Shinnawi, Abeer

Abeer Shinnawi

Abeer Shinnawi (she/her) is the Director of Program at Re-Imagining Migration. Shinnawi is a veteran middle school social studies teacher who has used her own upbringing as a child of immigrants to help connect students, schools and communities. Throughout her career, she has worked with schools, cultural institutions, and publishers to provide curriculum, content, and activities that reflect BIPOC students and teachers. Before joining the team at Re-Imagining Migration, she worked as a resource teacher in the Baltimore County Public Schools Office of Social Studies, leading curriculum development and supporting teachers. In addition, she served as an equity liaison and the co-facilitator of an affinity group for teachers of color. She also created and facilitated a student support group that provided safe spaces for immigrant students.

Sherman Luna, Lisa

Lisa Sherman Luna

Lisa Sherman Luna (she/her/ella) is the Executive Director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, where she prior served as Policy Director. Lisa is also a proud member of the NPNA Executive Committee. She and her family moved to Nashville from Guatemala in 2001. It was this experience that shaped her commitment to fighting for an immigration system where all people can access safety, opportunity, and belonging. Lisa has a track record of success in winning policy victories in TN, including successful passage of TIRRC’s first ever pro-immigrant bill in the state legislature, securing over 1.8 million in ARP funds to expand immigration legal services, defeating dozens of pieces of anti-immigrant legislation, convincing Governor Lee to consent to welcome refugees, and pressuring the Davidson County Sheriff to terminate a rent-a-bed agreement with immigration and customs enforcement. Prior to joining the TIRRC team, Lisa worked in the international human rights field in New York, London, and Senegal. She holds a Master’s degree in Conflict, Security, and Development from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London and is fluent in Spanish and English.

Sarr, Seydi

Seydi Sarr

Seydi Sarr (she/her) is an award-winning social justice advocate, human rights activist, and curator of equitable practices through lived experiences. She is the Founder and Helmswomxn of the African Bureau for Immigration and Social Affairs and co-founder of the Black Immigrant Bail Fund. A Senegalese native, Seydi is a graduate of Wayne State University School of Social Work (BSW) and Marygrove School of Social Justice (M.A. SJ). She advocates at the intersections of racial, immigration, socio-economy, religious, and gender issues, and curates the vision of a multicultural, multifaceted society built on acknowledgment, understanding, courage, transformation, and service. Seydi is a court interpreter, an alumna of the Detroit Equity Action Lab fellow, a Michigan Political Leadership Program fellow, and a New American Leaders fellow.

Sanz, Fatima

Fatima Sanz

Fatima Sanz (she/her) is the Policy Manager at WES Global Talent Bridge. In her role, she focuses on advocating for administrative and legislative changes that lead to equitable opportunities for immigrants and refugees to reach their educational and career goals. Fatima works on federal and state legislation. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education and the Fels Institute of Government, and received her B.S. from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

Sarsour, Linda

Linda Sarsour

Linda Sarsour (she/her) is an award-winning racial justice and civil rights activist, community organizer, every Islamophobe's worst nightmare and mother of three, and is the co-founder and executive director of the first Muslim online organizing platform, MPower Change. She is a Palestinian-Muslim-American born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and is the former Executive Director of the Arab American Association of New York. Linda was one of the national co-chairs of the largest single day protest in US history, the Women’s March on Washington. She has been named amongst 500 of the most influential Muslims in the world. She has won numerous awards including Champion of Change from the Obama Administration. She was recognized as one of Fortune’s 50 Greatest Leaders and featured as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2017. Linda is a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow, and in 2020 released her highly anticipated book “We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders: A Memoir of Love & Resistance.” She is a frequent media commentator on issues impacting Muslim communities, Middle East affairs and criminal justice reform and most recognized for her transformative intersectional organizing work and movement building.

Saidi. Fatima

Fatima Saidi

Fatima Saidi (she/her) is the Development and Relations Manager at the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition. Born in a small village in Ghazni, Afghanistan, in 1996 at the age of two, she became a refugee in Quetta, Pakistan, when her family took refuge from the Taliban. Fatima came to Lewiston, Maine as an international student at Bates College in 2013. While in college, she held internships with the International Institute of St. Louis in Missouri, United Nations and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission in Kabul, Afghanistan, and the World Hazara Council in Vienna, Austria. She is a graduate of Bates College with a double major in political science and religious studies and has also worked as the Development Coordinator and the Grant Writer at the Mayor’s Office of Financial Empowerment in the City of Boston.

Sáenz. Carmen I.

Carmen I. Sáenz

Carmen I. Sáenz (she/her) is the Manager of the Welcome Back Center with Montgomery County, Department of Health and Human Services in Maryland. The Center uses a nationally recognized model of services to assist internationally educated health professionals to obtain licensure/certification in the health field and secure a job. Carmen has been working in public health for 28 years, the last 16 at the Center,

and prior at the Pan American Health Organization/Washington D.C. and George Mason University/Virginia. She was born in Costa Rica and graduated with MS in Industrial Engineering at University of Wisconsin, Madison and BS at University of Lima, Peru.

Ross, Kenrick

Kenrick Ross

Kenrick Ross (he/him) is the Executive Director of the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance, the nation’s leading organization empowering LGBTQ+ Asians and Pacific Islanders. Previously, he served in leadership at YWCA of Queens, The Leaguers, Inc., and Indo-Caribbean Alliance, and his career spans sectors as diverse as civic engagement and education reform to equitable entrepreneurship and community health. Kenrick has spoken at 50+ events, produced a short film, served on a dozen boards, and founded Urban&Out, an LGBTQ+POC platform. He’s also a huge evangelist for LGBTQ community athletes, fitness, and sports, especially tennis. Born in Guyana and raised in New Jersey, he holds a BA in Politics from New York University, and an MS in Urban Policy and Leadership from CUNY-Hunter College.

Romero, Odilia

Odilia Romero

Odilia Romero (she/her) is the co-founder/ executive director of Comunidades Indígenas en Liderazgo (CIELO); she is also an independent interpreter of Zapotec, Spanish, and English for indigenous communities in Los Angeles and throughout California. She has two decades of experience organizing indigenous migrant communities. Her organizing knowledge and experience are held in high regard, with multiple academic publications, awards, and lectures in universities across the United States, including John Hopkins, USC, and UCLA. Ms. Romero has published on the challenges of organizing in indigenous communities, developing women’s leadership, and preparing a new generation of youth. Her work has also been featured in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Vogue and Democracy Now. She has also been featured in the two Daytime Emmy Award winning series Pan y Circo by Diego Luna.

Rivera, Kiki

Kiki Rivera

Kiki Rivera (We/They/Them) is Storyteller - As a storyteller for Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC), Kiki Rivera helps fulfill EPIC’s mission to advance social justice by developing and implementing narrative change strategies. They use creative skills to build political will for the organization’s advocacy agenda and expand its reach in the Pacific Islander community. As an award-winning theatre artist, educator, curator and arts activist; Rivera is among a group of grassroots leaders that mobilize resources to empower Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. Through their creative talent, Rivera amplifies the collective voice and strengthens the advocacy work of the community organizers. Kiki's original plays include Faʻalavelave: The Interruption. Published plays include “Puzzy” (featuring award-winning New Zealand Playwright Victor Rodger) found in the anthology Samoan Queer Lives, “To Our Black and Brown Babies of Ocean and Islands” in the anthology We’re Not Neutral, and “Kumu Kukui” in Lighting the Way: An Anthology of Short Plays About The Climate Crises. 

Rios, Federico

Federico Rios

Federico Rios (he/his) is the Assistant Director, Office of Equity, Mobility and Immigrant Integration at the City of Charlotte where he also previously served as the International Business and Immigrant Integration Manager.His work focuses on community outreach and improving systems to help immigrant newcomers. Previously, Federico was program director for the Northeast Learning Community and Newcomer Services for Communities in Schools in Charlotte. He has several years of experience serving as a mental health professional in Charlotte and in New York City. Federico is a board member of the Leading on Opportunity Council and Communities in Schools in Charlotte. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in English from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. 

Quintanilla, Jeovany

Jeovany Quintanilla

Jeovany Quintanilla (he/him) is a Community-Based Organizations Associate at ActBlue where he specializes in Health Care Access & Universal Health Care. As a first-generation Salvadoran-American, Jeovany is passionate about serving socially excluded communities and advocating for universal healthcare. For the better part of a decade, he worked on the clinical side of an outpatient physical therapy practice. During the 2020 election cycle, Jeovany volunteered with various get out the vote initiatives and quickly realized he wanted a career in advocating for progressive policies. Jeovany is the Movement, Issue, and Charitable Organizations Health Associate at ActBlue where he works with health-centered nonprofits and gives support to their digital fundraising efforts. Jeovany and his partner currently live in Washington, DC. 

Quiñones, Luvia

Luvia Quiñones

Luvia Quiñones (she /her)  serves as the Senior Director of Health Policy at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR). In this role, Luvia oversees the Immigrant Health Care Access Initiative and in collaboration with ICIRR's members develops ICIRR's health policy agenda with a special focus on access to health care. Prior to transitioning to this position, Luvia oversaw ICIRR's health and human services programs: the Immigrant Family Resource Program, WIC, and SNAP. Preceding ICIRR, Luvia worked at City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) under the Community Relations Department. There she played an integral role in creating and launching the new department. Prior to working at CCC, she oversaw the first state-funded citizenship program at ICIRR, the New Americans Initiative. Luvia has a Master in Public Policy (MPP) from the University of Chicago and a BA in International Studies from DePaul University. She is the daughter of Mexican Immigrants from Durango, Mexico and is an active community member in her parish, St. Sylvester. Currently, she serves as a board member of the Illinois Association of Free and Charitable Clinics (IAFCC).

Prom, Sosseh

Sosseh Prom

Sosseh Prom, Esq (she /her) serves as the  State Policy Manager in Washington, D.C.for  African Communities Together (ACT).  Previously a Family Law attorney representing low-income D.C. residents, Sosseh has dedicated her life to assisting vulnerable communities by providing them with the resources they need to thrive. Prior to joining ACT, Sosseh also served as Policy Counsel for a local non-profit, advocating for change to make D.C. courts and government agencies racially equitable and just. She is an active member of the D.C. Bar and holds a J.D. from the Catholic University, Columbus School of Law. Sosseh was born in D.C. and raised in The Gambia.

Powell, Kimahli

Kimahli Powell

Kimahli Powell (he/him) is the Executive Director of Rainbow Railroad, where he has led the organization through transformational growth helping thousands of people. Under his leadership, RR expanded its international reach and completed successful crisis interventions in Chechnya, Egypt, Uganda, and more recently Afghanistan and Ukraine. A senior leader in the INGO field with expertise in community building and strategic advocacy with a focus on international development, law and policy, HIV/AIDs and internally displaced persons, Kimahli holds an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Victoria and was listed in Out Magazine’s 2018 profile of 100 influential LGBTQI+ people. He has served as a board member for ILGA, is the current Chair of the Dignity Network, and on the board of the Foundation for Black Communities. Kimahli is a regular contributor to international media with appearances on CNN, MSBC, CBC, BBC and a profile on 60 Minutes. 

Pistone, Michele

Michele Pistone

Michele Pistone, JD, LLM (she/her) is the Faculty Director of the Strategic Initiative on Migration and Refugee Protection, a professor of law and creator and Founding Faculty Director of VIISTA, an online certificate program to train immigrant advocates. Before building VIISTA, Professor Pistone directed and taught the Clinic for Asylum, Refugee and Emigrant Services at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. She founded the Law School’s in-house Clinical Program in 1999. Through the CARES clinic, Professor Pistone and her students provided free legal services to hundreds of asylum seekers and represented them in immigration court and before the Department of Homeland Security. Over the last 20 years, she and her students have helped hundreds of asylum seekers and their families gain asylum protection in the United States. Professor Pistone is an internationally recognized expert on online legal education and a regular speaker on legal education, online and hybrid teaching, formative assessment and also on immigration and asylum. Her research focuses on technological innovations in the practice of law and in legal education, asylum and refugee law, immigration law, migration, clinical education, and Catholic social thought.  She co-authored Disrupting Law School: how disruptive innovation is revolutionizing the legal world, a whitepaper for the Christensen Institute, which was republished in China and Germany, as well as many papers on technology, legal education and the practice of law. She is also co-author of a groundbreaking book entitled, Stepping Out of the Brain Drain: Applying Catholic Social Teaching in a New Era of Migration (Lexington Books 2007). She is a Fellow at the Center for Migration Studies, an immigration think tank, a Fellow at the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, serves on the American Bar Association Outcomes and Assessment Committee and serves as an expert advisor on migration and human rights to the Holy See Mission to the United Nations.

Peters-Quintero , Mayra

Mayra Peters-Quintero

Mayra Peters-Quintero (she/he) is Founding Executive Director of the Abundant Futures Fund, a pooled donor collaborative housed at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors dedicated to increasing support for immigration and the immigrant justice movement. Previously, Mayra spent more than a decade at the Ford Foundation as a Senior Program Officer overseeing Ford’s migration funding. Prior to philanthropy, Mayra was at the New York State Department of Labor's Bureau of Immigrant Workers Rights as its Director, at New York University School of Law as co-director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic, and at LatinoJustice PRLDEF as Skadden Fellow and Associate Counsel. She earned her JD from NYU and her MPA from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. She was born in Panama and raised in San Diego.

Perez, Ruth

Ruth Perez

Ruth Perez (she/her) is an ImmSchools parent leader in Camden, New Jersey and one of the founders of MTC (Tricolor Movement) a non-profit organization promoting educational and cultural programs with the specific objective of involving the Latinx community through activities that increase their access to resources and social and economic opportunities. Ruth was born and raised in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and in 2003 she migrated to the U.S. with her family looking for a better future. Ruth has resided in the city of Camden New Jersey for almost 20 years, during this time she became the owner of a corner store where she faced various difficulties with her children as they were undocumented.  In 2012, she became a legal resident and began her fight to ensure her children were also  able to adjust their status, which she finally succeeded in 2015. From this moment, her passion for helping people with similar stories to hers begins. Ruth has  become a community leader supporting schools across the Camden region, supporting with launching ImmSchools community programs and launching the first Latino small business association in Camden, of which he is now a board member of. Ruth has been recognized by the Mayor of the city of Camden as the bridge to better communication with immigrant communities and small businesses and most recently marched alongside her daughter raising her native country’s flag on the first ever Dominican independence day parade of Camden NJ. Her children are her greatest achievement and presentation of her values as an immigrant mother.

Perić, Rachel

Rachel Perić

Rachel Perić (she/her)  is the Executive Director of Welcoming America. Inspired by her family’s refugee story and by the worldwide movement of welcomers, Rachel works to create communities where all residents – including immigrants and refugees – can thrive and belong.

Since joining the organization in 2011, she has served as the organization’s deputy director and in other senior leadership roles, helping to grow Welcoming America from a startup to an award-winning organization with a global footprint. Prior to Welcoming America, Rachel served as Executive Director of the Montgomery Coalition for Adult English Literacy (MCAEL), a community literacy coalition that strengthens and promotes adult literacy and English language learning in suburban Washington, DC, where she was recognized with the Rising Star Award by Montgomery Women. Rachel also served as Regional Director of the United Way of the National Capital Area, where she led fundraising and community impact efforts in Montgomery County, MD. She began her career managing international development programs with a private consulting firm, Management Systems International (MSI). As the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, Rachel also serves on the board of Art and Remembrance, a nonprofit dedicated to using art and personal narrative to recognize individual courage and resilience. Rachel holds a Bachelor of Arts in international studies from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's in Public Management from the University of Maryland.

Onwa, Uchechukwu

Uchechukwu Onwa

Uchechukwu Onwa (he/him/his) is Co-Director, Queer Detainee Empowerment Project. He is a Nigerian-born organizer, trainer, abolitionist, and movement strategist, who fled his home country due to the repression and persecution he faced as a gay man. He has over 9 years of experience working in community outreach, public health, and human rights. He is a high-impact voice for the LGBTQ+ community and a social justice advocate. Uche has also been a strong advocate for the abolition of all cages in the US, particularly in Atlanta where he served as an impacted community member on the Mayor’s Commission on immigration detention that guided Mayor Bottom’s decision to sign a policy that ended the detention of immigrants in Atlanta City Detention Center, in New Jersey, and in New York. He currently works as the Co-Director/Organizing Director with Queer Detainee Empowerment Project (QDEP) focusing on building and strengthening the membership base while maintaining partnerships and coalitions with other organizations. He also leads QDEP’s Leadership Development Program for Cisgender Queer and Trans Women and Gender Non-Conforming Immigrants. His work has been recognized and awarded by the former New York City Mayor, Bill De Blasio, and the Bronx Borough President for his advocacy work and fights for inclusion for the LGBTQ+ refugees/immigrants in New York City in 2020. He was recently recognized as one of the LGBTQ+ Power Players of 2022. Uche’s work has been featured in Windy City Times, Shondaland, Plus Magazine, Buzzfeed, Pulitzer Center, Gay City News, Advocate Magazine, AMMetroNY, PoliticsNew and many more. When he is not organizing for queer and trans immigrants’ liberation you can find him doing some fun thing with his tribes.