Michelle Ferrigno Warren
President & CEO of Virago Strategies
Michelle Ferrigno Warren is the President & CEO of Virago Strategies, a consulting firm which provides strategic engagement and project management support for advocacy campaigns impacting poor communities. Michelle is a Senior Fellow with The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Cedarville University and a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Colorado.
Michelle has committed her life to her community and advancing equity and democratic participation across the country. She is a nationally recognized non-profit leader, advocate, author & speaker. For over a decade, she has championed critical issues including immigration, mass incarceration, and education and is an immigration, education, and human service policy expert who has built effective and diverse coalitions.
In her longtime role as the Christian Community Development’s Advocacy (CCDA) & Strategic Engagement Director, Michelle has spoken to thousands, traveled the world, and been interviewed by national and international media. In her role as a consultant with the D.C. based National Immigration Forum, she worked to build consensus among diverse stakeholders. Her advocacy and coalition work is a national model for non-profits, earning her respect from people on all sides of the aisle. Michelle has worked tirelessly to leverage her expertise to impact both her local community and others in similar communities across the country. During the 2020 election she ran for US Senate in Colorado, bringing issues of racial and economic justice to its forefront.
Michelle has sat on numerous non-profit boards, community commissions and efforts and is an adjunct faculty member at Denver Seminary in their Justice and Mission’s program teaching, “Political Advocacy, Doing Justice in the Public Square.” She is a fierce advocate for justice and has shared much of her journey toward civic engagement and activism in her books, The Power of Proximity, Moving Beyond Awareness to Action, IVP 2017 and Joining the Resistance, set for publication with IVP, September 2022.
Michelle’s advocacy work has been featured in local Colorado markets like The Denver Post and Colorado Public Radio as well as national Christian and secular media outlets like: The New York Times, The L.A. Times, the PBS News Hour, Christianity Today, CBN, Christian WORLD magazine, Sojourner’s and numerous others. Michelle lives in Denver, CO and is married to David Warren, Executive Director of Open Door Ministries.
As part of her TDBI Fellowship, Michelle is leading the Virago Collective