Our Founder
Luis Jonathan Hernández
Founder & President
Youth Over Guns
From the South Bronx
to the movement.
Luis Jonathan Hernández grew up in the South Bronx, where the gun violence and systemic injustice he witnessed up close became the questions that would organize his life’s work: who gets to be safe, who holds power, and what it takes to shift both.
Grounded in the Black Radical Tradition and shaped by his own lived experience, he has spent the past decade turning those questions into action as a movement organizer, strategist, nonprofit leader, political operative, and advisor — guided by one consistent throughline: building the power of young people, especially in Black and Brown communities, and translating it into lasting change.
Youth Over Guns
That work is anchored in Youth Over Guns, the youth-led organization he founded to revolutionize gun culture and end the uniquely American epidemic of gun violence. Under his leadership, it has helped pass more than 20 state laws and contributed to the federal Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and multiple state and federal executive orders on community safety.
Electoral Power
As Campus Organizing Director for the Harris-Walz campaign in Georgia, Luis built what was named the number-one campus organizing program in the country, engaging more than 10,000 students as volunteers and driving a historic seven-point swing among Georgia’s 18-to-29-year-old voters — proof of what youth organizing can deliver on the hardest terrain.
Criminal Legal System
For five years at The Gathering for Justice — the organization founded by Harry Belafonte to end the incarceration of children — Luis led national campaigns and youth leadership programs while advancing efforts to end carceral approaches and overhaul the bail, probation, parole, and supervised release systems. He has carried that focus into advisory roles with Reform Alliance and the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University.
Beyond Youth Over Guns
Luis is a sought-after trainer, speaker, and facilitator, delivering keynotes and panels at venues including the White House, Yale Law School, UC Berkeley, NYU Wagner, and the national conventions of LULAC and National Action Network. He serves as a Power Building Strategist at The National Collaborative for Transformative Youth Policy and sits on the Latino Advisory Council of Giffords. He has advised political campaigns and artists including Shawn Mendes and Demi Lovato on racial justice, youth engagement, and coalition building.
He has been recognized by Amnesty International, former President Joe Biden, and was named to Forbes’ 2026 30 Under 30 Social Impact list.
“Organized community power can disrupt systems of harm and build a future where young people — and the communities they come from — are free to thrive.”
— Luis Jonathan Hernández
