Luis Sorto is the senior program manager of PEN America’s Florida office. In this role, he will spearhead programmatic and advocacy efforts to defend free expression, including legislative and policy advocacy, public education support, and grassroots coalition building.
Prior to joining PEN America, Luis was a strategic communications professional for public affairs firms and civil rights organizations. He served as a communications strategist for the ACLU of Florida, where he led media and messaging efforts for the organization’s immigrants’ rights campaign, along with working on First Amendment and voting rights projects. He collaborated on integrated advocacy strategies to advance immigrants’ rights across Florida and the ACLU of Florida’s Detention Program, aimed at combating abuses in the state’s immigrant detention centers.
Sorto also served as an Account Executive at BerlinRosen, a strategic communications firm, where he supported clients in immigration, criminal justice, and reproductive health rights. He worked with a coalition of organizations to expose medical abuses against immigrant women at the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia. Additionally, he worked at Columbia University’s Office of University Life, assisting with university-wide communications projects on public health and racial justice.
Following his undergraduate education, he secured a fellowship with VOX Global, a public affairs firm based in Washington, D.C., supporting campaigns focused on access to higher education and workforce development. Luis holds a B.S. in International Politics with a minor in Arabic from Georgetown University.