Zenobia Lai
As the Executive Director of Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative (HILSC). Zenobia Lai provides the strategic vision for HILSC to carry out its dual role as a funder and program incubator. Harnessing the convene-incubate-launch approach, HILSC innovates solutions for issues affecting Houston’s immigrant community to co-create a vibrant and resilient ecosystem where all immigrants, migrants, and refugees belong. Zenobia is a native Hong Konger who came to the U.S. as a teenager to pursue higher education and political refuge. Centering her purpose on access to justice by making legal services available to those lacking financial resources, political power, English proficiency, or knowledge of the American legal system, Zenobia has worked with immigrants on myriad issues as a legal services lawyer for over three decades. She coined the practice “community lawyering” urging lawyers to collaborate with organizers and other professionals to support low-income, immigrant communities’ pursuit of equity and justice.