Yssis Cano-Santiago is a rising 2L and ASPIRE scholar at Boston University School of Law. Cano-Santiago holds a BA in Global Public Health and Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia where she was a QuestBridge Match recipient. Originally from Orlando, Florida, she was raised by her mother and grandmother and is of Puerto Rican and Mexican descent. Her experience as a former Medicaid recipient shaped her commitment to helping low-income, BIPOC communities, like her own, gain access to comprehensive and affordable healthcare. In the summer of 2023, Cano-Santiago moved to Boston where she worked for two years as a paralegal at the Boston Public Health Commission. She also served as the 2024-2025 Writer-in-Residence for the Associates of the Boston Public Library, where she completed a young adult manuscript that was added to the Boston Public Library’s Archives. Through this experience, she was profiled by the Boston Globe and the Bay State Banner. Cano-Santiago will spend her summer at the Attorney General’s Office in the Medicaid Fraud Division. Her mentors are Mary Beckman, former senior advisor in the Executive Office of Health and Human Services and Rappaport Center board member, as well as Carmen Ortiz, partner at Anderson Krieger and former US Attorney for the District of Massachusetts.