Sarat'ika Kelly
Economics and Political Science
University of California, Los Angeles
Sarat’ika Kelly is a Policy & Research Intern for the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) National Health Committee. Originally from Cusco, Peru, and raised in California’s Central Valley, she is a third-year student at UCLA, double majoring in Economics and Political Science. At UCLA, she serves in student government through the External and Internal Vice President’s offices, where she has worked on advocacy campaigns around access, equity, and student representation. She also serves as External Relations Co-Director for the Latinx Pre-Law Association and is the Public Relations Manager for LeGal, UCLA’s undergraduate law journal and pre-law collective.
In her role with LULAC, Sarat’ika focuses on healthcare policy affecting Latinx communities, especially how gaps in access impact rural and Indigenous populations. Her work draws from personal experience and her broader research on public health systems in Latin America. She also advocates for reviving Indigenous languages and knowledge systems, particularly Quechua, which she grew up speaking at home. At UCLA, she has worked closely with Kichwa and Quechua professors to shed light on ancestral practices often dismissed as superstition, despite their historical significance in medicine, philosophy, and sustainability.
Sarat’ika has spoken publicly about the long history of Indigenous land expropriation in Peru, where extractive industries like oil and mining have displaced communities without proper consultation. These displacements push families deeper into remote regions with little to no healthcare access. In many rural areas, clinics are understaffed, roads are unpaved, and in addition to infrastructure issues, cultural and language barriers are equally damaging. Most doctors do not speak Quechua or other Indigenous languages, resulting in misdiagnosis, stigma, and mistreatment.
Sarat’ika plans to pursue a J.D. with a focus on international business law. In the long term, she hopes to return to Peru to help build more accessible legal frameworks that support Indigenous land rights, economic justice, and culturally mindful approaches to care.