LGBTQ+ Victory Institute is excited to announce the 2025 Women Out to Win fellows! These four outstanding leaders will spend the next six months discussing the challenges of running for office as an out LGBTQ+ woman and participating in personalized mentorship, joining the network of 15 other women who have gone through the program.
Kelly Cheatle (She/They)Kelly Cheatle’s unusual art career has taken her across the globe, designing and directing the creation of massive-scale community-built sculptures. Her experiences both in art and community organizing have illuminated the immense potential of collective action, revealing not only how people eagerly contribute to the greater good when given support and opportunity, but the importance of creating spaces for collaboration and creativity. Both light-hearted and lion-hearted, Kelly combines her extensive design, logistics, and marketing experience to champion equity and the arts in our community. Unwavering in her commitment to the common good, she fearlessly challenges the status quo when it falls short of serving the people and is a passionate advocate for informed decision-making. Kelly is also a Guinness World Record holder and Silver Abby award winner whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Make Magazine, and the co-author/illustrator of two children’s books.
Rocío Fierro-Pérez (she/her)
Austin, Texas
Rocío Fierro-Pérez, a Mexican, American, immigrant, queer woman, first generation college graduate and proud fronteriza from El Paso, Texas, embodies intersectional advocacy as the Political Director for the Texas Freedom Network in Austin. She directs the legislative, electoral and political strategy, championing LGBTQ+ equality, voting rights, immigration, reproductive justice, climate justice, religious freedom, education and other critical issues at the statewide and local level. With a passion for dismantling systemic barriers, Rocío works to advance a progressive inclusive agenda that counters the harmful policies and systemic inequities that have marginalized generations. When not strategizing for change, you can find Rocío dancing in her living room or exploring nature with her dogs, Lolita and Aleu.
Amanda Gonzalez (She/Her)
Arvada, Colorado
Clerk and Recorder, Jefferson County
Amanda Gonzalez was elected as the Clerk and Recorder in Jefferson County in 2022. She is the first Latina and first out queer person to hold the position. Under her leadership, Jefferson County had the highest voter turnout of any county in Colorado in 2022 coordinated election. She has spent her career creating policies that encourage civic engagement because she fundamentally believes that our democracy is better when everyone participates. Gonzalez is a former Executive Director of Colorado Common Cause, a nonpartisan good government group where she helped craft and pass policies that expanded ballot access, reduced the influence of money in politics, and ensured a complete count in the 2020 Census. During the course of her career she has served as a policy analyst and staff attorney, small business CEO, nonprofit executive director, and adjunct professor. The first in her family to go to college, she holds degrees from Occidental College and the University of Denver Sturm College.
Shontel Lewis (She/Her)
Denver, Colorado
City Councilmember, Denver City Council
Shontel M. Lewis was born and raised in the historic Five Points, and has lived in several neighborhoods throughout District 8. She is the proud mother of two beautiful boys: a college student and two-year-old son.She is a proud graduate of Manual High School and the University of Colorado Denver. Her journey—one of redemption, second chances and transformation—has not been absent of mistakes, failures, personal growth and pain. It has been through this pain that she found precision in her pursuits to justice.
Shontel went from being a student in Denver Public Schools (DPS) to becoming a director at DPS leading family and community engagement initiatives. She knows what it takes to move from eviction to homeownership, and she channeled that pain and perseverance into becoming a Vice President at the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. She knows the resilience required to endure three-hour bus rides while working multiple jobs as a young mother and a full-time student, which fueled her run to become an elected Director at the Regional Transportation District (RTD) Board.
During her time on the RTD Board, she served as the inaugural Chair of the Performance Committee, helping to facilitate the development of the agency’s strategic priorities and strategic direction in partnership with the CEO. Shontel was also a fierce advocate for RTD frontline staff, including ensuring their access to PPE, the implementation of rear-door boarding, and advocacy of social distancing for transit providers throughout the state of Colorado during the COVID19 emergency. Shontel is an unapologetic, Black, Queer Womxn grounded in her values of love and humanity. Looking forward, she will continue to fight for people over politics every day, and infuse city government with policy expertise, a lens for justice, and ancestral wisdom.