Speakers

David Adame, President/CEO of Chicanos Por La Causa, Inc. (CPLC) leads the largest non-profit charity in Arizona and the third largest Hispanic community development corporation in the country.  He has previously worked at JP Morgan Chase, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Fannie Mae, and McCormack Baron Salazar, Inc. At CPLC, David has raised more than $250 million and completed 12 real-estate development projects across Arizona valued at more than $60 million.

Seema Agnani is the Executive Director of the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD), a coalition of over 100 community-based organizations in 21 states and the Pacific Islands. The coalition improves the lives of over two million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who live in poverty by providing voice, tool, and shared knowledge to drive change.  Prior to joining National CAPACD, Seema served as the Founder and Executive Director of Chhaya CDC, an organization that works with immigrant New Yorkers on housing justice and economic development issues. Seema is from the Chicago metro area where her parents emigrated from India, and earned a Masters in Urban Planning and Public Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Fatema Ahmad is the Deputy Director of the Muslim Justice League, an organization that educates, organizes and advocates for human and civil rights that are violated or threatened under national security pretexts. She’s a former engineer turned community organizer with experience fighting racism and islamophobia in North Carolina with Muslims for Social Justice and AFSC. She led a rally and counter-protest that successfully shut down a white supremacist anti-Muslim march in Raleigh, NC.

Suzanne Akhras Sahloul is the founder & president of the Syrian Community Network. She is also the founder of Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) Midwest Foundation, having served as its president from 2004- 2006. She has a bachelors degree in history and education from the University of Illinois in Chicago (UIC), a Masters of Arts in Organizational Leadership (MAOL) from Lewis University, and is currently pursuing a Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership at the Kellogg School of Management.

Stephen R. Alderson, Dean of Adult and Continuing Education; MA, University of Illinois at Chicago; Project Director for CYBER ESL 2014 - 2017; Stephen has worked at Instituto del Progreso Latino since 1995 bringing innovation and creativity to Instituto programming and assuring program compliance for state, federal, and local funding agencies. Has helped to plan and shape CYBER ESL at Instituto in various distance education pilots and pioneering efforts since 2010. Member of the Illinois Community College Board Adult Education and Family Literacy Advisory Board.

Muna Ali holds a Ph.D in anthropology from Arizona State University. Her upcoming book, Young Muslim America, explores issues of identity, American-Muslim cultural practices/expressions and intra-community relations among second and subsequent generations of Muslim Americans (the offspring of converts and immigrants). She is particularly interested in how these younger Muslims define self and community, how they negotiate fissures and fault lines across ethnicity, race, class, gender, and religious interpretation within their communities. Dr. Ali’s research interests include immigration, Arab Americans, Western Muslims, religion in the public sphere, and culture and health.

Erika Almiron is the Executive Director of Juntos, a Philadelphia Latino Immigrant rights organization. Born in South Philly to immigrant parents from Paraguay she has has worked on social justice issues for two decades focused on organizing campaigns/coalitions at the intersection of criminalization, policing and over-incarceration by expanding sanctuary city policies, fighting to shut down detention centers and ending the school to prison/deportation pipeline. In 2017 she received the Legacy of Leadership Award from Bread and Roses Foundation.

Aparna Ananthasubramaniam, Mission Asset Fund Director of Research and Technology, joined MAF in 2014 and runs the organization’s research initiatives and technology projects, including the organization's social loan platform and mobile apps. Aparna holds a B.A. in Mathematics and an M.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.

Rev. Noel Andersen has served as the CWS National Grassroots Coordinator for six years, helping develop a national network of faith communities acting in solidarity with immigrants and refugees. He was also instrumental in creating a Leadership Development for Social Change project at CWS to train hundreds of refugees in advocacy community organizing. He has worked for a number of non-profit organizations in Central America and on the border focusing on community development, education, and community organizing. Noel is ordained in the United Church of Christ (UCC) and helps coordinate the National Sanctuary Movement.

Rich André is the Associate Director of State and Local Initiatives at New American Economy, a bipartisan coalition of business and political leaders working to create sensible immigration policies. Prior to joining NAE, he was the NYCitizenship Program Manager and Cities for Action Coordinator at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. Rich has over 6 years of experience working on immigration issues, including local, state and federal policy, national organizing and advocacy, program design, and service delivery.

Sulma Arias is the Immigration Field Director of the FIRM Campaign at the Center for Community Change. For four years, she was the Executive Director of Sunflower Community Action in Kansas, a multi-racial grassroots organization dealing with issues of racial and economic inequality. Prior to Sunflower, Sulma was the Campaign Director for National People's Action's Immigrant and Worker Justice program, where she coordinated training and capacity building for 12 grassroots organizations in 10 states.

Melis Arı-Gürhanlı was the project coordinator of award winning iCount project (2013-2015), which raised awareness of the Finnish political process among immigrant populations and activated the political participation of immigrants. Following the project’s close, Moniheli's work continues via the "Our Election" national campaign, an advocacy effort designed to increase the participation of immigrant populations in Finland’s upcoming municipal elections. Raised in two different countries herself, Melis believes that participation in societal decision making is an essential part of immigrant integration. Melis is also active in advocating the rights of bi-cultural and bi-lingual families in Finland through chairmanship of the multicultural organization Familia ry.

Originally from Medellin - Colombia, Natalia Aristizabal Betancur, is the Co- Director of organizing at Make the Road New York where she currently supports the Immigrant Rights, LGBTQIA+ organizing and Leadership Development. She has organized and lead different campaigns at the city, state and national level Additionally she continues to work towards the intersections of Arts, Media and organizing, has developed curriculum for political education for youth and adults and led canvassing efforts to register and activate non-partisan voters. Natalia holds a dual Bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies and Media Communication Studies from Queens College City University of New York.

Montserrat Arredondo Duran began her career in advocacy in 2010 when the infamous “show me your papers” bill SB1070 passed in Arizona. The unfortunate acts of discrimination towards her community lead her to study social work at Arizona State University where she graduated in 2013. Since then she has lead substantial campaigns like Prop 206 which recently passed and will give 5 million families a living wage. This year Montserrat became the Deputy Table Director at One Arizona, a coalition of nineteen organizations focusing on voter registration and civic engagement.

As a Director at the EdTech Center @ World Education, Alison Ascher Webber advises on how to leverage technology to increase outcomes in adult learning and workforce initiatives and leads field testing for the Employment Technology Fund. Alison helped grow Cell-Ed as its first Education Director and supported tech-enabled youth employment initiatives globally at Avasant Foundation. She was the first Executive Director of a training fund for immigrant building service workers in California. She serves on the Board of Building Skills Partnership.

Kristen Aster is the Associate Director for Policy and Advocacy, US Programs, at the International Rescue Committee where she is responsible for Congressional engagement, state-level policy strategy development, and strategic grassroots initiatives. Immediately prior to IRC she managed a coalition of San Diego organizations advocating on California state hunger and poverty policies. Kristen previously served as Associate Director of Refugee Council USA and worked in External Relations at UNHCR Washington. Kristen has a Master of Public Policy from Georgetown University.

Karla Avalos is the Senior Advisor, Office of Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild. Born in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, Avalos has lived in Tucson her entire life. She graduated from the University of Arizona in 2008 earning a Political Science degree with a minor in History. She is a first generation college graduate. After completing an internship at the office of Congressman Raul Grijalva she decided on a career in public service. For 5 years, she has worked as Senior Advisor to Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild.

Murad Awawdeh is the Vice President of Advocacy at the New York Immigration Coalition. Murad leads the Coalition's Community, Political, and Member Engagement departments. Formerly, Murad was the NYIC’s Director of Political Engagement where he led the organization's Federal, State, and Local campaigns to push for a more inclusive New York. Through his work, Murad has been able to secure over $120 million in funding for low-income communities of color. He’s been featured in VICE, NY1, NY Daily News, Daily Beast, and Huffington Post. He was honored with the Brooklyn Do Gooder Award, Congressional Recognition, and State Senate and Assembly Achievement and Service Awards.

Mehrdad Azemun, National Campaigns Director, People’s Action. Mehrdad has over 15 years of experience running electoral and legislative campaigns with immigrant leaders at the local state, and national level. He currently oversees campaigns for People’s Action, an economic and racial justice organization working in 30 states. He has run the grassroots operations for 2 different national immigration reform campaigns. Before that, he was Organizing Director at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. Mehrdad is an immigrant from Iran.

In 2001, Adam Babiker left Darfur in western Sudan. He was admitted as a refugee to the United States in 2006. Three years later, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and became a decorated soldier; in 2015, he was deployed to the Middle East as a linguist with the Department of Defense. Upon return, he assumed a new job as Recruiting Specialist for Worldwide Language Resources. He is a co-founder of Darfurian Association of Greater Houston, where’s he’s currently the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. He holds a BA of International Business from AIU and MA of International Relations from St. Mary’s University.

Pamela Barnhill is a second-generation hotelier, President and COO of InnSuites Hospitality Trust (NYSE: IHT), President and Founder of the InnDependent Boutique Collection technology platform, and founder of the InnDependent Lodging Executive Summit. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Independent Lodging Industry Association and the California Lodging Industry Association, and is an active member of Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association. Pam earned her MBA from Carnegie Mellon University in 2001. She is a published author, with articles in Hotel Executive, Hotel News Now, Lodging Magazine, and Hotel-Online.

Marleine Bastien is a graduate of Miami-Dade Community College and Florida International University with a Master's Degree in Social Work.   She is the founder, former president, and current Executive Director of Fanm Ayisyen Nan Miyami, Inc. {Haitian Women of Miami) an organization that provides desperately needed services to Haitian women and their families and to the community at large. She is the current Chair of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, and Vice-Chair of the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition.

Ryan Bates is the founding director of Michigan United, the statewide coalition of 100 organizations working together for economic and racial justice.  Previously, Ryan worked with Reform Immigration For America, where he led organizing across the Midwest for comprehensive immigration reform.  With the Michigan House Democrats, Ryan oversaw 4 successful top-tier races for State House. Ryan has also been an organizer for the Michigan Raise the Wage Coalition, Environment Michigan, and the Gamaliel Foundation. He is a native of the Detroit-area and a graduate of the University of Michigan.  

Ellen Beattie is Senior Director, Program Quality & Innovation with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), where she oversees a portfolio of integration programs for New Americans across 28 US cities, among them economic empowerment and citizenship.  Prior to joining the IRC in 2003, she worked in community development with the United Nations Development Program, among others. Ellen holds a B.A. from Rice University, an M.S. in Regional Development Planning from Los Andes University and studied Development Sociology at Justus-Liebig University.

Becky Belcore joined NAKASEC’s staff as Co-Director as of January 2017.  NAKASEC’s mission is to organize Korean and Asian Americans to achieve social, racial and economic justice.  Prior to NAKASEC, she was the Program Manager of the AAPI Civic Engagement Fund, a national initiative which supports the year round civic engagement efforts of Asian American organizations, and an independent consultant for community-based organizations and foundations in the greater Chicago area. She previously worked as Lead Program Officer for Woods Fund Chicago where she coordinated grantmaking and special projects. She also spent 15 years mainly as a community and labor organizer, and worked as the Executive Director of the Korean American Resource & Cultural Center (KRCC), NAKASEC’s Chicago affiliate, and the Midwest Regional Coordinator for the Service Employees International Union. Becky also is a co-founder and member of the Adoptee Rights Campaign, and serves on the boards of the Hana Center and the Ella Baker Organizing Fund.

Dr. Sayu Bhojwani is the Founder and President of New American Leaders, which prepares immigrant leaders to use their power and potential in elected office. She served as New York City’s first Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs. Born in India, and raised in Belize, Dr. Bhojwani is a naturalized citizen. She holds a Ph.D. in Politics and Education from Columbia University and is the author of a book on multiracial democracy, forthcoming from the New Press.

At the age of six, Isela Blanc's family immigrated to the United States in pursuit of the American dream. Her parents encouraged, promoted, and supported their daughter’s pursuit of higher education and became the first in her family to attend a University. In 2016, she was elected to serve the community where she was raised. As an elected official, she became the first formerly undocumented woman to serve in the Arizona Legislature. Isela's experiences as an immigrant, a mom, and a caring community member are reasons why she is committed to advocate for better schools, youth programs, and equal access to services for those most in need.

Heather Booth is a movement building strategist. She was the founding Director and is now President of the Midwest Academy, training social change leaders and organizers. In 2009, she directed the campaign passing President Obama’s first budget. She was the national coordinator for the coalition around marriage equality and the 2013 Supreme Court decision. She was strategic advisor to the Alliance for Citizenship. She has been a consultant to many organizations including the Voter Participation Center, Center for Community Change, and MoveOn. She is now the Field Director for Americans for Tax Fairness, opposing the proposed tax cuts.

Zrinka Bralo was a journalist in Bosnia before the conflict began, including five years at the National Radio in Sarajevo. After war broke out, she coordinated international media coverage from Sarajevo, working with some of the world's leading war correspondents. Since 2001, Zrinka has been the Chief Executive of Migrants Organise. She served as a Commissioner on the Independent Asylum Commission and still leads the process of implementation of its 180 recommendations. In September 2015, in response to the recent refugee crisis, she has lead civil society response in the UK and is a founding chair of the National Refugee Welcome Board.

Kate Brick is the Director of State and Local Initiatives at New American Economy, a bipartisan coalition of business and political leaders who support immigration reform. Kate has 10 years of experience working on immigration issues in the U.S., Mexico/Central America, and Europe through her time at Americas Society/Council of the Americas, Unbound Philanthropy, the Migration Policy Institute, and the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center. Kate holds an MA in International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a BA in Latin American Studies from The George Washington University.

Teresa Buczkowska was born in Poland and moved to Ireland in 2005. Teresa holds an MA in Ethnography and Social Anthropology from Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland. She works as the Integration Team Coordinator at the Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI). Teresa and her team have been working with a range of like-minded organizations and partners to promote greater cultural, social, economic and political integration of people of migrant background living in Ireland.

Matthew Burnett served as Immigration Advocates Network (IAN)’s first full-time staff when it was formed in 2007. He received his B.A. cum laude from the University of Washington and his J.D. cum laude from Seattle University School of Law. Under his leadership IAN's work has received several Webby Awards and the American Bar Association's Award for Excellence in eLawyering. Matthew was named to the Fastcase 50, which honors the law's "most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries, & leaders."

Jill Marie Bussey is Director of Advocacy with the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC). CLINIC supports a network of over 330 community-based legal immigration services programs. All of these programs provide legal services to people seeking humanitarian forms of immigration relief, with over 70% providing services to TPS holders and their families. Jill has nearly 20 years of experience in the field of immigration and earned her JD with a concentration in business law, cum laude, from the University of Baltimore School of Law and her bachelor’s in law and society from American University. Jill is also actively engaged in her community, serving as chair of the Howard County Consumer Protection Board.

Montserrat Caballero is the Volunteer and Student Engagement Coordinator in the Pima Community College Adult Basic Education for College and Career Division. She manages the Volunteer Program, which assists adult learners in getting their high school equivalency, learning English, becoming US citizens, and assists highly skilled immigrants in gaining US based employment skills. She has many years of experience working with immigrant and refugees, especially along the US/Mexico border, and volunteers her time with various organizations in Tucson, AZ.

Juliana Cabrales is Mid-Atlantic Director of Civic Engagement with NALEO Educational Fund. In this capacity, Juliana promotes the organization’s civic engagement campaigns in the Mid-Atlantic region and North Carolina while providing programmatic support to national civic engagement efforts. She was born and raised in Colombia and since joining the non-profit sector, Juliana has worked with the Latino community in different capacities. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Latin American Coalition in Charlotte, NC.

Aida Cardena is the Executive Director of Building Skills Partnership, a unique training collaboration between the janitors’ union (Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West), responsible businesses, and the community to advance opportunities for building service workers across California.  Aida is a daughter of Mexican immigrant service workers. She graduated from UCLA in 1996.  Aida was appointed to the Workforce Development Board for the County of Los Angeles and is part of the Council for Immigrant Integration. She received the 2013 Leadership Award from the James Irvine Foundation.

Elizabeth Cadle was appointed District Director of the Phoenix District Office and a member of the Senior Executive Service in 2016. Ms. Cadle had served as the Deputy District Director in Phoenix since 2011 until she was named Acting District Director in November 2015; prior to that she held positions as Enforcement Manager in the New York District Office and Director for the Buffalo Local Office.During her tenure in the Phoenix District she directed the investigation of a number of impact cases including Patterson Drilling, a racial harassment case which resulted in a $14 million consent decree.

Oscar A. Chacón is a co‐founder and executive director of Alianza Americas, a Chicago-based national network of Latin American immigrant‐led and immigrant serving organizations in the US. Oscar is an immigrant from El Salvador. He has been an organizer and a leader on community justice issues at the local, national and international levels for over 30 years. He has occupied leadership positions in multiple organizations including Oxfam America, Centro Presente, the Northern California Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, and Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights. Oscar is a member of the Inter-American Dialogue and the recently founded Latino-Jewish Leadership Council.

Carla Chavarria is a Mexican born creative. She uses her different skills as a creative to build start-up brands that create an emotional connection between them and the community.  She is the founder of Ocho Design Agency, Ganaz Apparel and Mira Listen Podcast.

Christine Chen returned to APIAVote in January 2011 to serve as its current Executive Director.  During her tenure she has strengthened and expanded APIAVote's partners into 26 states.   In addition Chen serves as President of Strategic Alliances USA. Chen currently serves on the Kennedy Center Community Advisory Board, Center for Asian American Media, OCA Northern Virginia Chapter, and the advisory boards for the Asian Pacific American Medical Students Association (APAMSA), and CAPAL.

Donna Cheung immigrated to the U.S. as a young child from Hong Kong and calls Phoenix, Arizona her home. Trained in medical anthropology, she is currently a caregiver of family members and the President of the Japanese American Citizens League, Arizona Chapter (JACL AZ).

Steve Choi is the executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC). The NYIC is an umbrella advocacy and policy coalition of nearly 200 member groups representing New York State’s immigrant communities. From 2009 to 2013, he was the Executive Director of the MinKwon Center for Community Action, which organizes, advocates for, educates and serves Korean and Asian community members in New York. Prior to that, Steve was a Staff Attorney and the founding Director of the Korean Workers Project at the Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund, the only project on the East Coast focused on providing free legal services to low-wage Korean immigrants. Steve received a J.D. from Harvard Law School, a M.A. from the University of Hawai’i, and a B.A. from Stanford University in History with Honors, and serves as Board Co-Chair of the National Partnership for New Americans.

Seemi Choudry is the Director of the Ofice of New Americans for the Mayor of Chicago. Born and raised in Venezuela, Seemi is the child of Pakistani immigrants who immigrated to Chicago. She graduated from Loyola University with a B.A. in Political Science and Spanish. As Director, Seemi has been working to champion immigrants’ rights including filing a lawsuit to protect sanctuary cities, urging Trump to keep DACA, and exploring new housing options for Chicago’s refugee community. In her spare time, Seemi runs Q’hubo Supper Clubs where she hosts immigrant chefs.

David Chung is the Cities for Action Coordinator at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. In this capacity, he coordinates a multi-city coalition focused on building stronger and safer cities through advocating for and implementing immigrant inclusive policies and programs. David has been involved in the immigrant rights movement for over 5 years through national advocacy and community organizing. He previously served as a National Field Organizer at United We Dream and a youth organizer at the MinKwon Center for Community Action.

Pedro Cons was named CPLC’s Executive Vice President of Integrated Health in October of 2015 where he leads CPLC’s primary and behavioral healthcare initiatives as well as domestic violence and child abuse prevention services. Prior to this role, he served as the Vice President of Multi-Family Housing Operations from 2013-2015, where he oversaw the acquisition, development, and management of more than 2,800 housing units. Other previous roles at CPLC include Vice President of Corporate Strategic Initiatives, Vice President of Human Resources, and Vice President of Recovery and Resiliency.

Madeline Cruz is the Director of Financial Wellness at TRP. She oversees the implementation, integration, and expansion of Financial Wellness services such as Home Purchase and Post Purchase Counseling/Education and Financial Coaching  across TRP’s target communities. In 2014 in her position as Financial Coach Ms. Cruz spearheaded the launch and implementation of the Lending Circles program, a credit building social loan. In late 2016 Ms. Cruz, as Financial Empowerment Manager, coordinated the implementation of the Ventanilla de Asesoria Financiera initiative in collaboration with the Mexican Consulate where financial coaching services are provided on site.

Xilonin Cruz-Gonzalez is Vice-President of the Azusa Unified School District Board of Education. In her fifteenth year as a school board member, she believes strongly that the economic success of our country will only be achieved through educational equity. Xilonin works for Californians Together. She also serves on the CSBA Board of Directors, representing the greater San Gabriel Valley. In the past, Xilonin has served as the President of Californians Together and President of the California Latino School Boards Association. She has extensive experience in the development of local, state and federal education policy with a focus on connecting policy to implementation.

Michelle Curry is the Community Outreach Chair of the Metro Phoenix Public Affairs Council for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She also locally oversees the community website JustServe.org, a website that matches volunteers with volunteer needs in the community.

Sarah Dar is the Health Policy Coordinator at the California Immigrant Policy Center (CIPC). Sarah received her Bachelors in Psychology and Global Health Studies from Northwestern University and Masters in Public Health from the University of Minnesota. She has participated in community organizing around a number of issue areas, including as a member of Bend the Arc’s 2013 Community Organizing Residency. Sarah has led enrollment, outreach, and technical assistance around the Affordable Care Act in a number of roles at American Muslim Health Professionals (AMHP), Health Access MN, and MNSure (Minnesota’s state health insurance exchange).

Gina Da Silva is CIPC’s Government Affairs Manager. She is responsible for building political will in Sacramento around immigration issues for CIPC, including but not limited to: health and public benefits, drivers' licenses, detention and deportations, and tracking anti-immigrant legislation. Gina has played a crucial role at CIPC over the years, co-leading a budget campaign and administrative advocacy to establish the “One California” Immigration Services Funding as well as subsequent campaigns to increase state funding and provision of immigration relief services. She has also led legislative advocacy to advance state protections against E-Verify and discrimination within the employment verification process.

Ben D’Avanzo is the Senior Policy Analyst at the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum, a national health justice organization which influences policy, mobilizes communities, and strengthens programs and organizations to improve the health of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. In this role, he develops strategic health and equity policy guidance for policymakers and Health Forum partners. Before coming to the Health Forum, Ben worked at Families USA, a leading consumer health advocacy organization.

Glenn Scott Davis was born and raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut and has lived in Seattle since 2010. Glenn oversees the Ready to Work Program, as well as assists departments in building equitable career and education pathways for immigrants and refugees. Throughout his life, Glenn has been deeply involved in the labor movement working for workplace and economic rights. In his past work, he has helped to expand educational and employment opportunities for immigrants and refugees, communities of color, and working people. Glenn has co-authored several publications including A Handbook for Adult Learning: Educational Philosophy & Program Standards; Washington State SEIU 775 Long-Term Care Training, Support & Career Development Network: A Blue Print for the Future; and Sustaining Worker Voice and Quality Care: A New Model of Transformative Learning in Nursing Homes. He was supervising editor of the textbook Gerontology, the Theory and Practice of Person-Centered Care widely used in New York City’s long-term care sector.

Pablo DeFilippi is SVP of Membership and Network Engagement for the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions, a nonprofit that supports credit unions serving low-income communities. DeFilippi has over 20 years of experience in community finance and financial inclusion working with financial institutions domestically and internationally. Originally from Chile, DeFilippi came to the US in the 90s and almost immediately became involved with credit unions. Prior to NFCDCU, he worked for the World Council of Credit Unions’ International Remittance Program, an initiative to provide remittance services to consumers in the US and other countries through the credit union system.

Henry Der is a senior program officer at Four Freedoms Fund and a former Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya. He has taught ESL to adult immigrants, and also served as Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction at the California Department of Education, and State Administrator to bring Emery Unified School District out of fiscal bankruptcy. He currently serves on the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation Board of Directors, and steering committees of NoMoreExclusion.org and the End National Security Scapegoating Coalition.

Susan Downs-Karkos is Director of Strategic Partnerships at Welcoming America, where she oversees technical assistance for local governments, nonprofits, refugee resettlement organizations, and local collaboratives working to promote welcoming communities for immigrants and receiving communities.  She manages the Welcoming Communities Transatlantic Exchange, which promotes promising practices between the U.S. and Germany in welcoming newcomers.  Susa is also the author of the Receiving Communities Toolkit.

Catrina Doxsee is a Research Assistant at the Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, where her work focuses on adult education and workforce development. She holds an M.A. in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and a B.A. in History from the University of Chicago.

Rev. Reuben D. Eckels is the former pastor of New Day Christian Church. Founded at Wichita State University, New Day has played a prominent role in spiritual and political life in Wichita. Prior to starting New Day, Rev. Eckels pastored Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Salina, Kansas. Rev. Eckels received his Masters of Divinity degree from Payne Theological Seminary in Wilberforce, Ohio. In April of 2013 Mr. Eckels joined Sunflower Community Action (SCA) as the Director of Special Projects and has been instrumental in facilitating the Energy Efficiency Program, a partnership between the EPA, Sierra Club and SCA.

Nadia Kasvin started her career in refugee resettlement 24 years ago when she came to the United States as a refugee from Ukraine. In 2003, Nadia co-founded US Together, Inc., a state-wide organization providing resettlement and integration services to refugees and immigrants. Currently, US Together has operations in Columbus, Cleveland, and Toledo, Ohio, and resettles up to 1,300 refugees a year. In 2015, Nadia was honored as a White House Champion of Change for World Refugees.

Ian Elly Ssali Kiggundu was born in Rome to a Ugandan family. He studies Jurisprudence in Roma Tre University and is completing his law studies. Ian joined Rete G2 Seconde Generazioni in 2007 and has become the organization’s legal representative. Rete G2 is a network of Italian-born youth who have been campaigning for birthright citizenship and voting rights..The organization has drawn praise from the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the European Integration Forum. Ian has represented Rete G2 publicly, most recently in a talk on "Race, racism and xenophobia in a global context" at New York University's La Pietra Campus.

George Escobar, Senior Director of Human Services for CASA, oversees the majority of CASA’s social service programming including legal assistance, naturalization support, financial literacy, case management, health navigation and education initiatives. These programs address disparities and prepare community members for success while introducing them to CASA’s power building and leadership development initiatives. George has over 15 years of experience working for both the public and non-profit sectors leading a variety of programs targeting the Latino and immigrant community.

Petra Falcon is Executive Director of Promise Arizona (PAZ), which received the 2017 Affiliate Award for Advocacy from UnidosUS (formerly NCLR). Founded in 2010 (after a 100-day vigil against SB1070), PAZ is training and empowering a new generation of leaders in a new Arizona where anyone can achieve their full potential. A veteran activist, Falcon is a fourth-generation Arizonan. Her organizing career spans more than 25 years. Since its creation, PAZ has registered tens of thousands of new voters, helped hundreds acquire citizenship or legal status, and launched the careers of community leaders nationwide. A recipient of Mexico's prestigious Ohtli Award, Falcon believes effective organizing builds leadership and capacity across diverse communities.

Wendy Feliz is the Communications Director at the American Immigration Council. Wendy manages a highly-effective communications operation, working to drive a rational conversation about immigration in the United States. Her experience in public policy/advocacy communications spans her career in the communications field, which has included positions with New America Media, the Open Society Institute, and WAMU 88.5 FM.  Wendy has an M.A. in Public Communication from the American University, a B.A. in Liberal Arts from the New School University, and an A.A. from East Los Angeles Community College.

Paul Feltman is Deputy Executive Director for Global Talent Policy and Programs and Director of the Global Talent Bridge program for World Education Services (WES), a non-profit organization that helps immigrants gain recognition of their academic qualifications earned abroad. He oversees outreach, education and training programs, establishes strategic partnerships, and shapes policy initiatives designed to help immigrants successfully integrate into academic and professional settings in the U.S. and Canada.

Chris Ferrer, Mission Asset Fund Product Manager, serves as product owner for MAF’s technology products and projects, including the Lending Circles app, social loan platform, loan statements portal, and Salesforce integrations. Chris earned a B.A. from Claremont McKenna College.

Emmanuel Gallardo-Sanidad is the proud son of Mexican migrants, Emmanuel was born in California. His family moved to Phoenix in 1992. Emmanuel is an Arizona State alum and studied to be a Spanish secondary teacher.  He was a front desk agent and the union shop steward at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown hotel. In 2015, he established the immigration and worker center for UNITE HERE! local 11 in AZ and Central Arizonans for a Sustainable Economy, a BIA accredited organization.

Juan Gallegos immigrated to the United States at the age of 12. He Attended the University of Nebraska, pursuing a Bachelors of Multimedia, and a minor in Spanish. In 2009, Juan started volunteering in support of the DREAM Act. He came out publicly as undocumented in support of Executive Action in 2010. He is now the Director of Legal Services and Civic Engagement at the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition.

Carlos Garcia is the Executive Director of Puente Human Rights Movement, a grassroots migrant justice organization in Phoenix, Arizona. Puente was formed in 2007 in response to the first 287g agreement between police and federal immigration agents in Arizona. Puente’s community work includes the Alto Arizona campaign, lifting up human rights in the wake of the Arizona’s notorious anti-immigrant law SB1070, the No Papers, No Fear Ride for Justice (Undocubus) and the Bazta Arpaio campaign, which helped lead to the ouster of Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Isabel Garcia, a fourth-generation Tucsonan, is a longtime human rights advocate and organizer with Coalición de Derechos. As a criminal defense attorney, and as the Director of the Pima County Legal Defender’s Office from 1992 to 2015, she has fought against the injustices in the criminal justice system and the incarceration of our communities. Isabel has championed migrant rights, and has fought against the militarization of the US/Mexico border, bringing international focus on policy-driven death along US/Mexico border.

Adriana Garcia Maximiliano is the Manager of Alumni Programs at The New American Leaders. Her immigrant experience has shaped much of her journey. It currently influences her leadership in recruiting and training progressives all over the country to run for office. Adriana has led various political and issue-based campaigns and organizations in Arizona. She serves on the board of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Alumni Phoenix Chapter, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona, and Unlimited Potential. She’s proud to be an alumna of Grand Canyon University, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, and The New American Leaders.

Cristina Garcia is the Membership Mobilization Manager at Alianza Americas, a network of immigrant-led organizations. In 2017, she pioneered work bridging migration, climate change, and trade policy in the Americas. Cristina began her career in non­profit management at Erie Neighborhood House in 2005, where she served in a various leadership positions, among them Director of Adult Programs. participated in the Latino Policy Forum’s Nonprofit Leadership Program in 2013. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Robert Morris University and a Master’s degree in Social Policy from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration.

Emily Gelbaum is the Training Director for the National Partnership for New Americans. Emily leads NPNA’s Training and Capacity Building Program to empower grassroots immigrant leaders and build organizational capacity within NPNA’s immigrant coalitions and labor union partners for immigrant and worker-led service delivery. Emily coordinates NPNA’s team of state-based Program Coordinators and Community Navigator Trainers across the country and develops and leads trainings to build the scaled implementation of Naturalization, DACA, Eligibility Screenings, and Deportation Defense services for hard to reach immigrant communities.

Rosalind Gold is the Senior Director of Policy, Research and Advocacy with the NALEO Educational Fund, where she has worked for 28 years as an advocate for the organization’s Latino civic engagement efforts.  She has extensive expertise in immigrant integration, redistricting and the Census.  She serves on the National Institute on Money in State Politics’ Board of Directors, and as Chair of the Future of California Elections Board of Advisors. Ms. Gold received her J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Alejandra Gomez began organizing as a response to Arizona's anti-immigrant law SB1070. Since then she has mastered her skills in her state as a result of working with Promise Arizona, Organizing for America, and the Adios Arpaio campaign. Alejandra brought her knowledge to the national stage as the Deputy Organizing Director at United We Dream during the immigration reform push of 2013 and 2014. Nevertheless, the fight for justice has always been at home for Alejandra, and in 2015 she returned to working on local issues as the Co-Executive Director at Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA). At LUCHA she directs a team of organizers and advocates who are making an impact on immigration, workers' rights, and civic engagement efforts. Most recently, her and her team were part of a coalition that took the infamous Sheriff Arpaio out of office and brought the state of Arizona a higher minimum wage. Her vision, experience, and efforts have made Alejandra a leader at the forefront of the changing political landscape in Arizona.

Angel Gonzalez is a Campaign Coordinator for the Civil Rights and Community Affairs Department of the United Food and Commercial Worker International Union, which represents 1.3 million workers.. Mr. Gonzalez gives legal assistance to members and their communities to help them become United States citizens and understand immigration laws. He is a disabled veteran, having served in Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm during the Persian Gulf War. Mr. Gonzalez earned his B.S. from The Pennsylvania State University and his J.D. from The University of Puerto Rico Law School.

Melonie Griffiths is the National Kinship Manager for BAJI’s Black Immigration Network.  She is an immigrant from Jamaica who lives in the Boston area. Her work as a community organizer began in 2008 at City Life/Vida Urbana. As lead organizer, she anchored national bank negotiations, shared the anti-displacement organizing model and coordinated mass mobilization and housing occupations. In 2013 she became the Organizing Director at Mass Jobs with Justice. She joined the Black Immigration Network steering committee in 2015. She has always been committed to prioritizing projects that open up access to leadership development and resources for the Black community.

Alfredo Gutierrez was born in Miami, AZ. He attended ASU, but ended college after leading a student strike to protest the abuse of laundry workers who supplied the university. He was an organizer with the UFW, and helped found Chicanos por la Causa and Valle del Sol in Phoenix. He was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Fellowship in its inaugural year. In 1974, Gutierrez, at 25, was elected to the State Senate and served as Majority or Minority Leader for 14 years. He worked for several years in public relations and lobbying. He ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2002. Today, he works as a private consultant, speaker and teacher, and continues to advocate for public schools and immigration reform. His book, To Sin Against Hope: How America Has Failed Its Immigrants; a Personal History (Verso Books) was published in 2013.

Congressman Luis V. Gutierrez is a Senior Member of the Illinois Delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives. Now in his twelfth term, he is an experienced legislator and energetic spokesman on behalf of his constituents in Illinois’ Fourth District in the heart of Chicago. Rep. Gutiérrez is nationally recognized for his tireless leadership championing issues of particular importance to Latino and immigrant communities. He has been at the center of every major legislative debate on immigration reform and immigration issues for more than a dozen years. He played an instrumental role in advocating for executive action by President Obama to provide deportation relief to long-term undocumented immigrants and their families. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program – and a series of executive actions announced in 2014 – are partly the result of Congressman Gutiérrez’s consistent and persistent advocacy in Washington. Married and both a father and grandfather, Rep. Gutiérrez was born and raised in Chicago to parents who had themselves migrated to Chicago from Puerto Rico in the early 1950s. He previously served as an Alderman in the City of Chicago, a teacher, social worker and cab driver, among other diverse experiences.

Dr. Raul Gutierrez is a community pediatrician in the Bay Area of California for La Clinica de la Raza's School Based Health Centers and a clinical instructor for the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He also serves as an executive committee member for the Council on Community Pediatrics with the American Academy of Pediatrics and is on the steering committee of the immigrant health special interest group. He recently co-organized a symposium exploring how health care providers can better advocate for immigrant families.

Lydia Guzman is currently with Chicanos Por La Causa.  Born and raised in the Los Angeles area, she started registering her community to vote at 17.  In 1994, as president of La Raza of the Antelope Valley, her program assisted more than 8,000 individuals applying for US Citizenship. Lydia then moved to Arizona, and was Voter Outreach Director for the Arizona Secretary of State, then Arizona State Director for Southwest Voter Registration Education Project and Outreach & Education Director for the Clean Elections Institute. She’s the recipient of several awards, has been in publications both local and national and has presented on voting rights and voter engagement on local and national platforms.

Nicole Hale was born and raised in Arizona. She is a first-generation graduate from Arizona State University with degrees in Global Students and Justice Studies. Her organizing experience is far and wide. She has led a successful union campaign as a hotel worker, organized massive direct actions with Fight for $15, built teams of young people that registered over 8,000 people to vote, and mobilized the vote against Sheriff Arpaio. Nicole now works as one of two youth organizers at Arizona Center for Empowerment. She focuses on leadership development, political education, and civic engagement.

Mohamed-Shukri Hassan is the founder and Executive Director of The New American Development Center, a Nashville non- profit dedicated to empowering refugees and immigrants through advocacy and civic engagement. He is the former Director of the Welcoming Tennessee Initiative. He currently serves on The Mayors’ New American Advisory Council and sits on the board of directors of The Nashville International Center for Empowerment, TIRRC, and is a Founding member of American Muslim Advisory Council. Mohamed is a graduate of Tennessee State University with a M.A in leadership from Lipscomb University.

Viridiana Hernandez (Viri) was moved to action after the passage of anti-immigrant law SB1070. Viri has felt the hardships and fear in being undocumented and lives with the daily fear of family separation. Viri co-founded the Latino Student Union, an organization that provided scholarships, support and a network to Latino students. She also co-founded a successful team of students (Team Awesome) who elected some of Arizona’s most progressive and active elected officials. Today, in her positions as Executive Director of Center for Neighborhood Leadership, Viri continues to fight for human rights and social justice by developing new leaders to create systemic changes through policy shift and civic engagement at the local level.

Claudia Franco Hijuelos is a career diplomat.  She served as Consul General of Mexico in Vancouver, British Columbia, Deputy Permanent Representative of Mexico to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, and as Minister in charge of Political Affairs at the Mission of Mexico to the European Union, having contributed to the negotiations leading to the Mexico-EU Strategic Partnership. She was promoted by the President of Mexico to the rank of Ambassador in 2017. She has taught at several universities in Mexico, and published articles on Mexican foreign policy topics related to energy, civil society, and NAFTA’s Labour agreement. She has a Master’s Degree in US Foreign Policy from Johns Hopkins University, and an undergraduate degree from El Colegio de México.

Maria Hinojosa is an award-winning news anchor and reporter who covers America’s untold stories and highlights today’s critical issues. She created the Futuro Media Group, an independent nonprofit organization producing multimedia journalism. As the anchor and Executive Producer of the Peabody Award winning show “Latino USA,” distributed by NPR, and anchor and Executive Producer of the PBS show “America By The Numbers with Maria Hinojosa,” both produced by Futuro Media, she has informed millions about the changing cultural and political landscape in America and abroad. Her 25-year history as an award-winning journalist includes reporting for PBS, CBS, WNBC, CNN, NPR, Frontline and CBS Radio and anchoring the Emmy Award-winning talk show “Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One.” She is the author of two books and has won dozens of awards, including four Emmys, the Studs Terkel Community Media Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award, and the Ruben Salazar Lifetime Achievement Award. She is currently the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Chair of Latin American and Latino Studies at DePaul University in Chicago.

Joshua Hoyt was a co-founder of the National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA) in 2008, and became its first Executive Director in 2014. NPNA membership includes 26 of the largest immigrant coalitions in the U.S. Under Joshua’s leadership NPNA has advocated for a national approach to immigrant integration, resulting in the first ever White House Convening on Immigrant and Refugee Integration and nine National Immigrant Integration Conferences. Joshua has been an organizer for almost 40 years, including 12 years leading the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. He is the co-chair of the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition.

Jesse Hoyt is the Director of the Healthy Illinois Campaign. HIC is working to pass legislation that will provide healthcare for undocumented immigrants in Illinois. Prior to the campaign he worked as a community organizer where he worked on campaigns to win driver’s licenses for 250,000 undocumented immigrants in the state of Illinois and to pass legislation preventing private corporations from building for profit immigrant prisons. He has also worked as Field Director on local and statewide political campaigns in Illinois.

Thomas Huddleston leads migration research at the Brussels-based Migration Policy Group (www.migpolgroup.com). His expertise are integration and citizenship practices, family reunification and education. He chairs the EU migrant education network (SIRIUS) and meetings of the NGO Platform on EU Migration and Asylum. MPG promotes best practices, learning and innovation across Europe and other major destinations: Migrant Integration Policy Index (www.mipex.eu), EU Equality Law Network, EU Integration Website and new Transatlantic Migrant Democracy Dialogue with NPNA.

Alvaro M. Huerta, Staff Attorney at National Immigration Law Center. Alvaro M. Huerta works to defend and advance the rights of low-income immigrants and their family members through litigation, administrative advocacy, and community education. His practice includes litigation on due process, equal protection and civil rights, and challenging anti-immigrant state legislation. He also helps state and local advocates ensure that immigrants and their families can obtain access to health care and economic supports.

Dolores Huerta is a labor leader and community organizer. She has worked civil rights and social justice for over 50 years. In 1962 she and Cesar Chavez founded the United Farm Workers union. She served as vice-president and played a critical role in many of the union’s accomplishments for four decades. In 2002, she received the Puffin/Nation $100,000 prize for Creative Citizenship which she used to establish the Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF). DHF is connecting groundbreaking community-based organizing to state and national movements to register and educate voters; advocate for education reform; bring about infrastructure improvements in low-income communities; advocate for greater equality for the LGBT community; and create strong leadership development. She has received numerous awards: among them The Eleanor Roosevelt Humans Rights Award from President Clinton in l998. In 2012 President Obama bestowed Dolores with The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.

Meagan Hume is the Policy and Advocacy Associate at HIAS, the global Jewish refugee protection agency.  With 130 years of refugee protection experience, HIAS operates in 12 countries and 20 cities within the United States. A proud alumna of AmeriCorps’ Health Corps program, Meagan connected refugees in Philadelphia to health care. Meagan has a bachelor’s degree from Bryn Mawr College and a Masters in International Development (MDP) from the University of Minnesota.

Laila Ikram is the CAIR AZ Staff Attorney serving the Arizona community. Prior to law school, Laila worked at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission where she dealt with issues of refugee civil rights. Throughout law school at Arizona State University, Laila was the shelter director for a domestic violence shelter in Phoenix. During law school, the Islamic Scholarship Fund awarded Laila a scholarship for her commitment to service through law. Laila has worked for distinguished Judges at the Arizona Court of Appeals and the federal District Court of Arizona. In addition, she interned for the largest law firm in Arizona. Laila has now merged her track record of service with her passion for civil rights as she joins CAIR Arizona to protect the civil rights of the Arizona community.

Deepa Iyer is a South Asian American writer, lawyer, and racial justice advocate. Iyer is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Social Inclusion and a member of the 2017 Soros Equality Fellows cohort. Iyer served for a decade as Executive Director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT). Her first book, We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future, received a 2016 American Book Award.URL: www.deepaiyer.com. Twitter: @dviyer.

Stephanie Jackson Ali is an organizer, advocate and educator with experience in the fields of consumer protection, women’s rights, voting rights, HIV and immigrant and refugee advocacy. Since 2012, she has been working with New American Pathways and the Coalition of Refugee Service Agencies to lift up the voices of new Americans in Georgia and to empower refugees to take a larger role in their democracy.

Cristina Jiménez is Executive Director and Co-founder of United We Dream (UWD), the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the U.S.. Originally from Ecuador, Cristina came to the U.S. with her family at the age of 13, attending high school and college as an undocumented student. She has been organizing in immigrant communities for over a decade, and was part of UWD’s campaign team that led to the historic victory of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012. In October 2017, Cristina was a named a MacArthur Fellow by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Letters & Humanities by Wesleyan University. She serves on the Board of Directors of the National Committee for Responsible Philanthropy (NCRP), Hazen Foundation, and Make the Road Action Fund. Cristina holds a Masters degree in Public Administration & Public Policy from the School of Public of Affairs at Baruch College, CUNY.

Losmin Jiménez is Project Director and Senior Attorney for the Immigrant Justice Project of the Advancement Project. She has worked for legal services organizations in Maryland and Florida, focusing on policy, litigation, and advocacy for the rights of immigrants, minors, and families. Losmin is a member of the ABA Children’s Rights Litigation Committee’s Right to Counsel Strategy Group. She received her law degree with honors from the University of Florida College of Law, and has a Master of Science in European Politics and Policy from the London School of Economics. Losmin migrated from Puerto Rico to the mainland U.S. when she was eight years old.

Mayra Joachin focuses on improving access to affordable health care coverage for uninsured immigrants. She engages in policy analysis, consumer advocacy, direct work with affected individuals, and impact litigation. Before joining NILC as a Columbia Law Social Justice Fellow in 2015, Ms. Joachin interned at the Public Law Center’s Immigration Unit and was a judicial extern for Judge Denny Chin of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Her passion for immigrants’ rights advocacy stems from her experiences as a Salvadoran immigrant. Ms. Joachin holds a bachelor’s degree from UCLA and a JD from Columbia Law School.

Robert P. Jones is the founding CEO of PRRI and a leading scholar and commentator on religion and politics. He is the author of The End of White Christian America, two other books, and numerous peer-reviewed articles. Jones writes a column for The Atlantic online on politics and culture and appears regularly on Interfaith Voices.  Dr. Jones serves as the Co-Chair of the national steering committee for the Religion and Politics Section at the American Academy of Religion and is a member of the editorial boards for the Journal of the American Academy of Religion and Politics and Religion

Anu Joshi is the Immigration Policy Director at the New York Immigration Coalition. She has worked for seven years in the immigrant rights movement, including with the Center for New Community in Chicago and the American Immigration Lawyers Association in Washington, D.C.. Previously, Anu organized around issues relating to access to education and foreign policy and was also a child protective services social worker in the Bay Area. She is a native Californian and has her Masters in Social Welfare from UC Berkeley.

Mohan Kanungo, Mission Asset Fund Director of Programs and Engagement, joined MAF’s team in early 2013 to help expand Lending Circles in new communities. Most recently, he worked for the International Warehouse and Longshore Union where he managed communications, contracts, and program coordination. Mohan graduated from UCSD with a degree in International Studies. He is a member of the CFED’s Assets and Opportunity Network Steering Committee, and serves on the Board of Directors at the Social Justice Collaborative.

Amaha Kassa is founder and Executive Director of African Communities Together (ACT). Amaha is an Ethiopian immigrant with 22 years of professional experience as a labor and community organizer, nonprofit director, and social entrepreneur. Launched In 2012, ACT is a membership organization of African immigrants organization with chapters in New York and D.C. that has run several successful policy campaigns and emerged as a key voice on African immigrant issues. Amaha earned his JD from UC Berkeley and a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School.

Caitlin Katsiaficas is a Research Assistant at the Migration Policy Institute, where she primarily works with the National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy. Her areas of interest include asylum policy, refugee resettlement, and integration. She is currently focusing on issues related to early childhood education provision for refugee and immigrant children, and for communities experiencing super-diversity and multilingualism.

Erol Kekic is executive director of the Immigration and Refugee Program for global humanitarian agency Church World Service. Kekic leads the New York-based agency’s responsibilities as one of the 9 U.S. refugee resettlement agencies that work in partnership with the U.S. State Department. Kekic guides the agency’s role as an outspoken advocate on behalf of fair, humane U.S. immigration and refugee policies.Internationally, Kekic has led CWS’s role in humanitarian protection and development of durable solutions that bridge the gap between disaster relief and development, by helping displaced persons create life beyond mere subsistence. Before his appointment as director of the CWS Immigration and Refugee Program in 2008, Kekic served as associate director, coordinating the services of CWS’s nationwide network of local refugee resettlement affiliate agencies. Kekic came to CWS from the Lutheran Family and Community Service Immigration and Refugee Program in New York City, where he served as Associate Director. Prior to that, he was Assistant Director for Resettlement for the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, also in New York.He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering at the University of Sarajevo in Bosnia. He also has done post-graduate study at The University of Detroit-Mercy in Michigan and at Oxford University Refugee Study Centre in England.

Genevieve Kessler is the Field Advocacy Officer for US Programs at the IRC. She builds advocacy capacity throughout USP offices.  Prior to IRC Genevieve was the Deputy Director to Congressman Sean Maloney. Genevieve was familiar with IRC based on her early experience with the organization as the Immigrant Program Coordinator spearheading an outreach campaign and before that as staff for Congressman John Hall.  Genevieve has an MPA from John Jay College of Criminal Justice CUNY.

Nasim Khansari is the Citizenship Project Director Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles. This is Khansari's second year serving as a track lead within citizenship at the NIIC. Khansari has seven years experience in naturalization law, with a focus on immigrant integration including ESL and Civics education. In January 2016, Khansari was a panelist for the White House Convening on New Americans and has organized multiple sessions on naturalization law at various conferences including the New Americans Campaign, National Immigrant Integration, and Advancing Justice conferences.

Yagoub Kibeda is Vice President of the Association Mosaico action for refugees, based in Turin (Italy). He is a cultural mediator and social operator, specialized in asylum seekers and refugees integration and social inclusion projects. He is one of the founder of the network Refugees Ideas and Solutions for Europe (RISE).

Hilary Klein is the Director of Immigrant Justice and Leadership at the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD). Hilary has been engaged in community organizing and social justice work for over 20 years. She joined CPD after several years at Make the Road New York. Hilary also spent several years in Chiapas, Mexico, working with women's cooperatives in Zapatista villages, and is the author of the book "Compañeras: Zapatista Women's Stories." She lives in Washington, DC with her two-year old twins.

Andrea Kovach is an attorney with the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, which provides leadership in advancing laws and policies that secure justice to improve the lives and opportunities of people living in poverty. Andrea has over 7 years of experience working on health policy issues. She provides policy support to the Healthy Illinois Campaign, which is working to provide a pathway to affordable, comprehensive health insurance coverage for every Illinois resident.

Bonnie Kwon is a mom, organizer and advocate. She was raised in Tucson, Arizona by immigrants and is passionate about building power in immigrant communities. As the Director of Network Innovation at the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF), Bonnie Kwon focuses on deepening relationships, networks, and mobilization capacity amongst community-based organizations and individuals through cultivating leaders, storytelling, and other strategies that move hearts and minds for health equity

An Le is the Policy and Communications Advisor for the Boston Mayor's Office for Immigrant Advancement, which implements Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s vision for promoting the empowerment and integration of Boston's diverse cultural and linguistic communities. He is also an adjunct faculty member of the Boston College School of Social Work. An holds JD and MSW degrees from Boston College and a BA in Social Ecology from the University of California, Irvine.

Margot Lemaster is the Director of WelcomeNWA, a project of the Northwest Arkansas Council that welcomes all who choose to call Northwest Arkansas home. Margot is a native of Northwest Arkansas with over fifteen years of experience working in the field of immigrant integration. She received a Master’s degree in International Studies from the University of Oregon where her studies focused on developing methods for creating meaningful relationships between immigrants and their new home communities. In addition to starting a welcoming initiative in Iowa, her prior experience includes serving as Executive Director of Ozark Literacy Council and Program Associate for The ARK Challenge, a business accelerator program.

Esther López, UFCW International Secretary-Treasurer, is a leading champion of immigrants and all people seeking a better life. López began with the UFCW in November 2006 when she was hired as Director of the Civil Rights and Community Action Department. Since then, more women and minorities have been hired and promoted into positions of power. She also oversaw the launch of the UFCW’s first-ever LGBT constituency group-OUTreach. López currently serves on the national boards of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Jobs With Justice, Center for Community Change, and Labor Council for Latin American Advancement.

Rudy López is a Mexican American child of immigrant steelworkers. He recently left his position as the Executive Director of Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ), a national nonprofit organization that advances the rights of working people. Before leading IWJ, as the Political Director for the Center for Community Change from 2007-2013, he worked nationally to register, educate and turnout hundreds of thousands of voters in low-income communities and communities of color. He we one of the core fasters for Fast4Families. Rudy is currently a consultant working on to advance comprehensive immigration reform and the integration of immigrant communities.

Ruth Lopez-McCarthy is a managing attorney with the National Immigrant Justice Center. Ruth holds over 15 years of experience in the immigration movement both locally and nationally working over the years as an organizer in Chicago, deputy field director, coalition coordinator, deputy legislative associate/legislative liaison, comprehensive immigration reform implementation director, and as a consultant for national immigration advocacy organizations across the country. She is licensed to practice law in Illinois.

Marguerite Lukes has been an educator and advocate for immigrant students for more than 25 years. Formerly on faculty at the City University of New York, Marguerite is currently Director of Research and Innovation at Internationals Network for Public Schools. In her role, she is primarily responsible for working across the network of schools to direct research, reporting, and analysis. Over the course of her career, she has worked as a classroom teacher, curriculum developer, parent organizer, professional development specialist, university faculty and researcher. Her recent book Latino Immigrant Youth and Interrupted Schooling: Dropouts, Dreamers and Alternative Pathways to College focuses on Latino immigrant youth in New York City and their quest to further their education.

Theresa Mah is a Democratic member of the Illinois House of Representatives who has represented the 2nd district since January 2017. Mah is the first Asian-American elected to the Illinois General Assembly. As a child of immigrants, Mah has fought tirelessly for working families, focusing on education, job growth, and immigration reform. As a former senior policy adviser to Gov. Pat Quinn, Mah’s leadership helped to create job and education opportunities for working families including many immigrants. Mah was on faculty at the University of Chicago and as an effective advocate, rallied the Chinese American community to push for single district in the last round of redistricting to gain a more unified voice. Mah also successfully advocated for a new, state-of-­the-art public library branch and field house in Chinatown and lobbied to successfully restore the 31st Street bus route. As a Local School Council member at Thomas Kelly High School, Mah’s leadership has transformed the lives and improved the academic outcomes of Hispanic and Asian-American students.

Jason Mathis serves as executive director of Salt Lake City’s Downtown Alliance and leads policy initiatives for immigration and urban development for the Salt Lake Chamber, Utah’s largest business organization. He currently serves on the boards of the National Immigration Forum, the US Global Leadership Coalition, and the Utah AIDS Foundation (among others.) He is the recipient of the Professional Communicator of the Year Award from the Public Relations Society of America and the 40 Under 40 Award from Utah Business Magazine. In 2013 he was named a White House Champion of Change for helping to draft The Utah Compact.

Kica Matos  is the Director of Immigrant Rights and Racial Justice at the Center for Community Change (“CCC”).She has extensive experience as an advocate, community organizer and lawyer. At CCC, Kica has been a national advocate for immigration reform and coordinates the work of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, the nation’s largest network of immigrant rights organizations.  She has a B.A. from Victoria University (New Zealand), an M.A. from the New School and a J.D. from Cornell Law School.

Michelle Maziar serves as the founding Director of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs for the City of Atlanta,and the Director of Welcoming Atlanta, a public-private initiative which seeks to grow an inclusive, diverse metro-Atlanta. At Welcoming Atlanta, Michelle leads strategic visioning for creating an inclusive region with the support of diverse stakeholders from across  metro Atlanta.  At the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, Michelle leads policy and programmatic initiatives as they relate to public safety, civic engagement, and economic empowerment. Michelle is a graduate of Harvard Graduate School of Education where her research focused on education equity for immigrant youth and families.

Janie McDermott is the Program Manager for Apprenticeship for Baltimore Alliance for Careers in Healthcare. Previously, she served in the White House Office of Management and Budget as the Confidential Assistant to the General Counsel. Prior to that role, she worked with Heads Up America, the outreach and advocacy wing of the College Promise Campaign. Janie attended the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs and Political Science.

Margie McHugh is Director of the Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy. Ms. McHugh’s work focuses on education quality and access issues for immigrants and their children from early childhood through K-12 and adult, post-secondary and workforce skills programs. She also leads the Center’s work seeking a more coordinated federal response to immigrant integration needs and impacts.

Hannah Miller Smith is the Manager of Community Engagement for Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest in Northern Arizona. In this role, Hannah coordinates volunteers and connects community members with opportunities for engagement with refugees. She oversees the refugee co-sponsorship program in which faith and community groups support a refugee family for their first several months in the United States. Hannah began working with Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest in 2014, first as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer and then as staff. She has her BA in International Politics with a minor in Peace and Conflict Studies from Juniata College.

Eva A. Millona is Executive Director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA) and co-chair of the National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA). She joined MIRA in 1999, and is one of New England’s most highly quoted immigration experts. Prior she directed the refugee resettlement program in Central Massachusetts, and in her native Albania, she practiced civil and criminal law, serving on Tirana’s District Court from 1989 – 1992, as the youngest district judge ever appointed in the nation. Ms. Millona is also the co-chair of the MA Governor’s Advisory Council on Refugees and Immigrants and serves on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Adamou Mohamed is the Grassroots Organizer with the Immigration and Refugee Program at Church World Service. In his role, Adamou has led many refugee leadership development, community organizing and advocacy workshops and coordinates refugee and immigrant advocacy efforts in key states. Adamou holds an MA in International Studies from NC State University, Raleigh. He led the Welcoming Greensboro Initiative, and served as the Chair of the International Advisory Committee under the Human Relations Commission in the city, and is a member of the Immigrant Rights Working Group of Guilford County.

Ben Monterroso, founding Executive Director of Mi Familia Vota, is a dynamic leader and advocate who has dedicated his career to empowering and engaging the Latino community in the democratic process. At Mi Familia Vota, Ben has developed the organization into a leading Latino civic engagement organization in the country and shown that political empowerment of Latinos has the potential to force change for generations to come.

Yaheiry Mora is the Senior Advocacy and Elections Specialist, CASA de Maryland Yaheiry Mora focuses in state policy and advocacy work in Maryland. In her role, she also manages and designs voter engagement programs in immigrant communities in Maryland and northern Virginia for both CASA de Maryland (C3) and its C4 sister organization CASA in Action. Yaheiry comes from the labor movement, previously serving as a political organizer at SEIU Local 32BJ in New York City. She is an immigrant from the Dominican Republic and resides in Maryland.

Bob Moses was born and raised in Harlem, NY, where he attended public schools. He received a B.A. in Philosophy from Hamilton College in 1956, and received an M.A. in Philosophy from Harvard University in 1957. Moses directed the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee’s Mississippi Voter Registration Project from 1961-1964; was co-Director of the Council of Federated Organizations 1962-1964, and was a lead organizer for the 1964 Mississippi “Freedom” Summer Project, parachuting Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to 1964 National Democratic Convention in Atlantic City.

Moses taught mathematics at the Samé School in Tanzania, East Africa from 1969 – 1976, when he returned to the United States and re-entered the doctoral program in Philosophy at Harvard.

A MacArthur Foundation Fellow 1982-1987, he used his fellowship to begin the Algebra Project, which uses mathematics as organizing tool for quality education for all children in America. With support of the National Science Foundation the Algebra Project works with middle and high school students who previously performed in the lowest quartile on standardized exams, proposing that they attain a high school math benchmark: graduate on time in four years, ready to do college math for college credit.  

Moses is co-author with Charles E. Cobb, Jr., of the book Radical Equations—Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project (Beacon Press, 2001); and co-editor with Theresa Perry, et al., of Quality Education as a Constitutional Right-creating a grassroots movement to transform public schools (Beacon, 2010). Moses was the Distinguished Visitor for the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University 2011-2012, and has been an adjunct lecturer at NYU School of Law from 2012 - 2016. He has served on the Education Advisory Committee of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute from 2004 to the present. In May 2016, the University of North Carolina press published Dr. Laura Visser-Maessen’s book, Robert Parris Moses – a life in civil rights and leadership at the grassroots.  He has received numerous honorary doctorate degrees, has delivered keynote speeches and workshops nationwide, and has served as principal investigator on eight National Science Foundation mathematics education research awards to date; currently NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot award # 1649342 and NSF INCLUDES Conference award # 1650533.

Bitta Mostofi is the Acting Commissioner, NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. After graduating law school from DePaul University in Chicago, she practiced civil rights law with a particular focus on the discriminatory impact of immigration practices on Muslim or Middle Eastern immigrants. Shortly thereafter she joined Safe Horizon and continued her legal practice representing immigrant crime victims, asylees, and others in both affirmative and defensive petitions before the immigration court. In 2014 Bitta joined the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs to spearhead the IDNYC outreach campaign. She currently serves as Acting Commissioner for MOIA.

Yonous Muhammadi is a defender of refugee rights in Greece, where he secured asylum after fleeing Taliban abuses in Afghanistan. Muhammadi has been targeted for his work, including being jailed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. As president of the Greek Forum of Refugees(GFR), Muhammadi ensures that the needs and rights of asylum seekers, migrants, and refugees are at the heart of high-level debates in Greece and elsewhere in Europe. He also serves as an ambassador for White Ribbon, one of the world’s largest male-led campaigns to end violence against women. This September, Yonous was named the 2016 Recipient of the Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism by Human Rights Watch.

In her role as director of integration programs at the National Immigration Forum, Jennie Murray brings years of experience working at the intersection of immigration services and the private sector, as well as in refugee resettlement and career pathway support. Murray leads the New American Workforce citizenship and English-language training initiative and the newly formed Corporate Roundtable for the New American Workforce. Before joining the Forum in 2013, she served as the director of programs at Jubilee Jobs and lead Outreach at Catholic Charities Washington, D.C., Refugee Center.  Raised in Los Angeles and Nashville, Murray graduated from Union University and earned her master’s from Wesley Theological Seminary.   

Winona Nava took the helm of Guadalupe Credit Union in Santa Fe, NM, as President/CEO in 1991.  The credit union has earned a reputation in Northern New Mexico as a pioneer in serving low-wealth individuals and a go-to resource for financial education. Nava serves on the CUNA Board of Directors.  Nava is also current Chair of the National Credit Union Foundation. She previously served as Chair of CUNA’s Hispanic Outreach Committee, where she helped forge a valuable relationship with the Network of Latino Credit Unions and Professionals (NLCUP.)  As a result of these efforts she was awarded NLCUP’s Leadership and Support award in 2011.

Otoniel “Tony” Navarrete was born in Arizona to immigrant parents. As Deputy Director of Promise Arizona, he works advancing policies that strengthen families and civic participation. Tony was inspired early in life to promote social justice, including breaking the cycles of poverty through community development at Neighborhood Ministries. He moved to New York to work on housing and jobs issues, returning home after learning his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Today, she is in remission. Tony is committed to engaging statewide in public policy making, while fighting to advance comprehensive immigration reform. As a member of the State Legislature, Rep. Navarrete champions education, jobs development, and criminal justice reform.

Julie Nelson is the Senior Vice-President of Programs at the new Race Forward (a union of two leading racial justice non-profit organizations: Race Forward and Center for Social Inclusion). She is also the Director of the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) and a Senior Fellow at the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at the University of California, Berkeley. GARE is a national network of government working to achieve racial equity and advance opportunities for all. Nelson is the former Director of the Seattle Office for Civil Rights where she provided vision and hands-on leadership for Seattle’s Race and Social Justice Initiative. She has 25 years of experience working for local, regional and federal government, including with Seattle’s Human Services Department, Administrative Services and the utilities; Housing and Urban Development; and Pima County Community Services in Tucson, Arizona. She has a Masters Degree in Economics from the University of Washington, and has served on the boards of many non-profits and is involved with groups working for racial equity.

Jorge Neri was born in Mexico City and raised by his mother in the neighborhood of Little Village in Chicago, Illinois. Jorge began his career as an organizer with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIIR) in Chicago and most recently worked in the Office of Public Engagement of the White House under the Obama administration and as Nevada State Director for Secretary Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Since 2001, Adelina Nicholls has overseen, coordinated, and carried out the efforts of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR) to develop grassroots leaders and organizations within Georgia’s Latino immigrant communities in order to defend and advance Latinos' civil and human rights. Originally from Mexico City, Adelina studied sociology at the Autonomous National University of México (UNAM), where she later taught courses in sociology, social theory, social research techniques, and methodology in the Political and Social Science College. In 1999, Adelina co-founded and served as President of the Coordinating Council of Latino Community Leaders of Atlanta—the organization out of which GLAHR grew. In this role, Adelina facilitated community organizing workshops and leadership development trainings for Latino immigrants, as well as coordinated a campaign that acquired over 30,000 signatures to demand for undocumented immigrants’ right to obtain driver’s licenses. Adelina later served as a lead organizer for the First Latino March for Dignity in Georgia, during which more than 5,000 people gathered to demand driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants. She was also a spokesperson  and co-organizer of the March 17 Alliance for Immigration Reform (Alianza 17 de Marzo), which took place on April 10, 2006, and mobilized more than 70 thousand people. Since 2001 to this date (2016) Adelina has dedicated to facilitate the creation of Comites Populares around the state and developed within a collective leadership among immigrants in the state of Georgia in the struggle for Human Rights, and since 2007 Adelina has continued her organizing efforts as the Executive Director of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights. Adelina has received recognition as well as a number of awards for her work in community organizing and human rights, including the MALDEF Award Community Service (2001), the ACLU Georgia Civil and Human Rights Award (2008), Mundo Hispánico’s Best Organization of the Year (2013), a national recognition on 2015 with the U.S. Human Rights Movement Builders Award, and in 2016 she was recipient of the 2016 Daniel Levi Award for and outstanding work for social justice and in defense of the immigrant’s rights.

Mustafa Nuur is a refugee from Somalia. He became a Director of Marketing at E-Impact Marketing LLC, a Marketing and Web Development company that works with more than 14 companies nationwide. He currently serves as the Spokesman/ Deputy chairman for the Somali community of Lancaster, PA. He coaches refugee youths and speaks with religious and school groups about their roles in welcoming refugees. He attended a White House Refugee Integration event in 2016. He is a recipient of the 2016 Award for Pennsylvania's Refugee Rising Star at the Annual State Refugee Consultation. Mustafa recently won the top prize with his business model of selling cultural experiences in Lancaster's Great Social Enterprise project.

Jason Odhner is a street-medic, Registered Nurse, health-justice organizer & proud PACHista who has lived in Phoenix Arizona almost all his life. Jason is a co-founder of the Phoenix Urban Health Collective (PUHC) and of Phoenix Allies for Community Health  (PACH).  His  favorite things include community building, radical hospitality, immigrant health work, and living in Central Phoenix (the best place to live in the world).

Folabi Olagbaju is Director for Outreach at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, where he leads the organization’s external relations with Lutheran congregations, migrants, and refugees, engaging them on key priority advocacy issues. He has been with LIRS since the fall of 2012, when he joined as Director for Grassroots Mobilization. Prior to joining LIRS, Folabi was Director of Amnesty International USA’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Office where he managed the regional field program work and translated AIUSA’s human rights agenda into a grassroots membership organizing plan and transformative human rights victories. Earlier, he worked in the U.S. labor movement as a Research Organizer with the Service Employees International Union where he helped low wage workers organize unions and negotiate collective bargaining agreements. Folabi holds a doctorate in political science from the George Washington University.

Myrna Orozco immigrated from Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, to the United States with her family at the age of 4. Before joining Church World Service as their Sanctuary Communications and Organizing Associate, Myrna served as the Associate Director for the United We Dream Network (UWD). She is currently Board President for the Immigrant Justice Advocacy Movement, the only immigrant-led, interfaith community organization solely focused on immigration issues in the Kansas City area. She is a recipient of various awards including the prestigious Ohtli Award from the Mexican Consulate and the First Annual John Backer Award from Church World Service for outstanding advocacy for immigrants’ and refugees’ rights. Myrna currently resides in Houston, TX.

Kim Owens is Executive Director of Year Up Arizona, which launched in January 2015 in partnership with Maricopa Community Colleges. Prior to joining Year Up, Kim served as Vice President of Workforce Solutions and Vice President of University of Phoenix’s Community College Center of Excellence. There, she led efforts to form collaborative partnerships with more than 500 community colleges and 250 companies across the country to help fulfill their shared mission of building a globally competitive workforce. She brings more than twenty years of leadership experience in higher education, technology healthcare and hospitality.

Meredith Owen is Policy Counsel for Church World Service, Immigration and Refugee Program. In this role, Meredith advocates to strengthen immigrant and refugee rights in the United States and overseas. Meredith previously served as Policy Associate for the Alliance to End Slavery & Trafficking (ATEST), a coalition that advocates for solutions to end human trafficking and modern slavery around the world. She also worked for Human Rights USA, where she engaged in civil litigation on behalf of survivors of human trafficking and gross human rights abuses. Meredith received her law degree from Washington College of Law and her master’s in International Affairs from American University.

Ayse Özbabacan works for the Department for Integration Policy of the City of Stuttgart, where she supports the City in implementing the goals of the Stuttgart Pact for Integration. She is also the coordinator of the European Cities Network CLIP (Cities for Local Integration Policies of Migrants). For the last year and a half, she has been working on the extension of the network and on supporting the CLIP research group to conduct migration-specific case studies. Ms. Özbabacan is multilingual, speaking German, English, French, Dutch, Kurdish, and Turkish. She has degrees in European studies and law and a Masters degree in European culture from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

Maki Park is a Policy Analyst at the Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, where her work focuses on domestic and international early childhood policies affecting children of immigrants and Dual Language Learners. Previously, she worked as Director of Outreach and Program Manager at WorldTeach, based at Harvard’s Center for International Development. Ms. Park holds a master’s degree in international education policy.

Sam Park is the Georgia State Representative from House District 101. By unseating a three-term Republican incumbent during the 2016 General Election, Sam became first Asian Democrat, and first openly gay man elected to the Georgia General Assembly. Sam is the son of Korean immigrants, grandson of refugees, and a native Georgian. As a first year legislator, served as a deputy whip in the Georgia House Democratic Caucus, and co-sponsored comprehensive statewide civil rights legislation.

Parisa Parsa has served as the Executive Director of Essential Partners since early 2015.  Previously Parisa served as the Director of Congregational Development for the New England Unitarian Universalist Association.  An ordained minister, Parisa led a mid-sized congregation in Milton, Massachusetts for ten years, and has served in leadership roles for faith-based and social service organizations across the country. She is also an experienced facilitator and intercultural consultant, training nonprofit staff teams and congregations working to develop skills at culture change toward greater intercultural relationships within their communities.

Angelica Peña, Citizenship Network Manager for AAAJ-LA, manages their national citizenship capacity-building portfolio. She’s responsible for the strategic development and implementation of programs that increase capacity for organizations providing naturalization services to API communities. Previously, she worked for NALEO Educational Fund, where she led statewide civic engagement initiatives, working directly with the Latino community on citizenship and voting. Angelica holds a Masters in Public Affairs from the University of San Francisco and a Bachelors in Political Science from UCLA.

Daranee Petsod has led Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees since 1999 and has worked on immigration and social and economic justice issues since 1987. Prior to joining GCIR, Daranee was a program and communications consultant for foundations and nonprofits. She previously held leadership positions at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and was a program officer at the Field Foundation of Illinois, Inc. and the Sophia Fund, one of the first women’s funds in the United States. Daranee earned an M.A. in social policy from the University of Chicago and is a recipient of the 2014 Professional Development Fellowship from the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation.

Carlene Pinto is the Manager of Member Engagement, New York City at The New York Immigration Coalition. Carlene coordinates the advocacy and engagement for over 150 member organizations across the five boroughs. Since joining the NYIC in 2015, Carlene has helped lead NYIC's rapid response campaigns mobilizing thousands to locally and nationally support combatting the Muslim Ban, defending DACA and efforts to save TPS. Carlene holds a BA from the State University of New York College at New Paltz. Carlene was honored as a Women of Distinction by The New York State Senate in May 2017 for her ongoing dedication and leadership to communities of color across the country. 

Martha Indiana Porta, Esq. serves as Legislative Counsel to the New York City Council’s Committee on Immigration. In this capacity, she plays a key role in the development and implementation of legislation, policies, and funding initiatives that protect the fundamental rights of immigrant New Yorkers, ensure equal access to city services, combat discrimination, and promote inclusion. Previously, Indiana practiced immigration law at the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG) first, as an Equal Justice Works Americorps Legal Fellow, and later as a Removal Defense Staff Attorney. Indiana specialized in humanitarian-based forms of immigration relief for survivors of torture, violent crime, domestic violence, and human trafficking. Additionally, Indiana managed NYLAG’s immigration pro bono docket, led several of the organization’s immigrant-focused advocacy efforts, conducted extensive multi-lingual community outreach, and organized free legal clinics. Indiana earned her B.A. in International Studies from Southern Methodist University, where she was awarded the John L. Freehafer Memorial Award for her special interest in how communities govern themselves, and her Juris Doctor from the American University Washington College of Law.

Nicole Pumphrey has dedicated her career to fostering cultural understanding and promoting inclusion through education and workforce development. Nicole joined the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians as Director of Strategic Partnerships in 2014, where she leads the organization’s external engagement strategy, building collaborations and advocating for the valuable contributions of immigrants to the region’s social stability and economic prosperity.

Jose Quiñonez, Mission Asset Fund CEO , is a graduate of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School and UC Davis. Most recently, José was selected as the inaugural Chair of CFPB’s Consumer Advisory Board; elected as an Ashoka Fellow; selected to the Aspen Institute Fellowship for Emerging Nonprofit Leaders; received the 2016 MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Award;and received the 2013 James Irvine Leadership Award. Jose also serves as Vice Chair of the Board for Credit Builders Alliance, member of the Experian Consumer Advisory Council, and member of the Capital One Consumer Advisory Council.

Layal Rabat is a third culture kid who has spent years practicing the fine art of parachuting into projects as the need for her skills arises. She is currently the Empowerment and Advocacy Manager for the Asian Pacific Community in Action, Board Secretary at Sonoran Prevention Works, volunteer at The Restoration Project, and Director of Tech and Communications at the Phoenix Allies for Community Health.

Mark Ranneberger is the Northern California Director at FWD.us, where he leads outreach and engagement with the tech community and elected officials to drive bipartisan support for commonsense immigration reform. His current priority is rallying the tech and business community to push for a legislative solution in 2017 to allow Dreamers to live and work in the United States free from fear of deportation. Prior to joining FWD.us, Mark was the Senior Product Operations Specialist at Uber for Global Ride Experience, acting as the business and operations lead on company-wide product initiatives such as the redesigned and rebuilt rider app. He also acted as the liaison from the rider group product team to more than 400 city and regional teams globally, scaling and implementing features as diverse as Uber’s first airports pickup experience and the Apple Watch app. Mark spent the earlier part of his career in federal consulting at Deloitte in Washington, DC working for such clients as NASA, and previously had his own startup in Kenya that partnered with local governments and technical institutes to open up Kenya’s rural, subsistence farmers to export markets in the Middle East. Mark graduated Cum Laude from American University’s School of International Service in 2010 with a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies.

Anahkwet (Guy Reiter) is a traditional Menominee who resides on the Menominee Reservation. He's a Community organizer, activist, author, amateur archaeologist and lecturer. He is a member of the Menominee Constitutional Taskforce and also works for the Native Organizers Alliance. Anahkwet has organized a lot of events that have uplifted the human condition and demonstrated how enriching the Menominee culture is. He's lectured at Universities on the connection Menominee Indians have to the Menominee River. He's also written articles for Environmental Health News and others. When Anahkwet isn't working you'll find him enjoying time with his wife and children. Anahkwet is an advocate for indigenous people everywhere.

Eréndira “Ere” Rendón is the Director of National Partnerships at The Resurrection Project. Ere has served as the organization’s lead strategist and manager on local and state-wide campaigns impacting the lives of immigrants. Ere is a DACAmented immigrant from Oaxaca, Mexico and has played a leading role in the successful passage of many pro-immigrant legislations in Illinois including Driver’s Licenses for the undocumented and the renewal of All Kids. Ms. Rendón holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology and Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is a graduate of the Civic Leadership Academy at the University of Chicago.

Cordelia Revells has served as the Resettlement Programs Manager at Jewish Family Service of Seattle since 2014.  She is responsible for overseeing the Reception and Placement and Intensive Case Management programs. Prior to her current role, Cordelia spent two years working first as the Education Resource Specialist through the AmeriCorps VISTA program and then as a Resettlement Case Manager.  Before coming to JFS, Cordelia taught English as a Second Language on the Texas-Mexico border and in Minnesota.  She received her BA in Biology from Oberlin College and is currently a student in the Executive MPA program at the University of Washington.

Michael Rinehart is Bishop of the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a community of over one hundred congregations, campus ministries, retreat centers, and other agencies. At Valparaiso University, a Lutheran university in Valparaiso, Indiana he studied music, focusing on organ performance and singing in the VU Schola Cantorum, Chorale, Concert Choir. He received his Master of Divinity at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. He lives in Montgomery, Texas with his wife and children.

Tomás E. Robles Jr. is Co- Executive Director of Arizona Center for Empowerment. Tomás became a community organizer in 2010 helping to promote civic engagement and comprehensive immigration reform. Since then, Tomás has worked with various organizations working various issues such as immigrant and worker rights, Veteran's issues and housing discrimination. He is the son of Mexican immigrants, born in Tucson, AZ, and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. He is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps and is a graduate of Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Transborder studies.

Tara Robinson, Mission Asset Fund Chief Development Officer, is responsible for managing fundraising, grants development, marketing and communications.  Tara is a graduate of Vassar College and holds two Master's degrees from Claremont Graduate. She has over eight years of nonprofit program management and development experience and most recently ran Family Voices of California, a statewide collaborative for children with special health care needs.

Melissa Rodgers directs the New Americans Campaign (NAC), a national initiative for which the ILRC serves as the lead agency, which brings together national and local organizations in partnership with a funder collaborative to increase naturalization among eligible lawful permanent residents. Melissa has a Master’s of Education as well as a law degree with honors from Harvard University. She also has a Certificate in Non-Profit Management from the OneJustice Executive Fellowship program. Melissa is a member of the California bar.

Cleofas “Cleo” Rodriguez, Jr. is currently the President/CEO of the United Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce, his hometown.  Cleo has spent over 25 years working with membership driven organizations in both Austin, Texas and most recently in Washington, DC. Cleo received a Bachelor of Sciences from Texas State University and was recently selected for the prestigious honor of Distinguished Alumni of Texas State University and an invited graduation commencement speaker. Additionally, Cleo was the recipient of the Othli Award, the highest honor given by the Mexican Government for intergovernmental relations.  

Galya Ben-Arieh Ruffer, J.D. ,Ph.D., is the founding Director of the Center for Forced Migration Studies at Northwestern University, where her research centers on the rights and processes of refugee protection, transformation of citizenship and the role of law in settlement and inclusion. She has been awarded grants from the National Science Foundation and the Social Science Research Council and is a former Senior Fellow at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg / Centre for Global Cooperation Research. She is the author of Adjudicating Refugee and Asylum Status: The Role of Witness, Expertise, and Testimony (co-edited with Benjamin Lawrance) and serves on the executive committee of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration,

Karina Ruiz is the Executive Director at the Arizona Dream Act Coalition, a non-profit dedicated to fight for immigrant youth higher education accessibility and immigrant rights.  She was born in Mexico City, and has lived in Phoenix since 1999 when she immigrated with her parents at 15. She is the mother of 3 US citizen children. She is an active member at Saint Jerome Catholic Church, the President of the Mountain View Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization, and a volunteer in the Pharmacy at Honor Health North Mountain Hospital. She has collaborated with the Mexican Consulate in Phoenix and the Phoenix Union School Districts informing the immigrant community about their rights.

Angelica Salas is the Executive Director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). Since assuming that role in 1999, Angelica has spearheaded several ambitious campaigns locally, state-wide, and nationally. She helped win in-state tuition for undocumented immigrant students and established day laborer job centers that have served as a model for the rest of the nation. She led efforts to allow all California drivers to obtain a driver license and is a leading spokesperson on federal immigration policy as an active member of FIRM and RIFA. Under Angelica’s leadership, CHIRLA and its partners across the country have built the foundation for the recent upsurge in immigrant rights activism. As part of a national coordinating committee, Angelica helped convene a coalition of organizations in California which have successfully mobilized millions of immigrants to demand comprehensive immigration reform including legalization with a path to citizenship, family reunification, and the protection of civil and labor rights. One of her greatest accomplishments at CHIRLA has been the transformation of a coalition of social service providers into an organization that empowers immigrants to engage in advocacy on their own behalf. In this respect, she has blazed a pioneering trail among immigrant coalitions around the country and has propelled other immigrant rights groups to follow her lead. She comes by her understanding of the immigrant experience firsthand: As a 5-year old, Angelica came to the U.S. from Mexico to rejoin her parents who had come to the U.S. to find work and better provide for their family.

Daniela Salas, Mission Asset Fund COO, has been a key member of MAF’s staff since the organization started. Responsible for the startup and implementation of Lending Circles, she also oversees the operations, programs, and serves as the technology officer. Daniela previously worked for Operation Hope, a worldwide nonprofit social investment banking and financial literacy empowerment organization. She serves on the SF Foundation Consumer Advisory Board and Cloud Lending Consumer Advisory Board.

Frank I. Sanchez is the Executive Director of the Needmor Fund. He was the lead plaintiff in New Mexico’s first successful Voting Rights Act lawsuit, Sanchez v King. For the past 30 years, he has worked with public and private foundations in a grantmaking capacity. He currently serves on the Board of Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees. In 2007 he received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of New Mexico for his contributions to voting rights, community organizing, and public service in New Mexico and the Southwest.

Isabel Sanchez serves as a Policy Advocate for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA). In this capacity, she works in conjunction with CHIRLA’s Policy Team to protect the rights of immigrants by promoting policies that advance immigrant integration and civil rights. She also serves as a liaison between federal policy members, federal agencies, and CHIRLA. Isabel holds a Bachelors of Arts degree from the University of California, Riverside in Political Science/Law and Society. Prior to joining CHIRLA, Isabel worked as a congressional staffer for former United States Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) in Oakland, CA.

Todd Sanders is currently President and CEO of the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce.  Prior to assuming his current role, he represented the interests of the business community at the State Legislature as Vice President of Public Affairs for the Phoenix Chamber.  Prior to joining the Chamber, Todd served as a Policy Analyst for the Arizona House of Representatives in the areas of taxation, environment, political subdivisions and international trade.  He is a native of Bogotá, Colombia and a graduate of Northern Arizona University with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science. Todd is married and a proud father.

Sandra Sandoval Chavarria is the Citizenshipworks Program Manager at the Immigration Advocates Network in October 2013. Prior to joining IAN, Sandra worked with San Antonio Immigrant Youth Movement (SAIYM), a youth-led movement to empower undocumented youth to help navigate the higher education system. She received a B.A. in Political Science and Spanish from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a MPA from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

Paola Santana leads the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce’s college access and success portfolio.  She is responsible for student programming, higher education policy advocacy, and systems change initiatives. Previously, she developed business-education partnerships through the Chamber’s Pillar initiative, and worked for the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education. Paola is a proud graduate of the Pahara NextGen Network, the Riordan Leadership Institute, and is completing the California Education Policy Fellowship Program. Paola transferred from Glendale Community College to UC Berkeley where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Political Science and is an alumna of the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she earned a master’s degree in Higher Education.   

Paula Schriefer joined the Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning as President & CEO in 2014. She oversees Spring Institute’s eight intercultural learning programs and services. Ms. Schriefer is also a member of Denver’s Workforce Development Board. She came to the Spring Institute from the State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs, where she was a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian affairs. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.A. degree in Russian Area Studies from the University of Denver and completed coursework for an M.A. in Russian and Eastern European Studies at George Washington University.

Lindsay Schubiner is the Advocacy Director at the Center for New Community, a national research and advocacy organization at the forefront of efforts to defeat anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim hate. Lindsay previously served as a Congressional staffer handling housing, health, and immigration policy, and managed advocacy for sexual health and rights at American Jewish World Service. Lindsay holds a Master of Science degree from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Derrick Seaver is the Executive Vice President at The Silicon Valley Organization. He oversees the SVO Foundation and Silicon Valley IDEA business lines of business at The SVO. He is a former member of the Ohio House of Representatives, representing the 78th District from 2001 to 2006. His election in 2000 was notable as he was elected to office at 18 years of age. Derrick received his Masters Degree in International and Comparative Politics as well as a BA in Political Science and Government—both from Wright State University. He currently lives in San Jose, Calif.

Alejandra Seluja is an Independent Consultant who works with credit unions throughout the US for the Federation of Community Development Credit Unions. Her work focuses on helping credit unions develop and implement products and services to immigrant members and CDFI related work (certification, grant writing and compliance). Ms. Seluja led the first full service bilingual branch for Guadalupe Credit Union, concentrated on providing mainstream and alternative financial services to new immigrants since its beginning. Ms. Seluja is originally from Uruguay, and grew up in Paraguay. Her education background includes Accounting and Journalism, and she holds a Certificate as Public Translator.

As the Socio-Emotional Learning Coordinator for Internationals Network for Public Schools, Sonia Sendoya provides socio-emotional learning-related supports to counselors and social workers in our schools. As an advocate, she believes in the power of education and joins the efforts to provide guidance to those families who find themselves lost in the process.  Sonia formerly worked for Make the Road New York as the College Access Coordinator, providing guidance to recently arrived immigrant students and families on the college process. She continues to this work through the Latino Youth for Higher Education Program (LYHEP) as a volunteer.  Sonia holds a B.A. from Baruch College and an M.S.W. from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College.

Arjun Sethi is a writer, attorney, and adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center and Vanderbilt University Law School. A frequent commentator on civil rights and civil liberties related issues, his work has appeared in numerous national outlets, including CNN, The Guardian, USA Today, and The Washington Post, and he is often quoted by The New York Times, The Independent, BBC America, BBC World Radio, and NPR. He is Co-Chair of the American Bar Association's National Committee on Homeland Security, Counter-terrorism & Treatment of Enemy Combatants, and is writing a book on hate and state violence in America.

Amy Shannon serves as Alianza Americas’s Senior Advisor, providing strategic and programmatic analysis and guidance to the Alliance and its members. She is also a nonprofit management consultant, primarily assisting foundations and NGO’s with program design and project evaluation. She has worked extensively in philanthropy, both as a consultant and as a program officer in the Environment Programs at the C.S. Mott Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School. Amy has lived and worked extensively in Latin America, and now resides in Chicago, IL.

Bnyad Sharef is an activist from Iraq, advocating for refugee and immigrant rights. As a child of a SIV recipient, he became involved in political activism when he and his family were affected by the first Muslim travel ban and his family was deported back to Iraq. Speaking out against the injustice and explaining their story to the media helped them get back to the USA. He now works closely with refugee and immigrant advocacy organizations such as Church World Services and the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition in Nashville.

As the American  Business Immigration Coalition's executive director, Rebecca Shi works directly with a steering committee of 79 Illinois-based CEOs, University presidents, chambers of commerce and immigrant advocates to develop and implement strategy that support the passage of federal immigration reform. IBIC has been extraordinarily effective in moving the politics of the state, winning public bipartisan support from the majority of Illinois's Congressional delegation for commonsense immigration reform. IBIC has helped to launch a sister coalition in Florida, IMPAC FUND. In 2013, Rebecca led the passage of Illinois SB 957 - temporary visitors driver's licenses (TVDL) with bipartisan support from the Illinois General Assembly. Signed by Governor Quinn and continued under Governor Rauner, the program has licensed and insured over 270,000 undocumented immigrant drivers in Illinois making the roads safer for all, protecting hardworking immigrant families, and injecting $30 million new dollars to the state each year. Rebecca also led the successful passage of "AllKids HB3756" to provide health coverage for all low income Illinois children regardless of their immigration status and the Illinois Trust Act SB 31 to enable local law enforcement to focus on community safety and not immigration enforcement in 2017. Rebecca worked closely with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the City Council to strengthen its Sanctuary City ordinance by providing $1.3 million in public funds to assist immigrants in legal defense and family protection. Rebecca is skilled at building broad coalition of business, labor, faith, law enforcement, government and immigrant leaders to achieve practical immigration solutions that grows the economy, creates jobs, and protects hardworking immigrant families. Rebecca's organizing work in Chicago's Chinatown community has led to an award winning new library, a new field house, a new district and the first Asian American representative in Illinois legislature. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Rebecca was named a “20 in Their 20s” by Crain’s Chicago Business, and a "Community Leader" by the Asian American Coalition of Chicago, Rebecca's work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Crain's Business Chicago, CNN, POLITICO, NYTimes, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, and other press outlets. Rebecca is an Edgar Fellow, serves on the board of Alivio Medical Center and UIC Asian American advisory board.

Imraan Siddiqi is the Executive Director of CAIR-Arizona, a chapter of America's largest civil rights and advocacy organization.  He has written extensively on Islamophobia and issues affecting American Muslims, and is a frequent contributor in written, TV and radio media.  Imraan has also founded the #HateHurts campaign, a platform for highlighting and tracking Islamophobia and its fallout.  You can follow him on Twitter @imraansiddiqi

Stacey Simon is Director of IMPRINT, a coalition of organizations active in the emerging field of Immigrant Professional Integration based at World Education Services (WES) in New York. Her career has included the leadership and development of international educational exchange programs both here and abroad, and human resources and fundraising positions with national and local non-profit organizations. Stacey holds an M.A.T. in TESOL and a B.A. in Japanese Studies.  

Heather Skrabak is the Associate Director of Policy and Advocacy with the Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations (AAPCHO).  She supports policies and programs that benefit the health of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities in AAPCHO’s member clinics. Heather’s work includes ensuring access for immigrants in health care through language access, right to health, and enrollment policies. Heather comes to AAPCHO from the American Diabetes Association, where she assisted with developing the ADA’s health disparities policy platform. She supported the capacity-building and advocacy efforts of a 30-member volunteer council of health disparities experts and advocates.

Aldo Solano is a DACA recipient who currently serves as the Policy Director for the Oregon Latino Health Coalition, Oregon’s Latino led health advocacy organization. The OLHC recently led a 3 year campaign to pass SB 558 (Cover All Kids), a bill the extends healthcare coverage to undocumented children in Oregon. Before becoming OLHC’s Policy Director, Aldo played a key role in leveraging community voices and engagement as the Field Coordinator for the Cover All Kids efforts. Aldo has extensive experience with electoral and community based organizing work around the areas of farmworker rights, immigrant rights, youth empowerment and education.

Isabel Sousa-Rodriguez was born in Bogota, Colombia and moved to Miami with their family at the age of 6. They began organizing for immigration reform in 2007 and has since become the Membership and Organizing Director and the Florida Immigrant Coalition. Isabel has a Bachelor's in Sociology from the University of South Florida and as a graduate student at the City University of New York published academic articles detailing the effects of legal status and marginalization on undocumented mothers and immigrant adolescents. From 2015 through 2016, they were the state coordinator of New York's Mexican Initiative on Deferred Action.

Stephanie D. Stephens is the Founding Campaign Manager for We Are All America, a soon-to-be-launched nationally branded campaign designed uphold America’s commitment to protect and welcome refugees, asylees and TPS recipients. Prior to this, Stephanie was a co-founder of Unite Oregon, a statewide social justice nonprofit leading on issues impacting immigrants, refugees, people of color and low-income Oregonians. 

Dr. Warren H. Stewart, Sr. has been Senior Pastor of First Institutional Baptist Church of Phoenix since 1977.  He is recognized by others as “a man of conscience, commitment and dedication to the cause of moral leadership, human rights, and a soldier of justice and equality”.  He organized and chaired Victory Together, the broad-based coalition that led Arizona to win its Martin Luther King, Jr./Civil Rights Day by a historic vote of the people in 1992. He has been fighting for just immigration in Arizona since 2006 and is a former Chair of the National Immigration Forum in Washington, DC.

Beth Stickney founded and directs the Maine Business Immigration Coalition (MeBIC), a young nonprofit working to educate and engage Maine’s business community in advocating for positive initiatives, policies and laws impacting immigrants. An immigration lawyer since 1986, she co-founded the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, Maine’s only nonprofit statewide provider of immigration legal aid and advocacy for low-income Maine residents. She has taught immigration law as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Maine School of Law, co-authored Immigration Law and the Family (Thomson Reuters), and presented frequently at seminars and conferences about immigration law and related policy issues.

Rich Stolz is the Executive Director of OneAmerica, Washington State’s largest immigrant and refugee organizing, civic engagement and advocacy organization.  OneAmerica’s mission is to advance justice and democracy by building the power of immigrant and refugee communities, with key allies.  Rich was born in South Korea, but was raised in the United States.  Prior to OneAmerica, Rich worked at the Center for Community Change and also managed the Reform Immigration for America Campaign.

Regina Suitt is the Vice President for Adult Basic Education for College & Career at Pima Community College.  She leads multiple programs including all Arizona Department of Education funded Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary, and English Language Acquisition for Adults.  Like many in the field, she started as a part-time teacher, working and living on the Tohono O’odham reservation teaching English to High School students. Regina has a Master’s of Education in Leadership from Northern Arizona University with an emphasis in Community College Leadership. Regina was honored in 2011 by the Coalition on Adult Basic Education (COABE) as Administrator of the Year.

Amy Taylor is the Legal Director of Make the Road New York (MRNY), where she leads a team of forty attorneys and advocates providing legal services to low-wage workers and immigrants for housing, benefits, workplace justice, and immigration. Prior to joining MRNY, Amy was a Senior Staff Attorney and the founder of the Equal Rights Initiative at Legal Services NYC (LSNYC). The Equal Rights Initiative (now the Civil Rights Justice Project) is a civil rights project created to fight discrimination facing low-income New Yorkers. During her time at LSNYC, Amy spearheaded a coalition to revive the NYC Human Rights Commission. Amy received her B.A. from Oberlin College and her J.D. from the CUNY School of Law.

D. Taylor was elected President of UNITE HERE in November of 2012. Mr. Taylor has been a leader in the American labor movement for 36 years. Throughout the course of his career, he has worked to empower rank and file members to organize and lead their union. Mr. Taylor has led workers across the country to political and organizing victories. Mr. Taylor was born and raised in Williamsburg, Virginia. He graduated from Georgetown University in 1980. During his time in Washington, Mr. Taylor was a shop steward at Harvey’s Restaurant. In 1981, Mr. Taylor was hired to organize casino workers in the Reno/Tahoe area. Eventually he was moved to Las Vegas to help lead a citywide strike of Strip and downtown workers. The strike was one of the largest in Las Vegas history. During his tenure in Las Vegas, the Union’s local, the Culinary Workers Union, grew from 18,000 members in 1987 to over 55,000 in 2013. Mr. Taylor worked as an organizer during some of the union’s most challenging moments including the six-year, four-month, ten-day strike at the Frontier Casino. Mr. Taylor was part of a team that helped successfully rebuild the Culinary Workers Union Local 226. He was elected Secretary-Treasurer in 2002 and remained in that position until 2013. In 2004, Mr. Taylor was appointed as the Gaming Division director of UNITE HERE. He was the chief negotiator and strategist when workers at Local 54 in Atlantic City went on strike. He led casino workers across the country to victories and expanded the union’s organizing in states like Mississippi, Florida, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. He also oversaw the union’s expansion in California Tribal Gaming.

Garrick Taylor is the senior vice president of government relations and communications for the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, where he serves as the Chamber's lead advocate at all levels of government and the main liaison between the Chamber and the media. Garrick's previous experience includes serving as a public affairs consultant; directing communications for the Arizona Republican Party during a U.S. Senate race; overseeing public policy efforts for a major trade association; and serving as a congressional staff member.

Stephanie Teatro is the Co-Executive Director of NIIC 2016 co-host the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), a statewide, immigrant and refugee-led collaboration. Stephanie is a member of Nashville Mayor Barry's New Americans Advisory Council, an executive committee member of the national Fair Immigration Reform Movement, and a board member of the National Partnership for New Americans. She co-authored the 2016 national report, Countering the Backlash: Strategies for Responding to Anti-Refugee and Xenophobic Activity from the New South, detailing TIRRC's work to counter anti-refugee policy and Islamophobia in Tennessee. Stephanie is an immigrant to the U.S. from Canada.

Sabrina Terry is the Senior Strategist at the Economic Policy Project at UnidosUS. She implements nationwide pilots that integrate technology and financial products into direct services targeting low-income Latinos and immigrants. She also advocates for the adoption of best practices to create a more inclusive economic landscape for Latinos, providing research and data analysis on the intersections of immigration policies, financial technology, and wealth opportunities in Latino households. She received her Bachelor’s in Political Science from San Francisco State University and Master’s in City and Regional Planning from Pratt University.

Nadia Tonova serves as the Director of National Partnerships for ACCESS, the nation’s largest Arab American organization, where she works to expand their national impact and programming by strengthening partnerships with key foundations and nonprofit organizations.  Prior to serving in this role, she was the Director of the National Network for Arab American Communities for seven years.  While there, she created and launched the campaign to Take On Hate, an unprecedented national grassroots campaign to challenge prejudice and bias facing Arab and Muslim Americans.

Darcy Tromanhauser is the director of Nebraska Appleseed’s Immigrants & Communities Program. Darcy has worked with a wide variety of community partners across the state of Nebraska to help build welcoming and inclusive communities as part of Nebraska Is Home, and she has worked with immigrant communities in the Great Plains region for fifteen years. Prior to Appleseed, she worked in Guatemala, Peru, and El Salvador, with Des Moines Catholic Charities, with the National Labor Committee on living wage issues, and with Business for Social Responsibility on contingent worker issues.

Lorén Trull currently serves as the Senior Policy Advisor for education at UnidosUS (formerly, NCLR), where she focuses on policy and advocacy for Latino and English Learner students. Previously, she was a program examiner for the education branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget.  Lorén holds a PhD in Public Policy from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and a JD from the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Emily Tucker is the Senior Staff Attorney for Immigrant Rights at the Center for Popular Democracy, where she focuses on severing the relationship between immigration enforcement and the criminal justice system. Most recently, Emily served as Director of Policy and Advocacy at Detention Watch Network (DWN), advocating with members of Congress and high level officials at the Department of Homeland Security and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to push the Network’s priorities for reform of the detention and enforcement regime. Emily graduated with a JD from Boston University, an MA from Harvard University and a BA from McGill University.

Dr. Johan E. Uvin is the President and CEO of Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL). Prior to his IEL leadership, Johan served as the Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE) at the U.S. Department of Education. While at the Department, he also served as the co-chair of the Interagency Forum on Disconnected Youth, a multi-agency federal collaboration to improve the outcomes of disconnected youths. Prior to his work at the Department, Johan led the Rhode Island state office that oversees adult education, career and technical education, and GED testing. Johan holds a doctorate in administration, planning and social policy, and a master's degree in international education from Harvard University.

Born in Manila, Philippines, Joaquin Uy moved to Cleveland, Ohio with his parents in the early 80s to escape the worsening social and political conditions caused by the Marcos dictatorship. As the City of Seattle Communications and Outreach Manager, he advocates for immigrant and refugee communities regarding policy decisions and long-term planning across City  departments. He also advises City staff on creating and implementing their inclusive outreach and engagement campaigns. In addition, Joaquin provides technical assistance on utiliziing ethnic media in reaching specific immigrant and refugee communities. He has spent a combined 17 years in community engagement, communications, and fundraising/development. Previously, he has served as the News and Public Affairs Director at Community Radio KBCS 91.3 FM and Communications Specialist for the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance. He is also a board member for the grassroots foundation Social Justice Fund NW.

Daniel Valdez is a Senior Regional Manager with Welcoming America, an organization that helps local communities welcome newcomers and create vibrant communities for all. Previously, he led community-level advocacy efforts around awareness, education, and strategies to eradicate poverty in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He holds a B.A. in History and Latin American Studies from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Duke University. Daniel was born in Mexico and has called the Charlotte area home for the past 20 years. Daniel volunteers with a number of organizations and serves as President of the Board of Directors of Charlotte Pride.

Laura Vazquez is the Senior Program Manager for Immigration Initiatives at UnidosUS (formerly NCLR), the largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States. She works with UnidosUS affiliates to expand and sustain their immigration legal services programs. Laura holds an MA in Latin American Studies from the University of California, San Diego and a BA in Political Science and Spanish from Kenyon College.

Leslie Villegas is an Associate Policy Analyst with the Migration Policy Institute, where she works with the National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy on K-12 education issues affecting immigrant children and their families. She is conducting research on implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and working with a network of organizations in seven states that ensure English Learners are provided with equitable and accountable public education services.

Joseph Villela is an immigrant and political junkie who sees policy change possible through direct engagement from communities who are directly affected. Joseph is a dedicated and accomplished government relation professional with more than a decade of experience in monitoring, analyzing legislation, including a successful track record in developing and managing legislative campaigns. Joseph graduated from the University of Los Angeles California (UCLA) and is a proud parent of a 6-year-old.

Laurel Wales is the Deputy Director of Movement Politics, People’s Action Institute (PAI). Laurel started organizing 8 years ago with TakeAction MN around expanding our democracy, economic justice and rights for formerly incarcerated people. After that she got into electoral politics working on races up and down the ticket from US Senate to City Council. At PAI she is leading the program that recruits new leaders to run for office, blending her love of community organizing with her experience in electoral campaigns.

Eric K. Ward, a long time civil rights strategist, is the newly appointed Executive Director of Western States Center (WSC), which works to harness regional advocacy to reduce racial, gender and economic inequality and advance opportunity. From 2014 – 2017, Eric worked as a Ford Foundation Program Officer, where his grant-making supported efforts to combat inequality.   Prior, he was the Program Executive for The Atlantic Philanthropies, U.S. Reconciliation and Human Rights Programme, United States and led the foundation’s grantmaking efforts in immigration and in support of American Muslim, Arab and South Asian communities.

A fourth generation public servant, Richard Whipple is the Deputy Director of the Office of Civic Engagement of Immigrant Affairs (OCEIA), where he currently oversees the department’s programs, including community safety workforce development initiatives and the immigrant integration grants portfolio. Before joining the City & County of San Francisco, Whipple spent five years in public education, working as a Behavioral Health Specialist in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he developed and implemented programs and curriculum for ESL and special education students.  While earning his Masters in Public Administration from the University of Southern California, Whipple worked across private and public sectors; at a public affairs consulting firm, and at humanitarian organization Relief International as an Operations Associate. In addition to his MPA degree, he also holds B.S. degrees in Human Development & Family Studies and Political Science, with a minor in Consumer and Community Studies.

Karen Woodall has 38 years experience advocating to improve the conditions of  children, seniors,  migrant and seasonal farm workers, immigrants/refugees and other vulnerable populations. She co-founded and directs the Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy and the Florida Peoples Advocacy Center. She lobbies for the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Florida Immigrant Coalition. Born in Miami, she is a graduate of Florida State University with degrees in Psychology, Social Work and Government.  

Ze Min Xiao (Zee) directs the Mayor’s Office for New Americans in Salt Lake County, which is leading the development and implementation of the Welcoming Salt Lake Campaign to ensure that Salt Lake’s New Americans’ economic, social, and civic potential is maximized. A naturalized Asian American, Zee co-founded a number of new organizations and programs in Salt Lake, including the Spice Kitchen Incubator, New Roots of Utah, Utah Asian Charitable Foundation and the Utah Asian Chamber of Commerce. She is a member of the Governor’s Multicultural Commission and the State’s Refugee Advisory Board.

Christa Yoakum is the Coordinator of Nebraska Is Home at Nebraska Appleseed, a grassroots movement promoting mutual respect and cooperation among US-born and foreign-born neighbors, creating safe, strong, and robust communities for all.  

Dae Joong (DJ) Yoon is the Co-Director of the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC) and President of its Los Angeles/Orange County affiliate, Korean Resource Center (KRC).  He has over 20 years of community education and organizing experience in the areas of immigration policy, health access, civic participation, voting rights, and economic development. DJ has supervised many community-led research projects: the Asian American Voter Exit Poll, Building Health Community Focus Group, and Los Angeles City Services Survey.

Haeyoung Yoon is the Director of Strategic Partnerships at the National Employment Law Project (NELP) in New York City. She co-directs NELP’s Good Jobs Program, a program area that develops strategic policies to create good jobs, to enforce and strengthen workplace rights, and to build ladders and upward mobility for low-wage and immigrant workers in the U.S. labor market. Prior to joining NELP, she was the Executive Director of CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities. Haeyoung has taught at the New York University School of Law, co-directing its’ Immigrant Rights Clinic and the Brooklyn Law School.

Wilfred Zamora, Esq. is a Managing Attorney for CUNY Citizenship Now!, assisting participants in a wide range of immigration issues as part of the City Council Program in New York City. Additionally Mr. Zamora participates in Citizenship Now!’s National Initiative, providing immigration legal services in Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada. Mr. Zamora is also currently an adjunct professor at Baruch College, teaching Immigration Law and Policy. He received his B.A. from New York University and his J.D. from the Washington College of Law at American University.

Nina Zelic is the Director for Refugee Services at LIRS. Nina came to LIRS with more than a decade of experience working on behalf of forced migrants. Most recently, she served as an Assistant Program Director of the Office of Legal Access Programs, within the U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). Also with EOIR, she served as an Attorney Advisor at the New York City Immigration Court. Nina received her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 2010.

Steven G. Zylstra Sc.D. (Hon.) serves as president and CEO of the Arizona Technology Council. Zylstra is a vocal spokesman for the value technology can provide in raising social and economic standards and was named in 2016 as “Leader of the Year, Technology,” by the Arizona Capitol Times and a “Most Admired Leader” by the Phoenix Business Journal. Zylstra has served in numerous technology leadership and advisory roles to the Governor and currently serves on several association, industry and community boards, including being recognized as an Aspen Institute Fellow for his work in workforce development. Steve earned a bachelor’s degree in automotive engineering from Western Michigan University and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science in Technology from the University of Advancing Technology.