Executive Director to Step Down after 6+ Years Leading Largest Political, Civic Engagement, & Advocacy Organization for Youth in Washington State
MEDIA CONTACT
Bailey Medilo, Spokesperson
media@washingtonbus.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, November 9th, 2026
WASHINGTON STATE - The Board of Directors for the Washington Bus & Washington Bus Education Fund, the largest youth-led, political and base-building organizations for young people in Washington State, announces that our longtime Executive Director, Cinthia Illan Vazquez, will be departing from the organization at the end of the year.
Cinthia (colloquially known by her initials, CIV) informed the board directors of her decision to step down earlier this year. Since assuming the role of Executive Director of the sister organizations, CIV has led a significant transformation to the Bus’s mission and vision for Washington State. During her tenure, CIV has shifted our organizations into principled base-building organizations, investing deeply in the leadership and advocacy of young Washingtonians statewide—especially those historically and currently underrepresented and disenfranchised.
Over the 6+ years in her role as Executive Director, the Bus has been behind major victories in statewide youth advocacy & policy. Under her leadership, youth leaders defeated Brian Heywood’s regressive ballot measures aimed at repealing the capital gains tax and millionaires tax, taking away environmental protections, and outing students.
The Bus also played a key role in renewing Seattle’s landmark Democracy Voucher program and our widely recognized field program has elected progressive pro-youth champions year-after-year. Youth advocates led by the Bus also advanced key legislative priorities like college affordability, environmental justice, public K-12 funding, and youth basic needs.
A cornerstone of our organizations’ work is leadership development and voter mobilization. Under CIV’s tenure, our organization made critical strides in building the political leadership of youth and young voters across Washington State:
The Bus graduated 6 fellowship classes and welcomed 88 new alumni into our Bus community
Registered over 2,000 first-time voters
Built a stronger youth electorate by engaging over 644,000 voters
“I’m proud of what we’ve built together. Together, we’ve grown and transformed the Bus into a more statewide, base-building organization committed to electoral, co-governing, and narrative power.” CIV shared, “Our staff and Board are ready to carry this work forward, and I can’t wait to cheer them on from a new seat.
During this transition process, the Board of Directors will step in to support the critical work of our organizations—which includes their work to select a new Interim Executive Director.
“We are incredibly sad to see Cinthia go, and deeply grateful for her work over the last six and a half years.” announced Denisse Guerrero, Emma Scalzo, and Annia Yoshizumi, leaders of the Washington Bus and Washington Bus Education Fund Boards of Directors collectively in a shared statement. “Under her leadership, the Bus has grown into a statewide organization, bringing youth from every corner of Washington into our organizing work and cementing the Bus as a long-term youth political power-builder.”
You can read the board’s full letter on our website at this link.
The Washington Bus and the Washington Bus Education Fund would like to give a heartfelt thanks to Cinthia for her leadership—our organizations’ incredible statewide and power building work would not be the same without her, and we wish her well on her future endeavors. The Bus team looks forward to making her proud and continuing the critical work of building the next generation of young leaders in Washington State.
About Us:
Washington Bus & Washington Bus Education Fund are the largest youth-led, base-building organizations dedicated to building and harnessing political power and leadership among young Washingtonians, especially those who have been historically disenfranchised.
Since forming in 2007 our mission has been to make politics engaging, effective, and fun by putting young Washingtonians in the driver’s seat and giving them tools to be organizers, legislators, and leaders.
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