Julia Cuba. Photo courtesy of Austin Woman Magazine.

Cheers to Austin Woman Magazine for its profile of National Association of Social Workers member Julia Cuba MSW.

Cuba is executive director of GENAustin, or Girls Empowerment Network. Her organization mentors young women in areas such as employment, body image, and relationships.

A sexist incident on her childhood tee ball team got Cuba interested in working on feminist issues. She was the only girl on the team and the fastest runner:

“But at an award ceremony, my coach said ‘Here’s our girl, she was able to keep up.’ Then he handed me a trophy with a woman’s figure on it with huge breasts and everyone laughed at me. I knew I needed to understand why men and women were treated differently.”