Kayse Jama is the Executive Director and co-founder of Unite Oregon, a statewide nonprofit led by people of color, immigrants and refugees, rural communities, and people experiencing poverty that works to build a unified intercultural movement for justice. Previously, Kayse trained immigrant and refugee community leaders in five Western states—Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Utah and Idaho—under a New Voices Fellowship at Western States Center. He has co-founded several large cross-issue coalitions, including Oregon Fair Shot Coalition and Oregon Health Equity Coalition, which together have won major legislative victories in recent years.
Jackson
Gabrielle Jackson is a co-founder of the UndocuBlack Network, a multi-generational network of directly affected Black undocumented people that fosters community, facilitates access to resources, and contributes to transforming the realities of their communities. She currently serves as the network’s Mental Wellness Director, leading their Mental Wellness Initiative, and is the author of The UndocuBlack Guide for Mental Wellness Specialists. Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, her purpose and passion is the mental and emotional well-being of the Black community, with an emphasis on Black immigrants.
Hernández
Patricia Y. Hernández is a Senior attorney with Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc. (ABLE) in Toledo, Ohio, a non-profit social justice law firm. She is a member of ABLE’s Agricultural Worker & Immigrant Rights Practice Group and has lead ABLE’s response to Executive Action on Immigration by both the Obama and Trump administrations. She is the Co-Chair of Welcome Toledo-Lucas County’s Legal Services Working Committee. Her practice has included employment, immigration, housing, education and civil rights work. Patty is a graduate of St. Mary’s University and The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.
Giovagnoli
Mary Giovagnoli is the Executive Directoro of Refugee Council USA. She brings more than twenty years of experience in refugee, asylum, and immigration law and policy to her work at RCUSA. Her previous roles include Senior Director for Public Policy at NAFSA: Association of International Educators; Deputy Assistant Secretary for Immigration Policy at the Department of Homeland Security; Senior Director for Policy at the National Immigration Forum; Director of the Immigration Policy Center at the American Immigration Council; and Senior Adviser to the Director of Congressional Relations at USCIS, among others.
Garcia
Richard Garcia, Chief Growth Officer, North Jersey Federal Credit Union, is a banking executive with a diverse background in Commercial Lending, Financial Analysis, Business Lines of Credit, and Residential Lending. Rich specialized in small businesses, providing loans and cash management services to small and medium size companies. Over the years he has helped 1000's of small businesses with loan requests. He has managed business banking portfolios of approximately $30mm consisting of closely held business of sales between $2mm to $25mm. His focus is on relationship management, portfolio retention, and the opportunity to provide advisory services to business clients.
Franco
Rosa Franco is the Director of Lending at Neighborhood Trust Federal Credit Union, where she oversees loan portfolio strategy, including design, planning, and implementation of lending products, as well as lending practices and marketing strategies that promote financial empowerment of the unbanked, under-banked, and low-income people. Rosa's role includes the leverage of impacts through strategic alliances with partner organizations. She developed her career in the two fields that she is most passionate: economic development/financial inclusion and adult education.
Evans
Bridgit Antoinette Evans, Executive Director of Pop Culture Collaborative, is widely recognized as one of the foremost thought leaders in the culture change strategy field. For Unbound Philanthropy and Ford Foundation, she has led multi-year culture change research and strategy design projects aimed at unearthing breakthrough narrative and engagement strategies for the immigrant rights and gender justice movements. Bridgit was a Nathan Cummings Foundation Fellow, piloting Culture Changes Us, a coordinated learning system designed to accelerate the social justice sectors’ understanding and use of culture change strategy. She received her MFA from Columbia University and BA from Stanford University.
Daraphant
Bo (BoThai) Daraphant is a NAKSEC fellow. He graduated with a B.A. in International Studies from University of California, Irvine, and is an artist, designer, activist, and an entrepreneur. He has worked on climate refugee stories project, founded an Undocumented Art Collective at UCI, and created a creative project telling stories 16 of undocumented Asian American Pacific Islanders through artworks, writings, and poetry called Bowtie & Friends. Currently, he is managing his own clothing line and is an ambassador/representation for an artist platform start up.
Curbelo
Congressman Carlos Curbelo is the U.S. Representative for Florida’s 26th Congressional District. Now in his second term, he is serving on the prestigious House Committee on Ways and Means. Previously, Curbelo served as State Director for U.S. Senator George LeMieux; was elected to the Miami-Dade County School Board; and co-founded Centre Court Charities, a non-profit organization that runs summertime basketball leagues for high school students. He graduated from the University of Miami with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration.
Choi
Steve Choi is the Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition, a coalition of over 200 member groups that represents New York State’s immigrant communities. He has tripled the organizational budget and doubled the size of the organization’s staff since joining in 2013, now overseeing the nation’s largest state immigrant rights coalition and serving as the chief advocate on immigrant rights, education, civic participation, and health care access on the Federal, state and local levels.
Chen
Yvonne Chen serves as the Manager of Outreach for Sanctuary for Families' Anti-Trafficking Initiative, one of the nation's leading service providers for immigrant victims and survivors of human trafficking and gender based violence. Yvonne is a fluent Mandarin speaker and manages outreach services to help identify victims and survivors of trafficking. She has also been doing community outreach in massage parlors in order to build relationships with the workers. Prior to coming to Sanctuary, Yvonne worked as a Grants Program Analyst at a fund and has experience working with different refugee populations in the States and South Africa.
Cheer
Shiu-Ming Cheer is the Senior Staff Attorney & Field Coordinator at the National Immigration Law Center, where she focuses on challenging immigration enforcement, promoting access to legal status, and integrating a field strategy into NILC’s issue areas. Previously, she was managing attorney at the Catholic Legal Immigration Network’s LA Detention Project and children’s attorney at the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a juris doctor from the UCLA School of Law Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy.
Chacón
Oscar A. Chacón is a co‐founder and executive director of Alianza Americas, an umbrella of immigrant‐led and immigrant serving organizations based in the United States of America. Prior to his designation in 2007, Oscar served in leadership positions at the Chicago‐based Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights, the Northern California Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the Boston‐ based Centro Presente, among others. Oscar is a frequent national and international spokesperson on transnationalism, economic justice, the link between migration and development, migrant’s integration processes, human mobility, migration policies, racism and xenophobia; and U.S. Latino community issues.
Cervantes
Wendy Cervantes is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) where she oversees the organization’s policy and advocacy work aimed at supporting low-income immigrants and their families. Previously, Ms. Cervantes was Vice President of Immigration and Child Rights at First Focus; the Director of Programs at La Plaza, a Latino community-based organization in Indiana; and a Program Assistant at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. She holds an M.A. in Latin American Studies and Political Science from the University of New Mexico and a B.A. in Communications from the University of Southern California.
Cedillo-Pereira
Mary Elizabeth (Liz) Cedillo-Pereira is the Director of the City of Dallas’ Office of Welcoming Communities and Immigrant Affairs. Previously, Liz served as the Obama Administration’s Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where she focused on national immigration policy and community engagement to foster relations in communities across the U.S. She has won numerous awards for commitment to service and excellence in the legal profession. Liz received her Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Pennsylvania and her Juris Doctorate from Southern Methodist University.
Escobar
Felicia Escobar Carrillo is Director of Immigration at The Beacon Fund, which works to unleash individual potential by investing in youth and their families, supporting communities, and removing systemic barriers to success. Previously, Felicia served at the White House Domestic Policy Council; led the White House Task Force on New Americans; worked for state legislators; and advocated for Texas’ Latino community as a UnidosUS State Policy Analyst, among other roles. Felicia earned a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University, Masters of Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and her J.D. from UCLA School of Law.
Byrne
Olga Byrne is the Director of Immigration for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), where she oversees immigration legal services across IRC’s network of 24 US offices and co-leads a Task Force of experts overseeing IRC’s response to the humanitarian crisis at the US southern border. Previously, Olga was senior researcher at Human Rights First; launched a project at Fordham Law School’s Feerick Center for Social Justice to improve policy and practice impacting immigrant children and families; and managed two federally-funded national programs at the Vera Institute. Olga graduated from Cornell University in 2001 and Fordham Law School in 2004.
Azemun
Mehrdad Azemun is Senior Strategist for People’s Action, an economic and racial justice organization working in 30 states. In this role, ran the federal electoral organizing for the 2018 election cycle. Before that, he was Organizing Director at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. Mehrdad has nearly 20 years of experience running electoral and legislative campaigns with grassroots leaders at the local state, and national level.
Arahan
Vernice Arahan is the Program Officer at Inclusiv, where she helps lead various initiatives to promote and enhance the financial capability and access to safe financial products of unbanked and underbanked communities. Prior to Inclusiv, Vernice worked with the Bureau of Space and Design and Office of Refugee and Immigrant Affairs in the New York City Human Resources Administration as well as the Asian & Asian American Center at Cornell University. Vernice is a graduate of Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning with a B.S. Urban and Regional Studies and concentrations in Asian American Studies and Inequality Studies.
Altschuler
Daniel Altschuler is the Director of Civic Engagement and Research at Make the Road New York and the Managing Director of Make the Road Action. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Service of NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Daniel holds a doctorate in Politics and a Masters in Development Studies from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.