanding access to quality public education and healthcare, strengthening worker protections, and defending immigrant rights. Throughout her career, she has also been deeply committed to developing the next generation of leaders, training and mentoring staff and members to take on influential leadership roles in their unions, communities, and organizations.
In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic began, Norma became the first staff hired to launch what became the Connecticut For All Coalition. She was named Director in 2023 and, in 2026, became Co-Director alongside Constanza, continuing to lead the coalition’s efforts to build a powerful, multiracial alliance for economic, racial, and social justice across Connecticut.
Norma serves as Board Chair of the Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE)/Bargaining for the Common Good and is a member of the advisory council of the State Revenue Alliance.
Constanza is a co-founder and current director of Hartford Deportation Defense / Colectivo de Defensa (HDD), an immigrant organization that works with neighbors to build a just and dignified future for their families and communities in the Hartford region. Constanza has helped lead statewide social justice coalitions like the CT Immigrant Rights Alliance, HUSKY 4 Immigrants, and the CT Coalition for Immigrant Freedom. During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, she helped start the CT UndocuFund and the Mutual Aid Hartford network. She currently serves as the co-director of the statewide community-labor-faith coalition Connecticut For All (501c4) and its partner organization the Connecticut For All Justice Fund (501c3).
Among Constanza’s proudest accomplishments is the establishment of the Families Facing Deportation Fund at the City of Hartford, the expansion of the HUSKY health program to include undocumented kids up to age 15 and undocumented pregnant people, and the recognition of Connecticut pardons by ICE, resulting in people avoiding deportation because of their criminal record once they obtain a pardon in our state.
Constanza grew up in Mendoza, Argentina, and moved to the United States at the age of 17. She lives in Hartford with her family.
Michelle Gardner has served as Finance and Operations Director at Connecticut For All Justice Fund since 2025, overseeing grant administration, compliance, and organizational operations while supporting the coalition’s programs and partnerships.
Michelle earned her doctorate in Political Science from the University of California at Irvine in 2025. There, she was a head steward and field organizer for UAW Local 4811, a strike captain during their historic 2022 strike—the largest of higher education workers in the history of the United States—and an international delegate to the UAW’s 38th Constitutional Convention that same year.
Michelle proudly hails from the tobacco country of western North Carolina, where her paternal family has deeps roots going back to at least the 1700s. She is half Korean on her mother’s side and lived in Seoul for two years after graduating from college. Growing up among immigrant farmworkers, and shaped by her own mixed background, she developed a lasting commitment to multiracial solidarity and community organizing.
Jared Cavagnuolo is the Senior Project Manager: Engagement and Organizing in Hartford, New Haven, and Middlesex Counties for the Housing for All network, a partnership between The Housing Collective and the Connecticut For All Justice Fund. In this role, he provides ongoing support to resident leaders and grassroots groups who are working to increase housing affordability, opportunity, and access in their local communities.
Jared also volunteers for Connecticut Tenants Union (CTTU) and serves as a leader on their Political Committee, working to build coalitions between the Union and partner organizations around shared organizing campaigns and policy goals.
As a social worker and former Special Educator with over two decades of teaching, training, mentoring, and case management experience, Jared brings a deep understanding of the root causes of systemic inequality and a firm commitment to combating it through collaborative, inclusive, and community-driven efforts. Jared holds a Master of Social Work (MSW) from Sacred Heart University and a Master of Science in Education (M.S.Ed) from Simmons College.
Leslie Blatteau, Chair
President, New Haven Federation of Teachers
Rob Baril, Vice-Chair
President, 1199 NE




