Margarita Quiñones Peña: Advocate for Holistic Community Empowerment

Title: Founder & Executive Director

Organization: Latina Sweat Project

Age: 33

Margarita Quiñones Peña is a Chicago-based community leader, entrepreneur, author, and wellness advocate dedicated to expanding access to healing spaces for historically underserved communities. She is the Founder and Executive Director of the Latina Sweat Project, a grassroots wellness movement rooted in Pilsen that provides trauma-informed yoga, leadership development, and culturally grounded programming for Black, Brown, LGBTQ+, and immigrant communities. Through innovative partnerships and community-driven initiatives, Margarita has helped grow Latina Sweat Project into a hub for accessible wellness, mutual aid, and cultural empowerment, serving more than 250,000 participants yearly through free and low-cost programming.

Under her leadership, the organization launched one of the first fully scholarship-based 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training programs in Chicago designed specifically for underrepresented communities. To date, Latina Sweat Project has certified over 50 yoga instructors, many of whom now lead free community classes across the city, creating a ripple effect of accessible healing spaces and leadership pathways.

Margarita is also the author of Homecoming: El Viaje a Mi Hogar, a children’s book inspired by her own migration journey. The book centers themes of identity, belonging, and resilience, offering young readers, especially children of immigrant families, representation and affirmation while raising awareness about the experiences of migrant youth. Proceeds from the book support initiatives serving immigrant children.

In addition to her nonprofit leadership, Margarita is an engineer working in Data and AI, bringing a systems-thinking approach to building sustainable and scalable community programs. A first-generation Mexican American raised in Chicago, her work bridges wellness, technology, and social impact, grounded in the belief that movement, storytelling, and collective care are powerful tools for healing and transformation.