Fanny Julissa García is a Honduran-American oral historian with a focus on applied oral history—a framework she established to describe how oral histories can be used to educate, inform policy change, and support communities endangered by violence. Her work examines immigration justice, detention and incarceration, family separation, and border policies. Her work is deeply informed by her experiences as an immigrant and survivor of trauma and generational poverty. These experiences led to a twenty-year career as a social justice advocate, working to address the public health and socioeconomic impact of HIV/AIDS in low-income immigrant communities, fighting to end family detention, and supporting survivors of sexual violence.

A sought-after public speaker represented by Embrace Change Speaker's Bureau, García has conducted workshops and presentations nationwide at leading institutions including Barnard College, Columbia University, New York University, American University, Whitman College, and the New-York Historical. Her expertise has been featured at the National Latinx Conference on HIV, HCV, and SUD, and she regularly contributes to discussions on oral history methodology and social justice across academic and community settings.

García holds degrees from Los Angeles Valley College (AA), UCLA (BA), and Columbia University (MA in Oral History), where she received both the Judge Jack B. Weinstein Scholarship Award and the OHMA Oral History Teaching and Social Justice Award. Her thesis, Reminiscences on Migration: A Central American Lyric, earned runner-up recognition for the Jeffrey H. Brodsky Oral History Award. In 2019, the Oral History Association awarded her the Emerging Crisis Fund Award. In 2022, she received a fellowship from the National Endowment of the Humanities. She is a member of the Oral History Association and is currently the Editorial Program Manager at Voice of Witness.

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Fanny Julissa García es una historiadora oral trabajando en el campo de estudios centroamericanos y historias de migración y detención. La historia oral es la recopilación y el estudio de información histórica utilizando grabaciones de sonido por medio de entrevistas con personas que tienen conocimiento personal de eventos pasados o que están ocurriendo. Ella ha trabajado como asistente legal y traductora en centros de detención en la frontera entre los Estados Unidos y México. Antes de su carrera en el campo de la historia oral, trabajó por mas de 15 años combatiendo el impacto del VIH/SIDA a la salud y el estatus socioeconómico de comunidades de bajos recursos en Los Ángeles, California. Durante este tiempo, también apoyo a personas impactadas por la violencia sexual y domestica.

“I really appreciated the open dialogue and exchange of ideas with all participants that Fanny facilitated. I enjoyed that we dug into why we have to approach oral history a certain way.” - Connor Snow, Archives Consultant