Karina Dominguez was born in Michoacan, Mexico and migrated to Phoenix, Arizona with her parents at the age of 8 in 2007. In 2017, she graduated high school and decided to continue her education at Glendale Community College and later at Arizona State University where she graduated with a major in Sustainability and a minor in Urban planning.  

During her time in college, she realized that resources and opportunities for undocumented students in the state of Arizona were extremely limited. That is why she got involved with organizations whose mission was to ensure that undocumented students were able to succeed in higher education. She was the Communications Director for the Club Undocumented Students for Education Equity (USEE) at ASU where she was able to connect and create a community with other undocumented college students. In 2019, USEE created the We Rise Scholarship, an inclusive scholarship for undocumented students attending ASU that granted 10 scholarships during her time there. In 2019, she also participated in the Phoenix Immigrant Scholarship Hustle as the Curriculum Fellow where she helped develop a five-day program for undocumented high school students.

Beyond her work with undocumented students in Arizona, Karina is a co-founder of Rooted Uprising, a social and environmental justice collective launched in March 2021 aiming to engage, elevate, and empower community.

“You never completely have your rights, one person, until you all have your rights” – Marsha P. Johnson