The first out lesbian in her Jatt-Sikh Punjabi community, Amanda Kay Mannshahia utilizes her vision of social justice to integrate art-based activism to help minority groups heal past intergenerational trauma and magnify their voices in the political sphere. Honing this vision during her Master’s in Women & Gender Studies at SFSU, she built her career within the nonprofit sector. She has worked towards her goal to build solidarity between people of color through community-based organizing and public policy by serving as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Collective Voice, working with the L.A. LGBT Center and for Mural Acquisition at SFSU. 

By focusing on policy work tailored towards community restoration, mural acquisition and the arts, Amanda aims to not only help to preserve Los Angeles’s vibrant cultural wealth but make space for artists whose creative activism has the ability to put forth images, sounds and sentiments that hold the capacity to put forth a collective vision of a more just world.To further her public service work, Amanda is currently pursuing her JD at Loyola Law School.