Stevie Vargas

Stevie Vargas is the Organizing Manager for Central and Western New York at the New York Civil Liberties Union, where she leads regional field strategy across Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo. Stevie brings a decade of experience in organizing, policy advocacy, and coalition-building, with a focus on advancing racial and economic justice. Prior to joining the NYCLU, she worked as a statewide organizer and campaign strategist, leading campaigns on education equity, childcare, and criminal legal system reform. Her work has spanned grassroots organizing, legislative advocacy, and cross-sector strategy development, with an emphasis on aligning community power with policy change.

Most recently, Stevie has engaged in movement work across New York State, contributing to participatory grant making efforts supporting a growing family justice movement, facilitated cross-organizational strategy sessions on reducing harm in the family policing system, and has worked to develop the advocacy infrastructure to support family justice movement efforts in NYS.

Stevie’s leadership and impact have been recognized by City & State, where she was named to the 2021 Upstate Power 100 list for her work with the Alliance for Quality education in their efforts to pressure Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state leaders not to slash education funding during the pandemic while urging state and federal lawmakers to include a “people’s bailout” in congressional relief packages.

Stevie is a graduate of Niagara University with a B.A in Political Science and International Relations. She cut her teeth in organizing as the Education Organizer with Citizen Action of NY in Rochester, NY, where she helped in the effort to get cops out of Rochester City School before joining the Alliance of Quality Education as their Statewide Campaign Manager. During her time at AQE, she anchored organizing the Statewide Universal Child Care Tour with Senator Jabari Brisport to hear testimony directly from childcare providers of all modalities, and parents struggling to afford childcare to bring about serious investments into the childcare sector, leading to the biggest investment in childcare during this time.