Els de Graauw is professor of political science, public policy, and international migration studies at Baruch College and the Graduate Center, both at CUNY. She studies immigration, civil society organizations, urban politics, government bureaucracies, public policy, and qualitative research methods, with a focus on understanding how governmental and nongovernmental organizations build institutional capacity for immigrant integration and representation. She is the (co-)author of Making Immigrant Rights Real: Nonprofits and the Politics of Integration in San Francisco (Cornell University Press, 2016) and Advancing Immigrant Rights in Houston (Temple University Press, 2024).

Ken Irish-Bramble is an MA student in the international migration studies program at CUNY Graduate Center. He was born on the French side of St. Martin and grew up on the island of Montserrat in the Eastern Caribbean. He has worked as an educator for over twenty-five years in both K-12 and higher education. Irish-Bramble is a graduate of the CUNY BA program and holds graduate degrees from NYU and Pace University.

Irish-Bramble has a broad interest in immigrant issues including issues surrounding immigrant assimilation and acculturation, enduring relationships with countries of origin, and the impact of Caribbean-American immigrants on the political development of the United States. He is currently conducting research on diasporic/expatriate voting rights and voting patterns of naturalized citizens in the United States. Irish-Bramble currently serves as a member of the faculty at Medgar Evers College (CUNY) and campus director of CUNY ICORP at Medgar Evers College. He has published two books, Bricks, Ballots and Bullets (2012) and Violence and Power (2018).

Philip Kasinitz is presidential professor of sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center. He previously served as the director of the program in international migration studies (IMS) from and chaired the CUNY doctoral program in sociology. He specializes in immigration, ethnicity, race relations, urban social life and the nature of contemporary cities. He is the author of Caribbean New York for which he won the Thomas and Znaniecki Book Award in 1996. His co-authored book Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age won the Eastern Sociological Society’s Mirra Komarovsky Book Award in 2009 and the American Sociological Association Distinguished Scholarly Book award in 2010. In addition to publications in scholarly journals Kasinitz is frequently quoted in media venues and his work has appeared in CNN On Line, The New York Daily News, New York Newsday, Dissent, The Nation, The Wall Street Journal and Lingua Franca.

Guillermo Martinez is the deputy director and intergovernmental liaison for the Institute on Immigrant Integration Research and Policy. He brings over 20 years of significant leadership, management, and communications experience in both the nonprofit and government sectors. During his time in the New York State Legislature, he served as the director of policy development for the New York State Assembly Task Force on New Americans and legislative and communications director for the New York State Assembly Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force, having served in that role as the longest tenured staffer in the organizations 35-year history. In those capacities, he helped research, draft, and negotiate over 200 pieces of legislation that are now state law, including programs such as the SUNY Hispanic Leadership Institute, the SUNY Office of Diversity Equity and Inclusion, the codifying of the Office of New Americans, the Immigration Services Fraud Prevention Act, the Idle-Free School Zone Act, Geriatric Mental Health Act, the Undocumented Immigrant In-State-Tuition Act, the School Energy Efficiency Collaborative Act, the establishing of the New York Latino Research and Resources Network (NYLARNet), and dozens of other laws, including consumer protection measures addressing online privacy, disaster preparedness, protecting children with disabilities, and the elderly. Prior to his time in the legislature, Martinez served as director of communications and legislative affairs for the Council of Community Services of New York State and worked at SUNY Oneonta’s migrant education program (ESCORT) assisting migrant farmworkers with the educational needs of their children in a region covering 23 states.

Dina Refki is the director of the Center for Women in Government & Civil Society (CWGCS) at the University at Albany. Refki studies and researches the interplay of gender with institutional structures in the US and international context. She applies gender mainstreaming and budgeting analysis from transnational perspectives. Prior to assuming leadership at CWGCS in 2009, she held different positions at the Center, including as director of the Immigrant Women & State Policy Program, which facilitated interagency collaboration, promoted dialogues with civil society and immigrant women at the state level, and worked to identify and address barriers to the integration of immigrant women in the social, economic, and political fabric of local communities. Refki studies the challenges of migration, the barriers facing immigrant women and their families, and the structural changes needed to better respond to the needs of immigrant women.

Shelley Worrell is not just a creative entrepreneur, she is a deeply rooted cultural connector, a storyteller whose narratives transcend borders, and a visionary who brings Caribbean stories to the global stage.  She is the Founder of I AM CaribBeing, an award-winning venture at the crossroads of culture + community + lifestyle that collaborates with some of the Caribbean’s most visionary talent and brands. Worrell also led the movement to name Brooklyn’s Little Caribbean (est. 2017) to support and celebrate hyperlocal Caribbean communities and champion neighborhood small business.

Since founding I AM CaribBeing in 2012, Worrell has produced more than 500 immersive experiences reaching tens of millions of attendees in partnership with top corporations and cultural institutions—Diageo, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, The Brooklyn Museum, BRIC, Caribbean Tourism Association, James Beard Foundation, Municipal Art Society, Queens Museum, Google Arts & Culture, Studio Museum in Harlem, Prospect Park Alliance, Showtime, Infatuation, Food 52, VoX Media and others.  She has presented across the globe, from Poland, Montreal, Grenada, Greece, and Haiti to France and Barbados. Worrell’s award-winning, multi-platform, and cross-cultural activations have been featured by National Geographic, Black Enterprise, Caribbean Life, NBC, and Hyperallergic, and she has been personally profiled in The New York Times and Good Morning America.

Worrell began her career working for top media and technology brands, including Google, The History Channel, A&E, and Time Warner with senior roles in strategic partnerships, global business development, and digital operations spearheading the successful launch of hundreds of digital/TV products.  From 2018-2020, she served as the head of Caribbean Partnerships for the US Department of Commerce and currently serves on the boards of NYC Tourism, PBS/WNET, New York City Small Business Advisory Commission, and Prospect Park Alliance. Worrell’s diverse talents extend to writing for Infatuation, Caviar, Garrett Leight, Eater, and Voices of Lefferts to executive producing 3x Webby-nominated Eat+Shop+Lime and campaigns for multinational corporations reaching tens of millions.

Worrell holds a BA in Cultural Studies from CUNY, Brooklyn College, and an MA in Media Studies from the New School. She lives in Brooklyn and enjoys cooking, traveling, and gardening in her spare time.

Jo-Ann Yoo is the executive director of the Asian American Federation, a membership organization that works with the over sixty nonprofits that represent and support the pan-Asian community. Her professional experiences include program management and operations, fundraising, and advocacy in the fields of community development and immigrant rights. Previous employers include the New York Immigration Coalition and Asian Americans for Equality. Currently, she is a member of the board of directors of the Nonprofit New York, an umbrella organization representing and serving some 1,500-member nonprofit organizations throughout New York City, Long Island, and Westchester. Additionally, she serves on the New York State AARP’s Diversity Council. For ten years, she served on the board of the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development, the first national advocacy organization dedicated to addressing the community development needs of the AAPI communities. She was also a member of the first cohort of New York City Coro’s New American Leaders Program and served on the Alumni Advisory Board of Coro New York.