Phara Souffrant Forrest represents the 57th Assembly District in Brooklyn, New York, which consists of the neighborhoods of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, as well as parts of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights. She was first elected in 2020.

Forrest is the daughter of Haitian immigrants and a lifelong resident of the 57th District. She is a proud product of Brooklyn’s public school system, attending Philippa Schuyler Middle School and Benjamin Banneker Academy for Community Development. She then attended the State University of New York’s (SUNY) Geneseo, where she majored in international relations, before obtaining an associate’s nursing degree at City University of New York’s (CUNY) City Tech and a BSN at CUNY School of Professional Studies.

Forrest has held various jobs that help her connect with her constituents: working in New York City public schools, as an Uber driver, and doing youth advocacy work at Global Kids. Before being elected to the assembly, Forrest worked as a maternal child field nurse, caring for new mothers after they gave birth.

In addition to her work as a nurse, Forrest was president of her building’s tenant association before running for office. Tenant organizing, in particular the fight to pass the Housing Stability & Tenant Protection Act of 2019, was a major motivating force in her decision to run for office and stand up for tenants like herself across the state.

Since being elected, Forrest has continued to champion the rights of tenants, as well as expanding access to healthcare and reforms to the carceral system. In her first term, she passed the Less Is More Act, which made the state’s supervision system more just and equitable. She believes that working-class New Yorkers deserve stable housing, affordable healthcare, and the resources to pursue a good life.

Forrest lives in Crown Heights, New York, with her husband and son.

Catalina Cruz was born in Colombia and came to Queens at nine. She grew up as a DREAMer, living in the United States for more than ten years as an undocumented American. Cruz was raised by a single mother who, like many immigrants, had to work multiple and menial jobs to support her family. Inspired by her mother’s perseverance, Cruz has committed her career to fighting for our community to ensure our workers, neighbors, and families not only survive but thrive.

Cruz is an experienced attorney and a leader in tenant protection, immigration reform, and workers’ rights. Prior to becoming the assemblywoman for the 39th District, she practiced housing law. She served in various positions in city and state government, including chief of staff to former Council Member Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, counsel to the City Council’s Committee on Immigration, and director of the Governor’s Exploited Workers Task Force, among others. In these positions, she represented tenants in housing court, drafted legislation, and implemented initiatives to support women, protect workers, and champion small businesses.

Since taking office in 2019, Cruz has passed more than 24 new laws to combat food insecurity, curtail the high cost of healthcare, protect aging New Yorkers, and so much more. Cruz’s district office places a strong emphasis on constituent services. Her hardworking staff is proud to have helped thousands of constituents access legal services, small business support, unemployment insurance, health insurance, and pandemic assistance, as well as help with mortgage, rent, and utility payments.

Cruz lives in Jackson Heights, Queens. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a juris doctor from the City University of New York’s School of Law and is admitted to practice law in the State of New York.

John B. King, Jr. is the 15^th Chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY), the largest comprehensive system of public higher education in the United States.

Prior to his appointment as Chancellor, King served as president of The Education Trust. This national civil rights non-profit seeks to identify and close opportunity and achievement gaps for students from preschool through college.

Chancellor King served in President Obama’s cabinet as the 10^th US Secretary of Education. Upon tapping him to lead the US Department of Education, President Obama called King “an exceptionally talented educator,” citing his commitment to “preparing every child for success,” and his lifelong dedication to public education as a teacher, principal, and leader of schools and school systems.

Before his appointment as secretary of education, Chancellor King fulfilled the duties of deputy secretary of education, overseeing all policies and programs related to P-12 education, English learners, special education, and innovation.

His service in Washington, DC, followed King’s tenure as New York State’s first African American and first Puerto Rican education commissioner. In this role, Chancellor King oversaw all elementary and secondary schools, as well as public, independent, and proprietary colleges and universities, professional licensure, libraries, museums, and numerous other educational institutions.

Chancellor King holds a bachelor of arts in government from Harvard University; a JD from Yale Law School; a master of arts in teaching of social studies, and a doctorate in education from Teachers College at Columbia University.

You can follow Chancellor King on Twitter at @JohnBKing.

Robert Megna is president of the Rockefeller Institute of Government. He previously served as senior vice chancellor and chief operating officer of SUNY System Administration. In that role, he oversaw the operations of the chief information officer, the State University of New York (SUNY) Plaza business functions, capital facilities, campus energy management, and the Charter School Institute. He joined SUNY System Administration from Stony Brook University, where he served as senior vice president for finance and administration. Prior to joining Stony Brook, he served as executive director of the New York State Thruway Authority and New York State Canal Corporation.

Megna served as budget director for the New York State Division of the Budget (DOB), during which time the state achieved its highest financial rating in 40 years from three major credit rating agencies and passed four on-time budgets for the first time since the 1970s. He also chaired multiple governmental boards, including the Financial Restructuring Board, the New York Racing Association, and the Public Authorities Control Board. Megna has also served as commissioner for the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, director of the revenue and economics unit at DOB, assistant commissioner of the office of tax policy at the Virginia Department of Taxation, director of tax studies at the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, and deputy director of fiscal studies on the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.

Megna earned an MS in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science at the University of London and received both his BA in Economics and MPA from Fordham University.

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.

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.

Rukhsana Ahmed is an associate professor of communications and research associate at the Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities at the State University of New York’s University at Albany. Her research examines the role of communication, culture, media, and technology in shaping healthcare experiences and outcomes among marginalized populations and promoting organizational and social changes and innovations in local, national, and international health contexts. Ahmed is the chief editor of Health Communication of Frontiers in Communication. Recently, she co-edited the book Communication Research on Health Disparities and Coping Strategies in COVID-19 Related Crises (2024, Routledge). Ahmed was named a distinguished research fellow by the Easter Communication Association at its 115th annual convention.

Tamara Alsace, PhD, is a career-long educator and scholar. Alsace is retired from Buffalo Public Schools, where she held various positions over 32+ years, including bilingual elementary and special education teacher, professional development specialist, and most recently, director of multilingual education. As such, she directed the bilingual English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and world languages programs. Since retiring, Alsace has worked as an independent consultant for the Regional Bilingual Education Resource Network (RBE-RN) and the Council of the Great City Schools. Alsace also serves on several non-profit boards and is active in professional and community organizations in Buffalo, New York, as well as at the state and national levels. A tireless advocate for the educational rights of multilingual/immigrant students and their families, she is a past president of the New York State Association for Bilingual Education (NYSABE) and part of the current leadership team of New York Advocates for Fair/Inclusive Resources for Multilingual Learners (NY-AFFIRMS). She is co-editor of the book Bilingual Special Education for the 21st Century: A New Interface (IGI Global, 2022).

Jeanette Altarriba, PhD, is a professor of psychology and Collins fellow at the State University of New York’s University at Albany. She also serves as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the university. Altarriba is an internationally recognized scholar in bilingualism, memory, and emotion and has published more than 90 peer-reviewed articles and chapters in her field. She is an associate editor for the journals Language and Speech, and The American Journal of Psychology. Among her many edited and co-edited volumes is An Introduction to Bilingualism: Principles and Processes, which is soon to be released in its third edition. Altarriba’s background and Cuban heritage inform her research on language, culture, and mental health, as recently, she has been working on the areas of minority health disparities, particularly regarding COVID-19 and populations with limited English abilities (LEP).

Wilma Alvarado-Little is the director of the Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities Prevention at the New York State Department of Health. Alvardo-Little has focused on racial and health equity issues from a linguistic and cultural perspective in addition to her interests in public policy, research, health literacy, and health disparities prevention. She has been instrumental in the development and implementation of hospital and clinic-based programs and policy. She is the former co-chair of the Board of the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCIHC), serves as a member of the National Project Advisory Committee for the Review of the CLAS Standards, HHS Office of Minority Health, and has served as a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Roundtable on Health Literacy initiative and as chair of the New York State Office of Mental Health Multicultural Advisory Committee.

Margaret Blachly is a professional development facilitator, psycho-educational specialist, and coach. She serves as an advisor and instructor in the early childhood special education and bilingual programs at the Bank Street Graduate School of Education. Blachly spent 11 years teaching pre-K and kindergarten in dual language and inclusion settings. Her classroom design and practice were deeply informed by Bank Street Graduate College of Education’s developmental interaction approach, the work of Lesley Koplow, and the work of emotionally responsive practice. Blachly is a presenter and consultant to schools in New York City, Providence, Rhode Island, and beyond in social studies, curriculum, and social-emotional practice. She is active in her children’s school communities. Blachly values reflective and collaborative practices for herself and all adults to continuously grow towards becoming the most justice-oriented humans we can be. She holds a master’s degree from Bank Street’s Early Childhood Bilingual General and Special Education Program.

Karen Chatfield’s research has focused on children’s outcomes across all dimensions, as well as on the ways in which US social programs and policies support the development of children in low-income immigrant and non-immigrant families.

Before joining the National Center for Children in Poverty, Chatfield worked at the Educational Alliance, where she served as principal investigator on the Settlement House American Research Plan (SHARP) Impact Study, a mixed-method investigation of social program receipt, community supports, and material hardship among NYC settlement house participants and staff both during and since the pandemic.

Chatfield received her PhD from the Columbia School of Social Work at Columbia University and earned an MA in quantitative methods in the social sciences at Columbia University.

Alberta Conteh is the director of Bank Street Head Start at the Bank Street Graduate College of Education. Conteh was born and raised in New York City. She has experience as an early childhood teacher and social worker, having worked in early childcare administration in various parts of the city, including Harlem and Washington Heights, where she was raised. Conteh obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education at City University of New York’s City College of New York, focusing on childhood education. She also holds a master’s of social work from Fordham University and a master’s degree in educational administration from The City College of New York. Conteh enjoys spending time with her family and listening to books.

Lauren DesRosiers is the incoming director of the Immigration Law Clinic at Albany Law School, where she has supervised students in immigration matters as a staff attorney since 2021. DesRosiers has also taught several classes at the law school as an adjunct, including immigration law and client counseling. She was previously the Judith S. Kaye teaching fellow with the Historical Society of the New York Courts and Bard Early Colleges, where she spent two semesters designing and teaching an undergraduate course that explored New York State’s influence on the development of US immigration law and policy.

Before coming to Albany Law School, DesRosiers was a senior staff attorney with the New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP), where she represented Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer + (LGBTQ+) immigrant survivors of violence in immigration matters and other civil proceedings. DesRosiers advocated for and represented immigrant LGBTQ+ survivors of hate violence in her earlier role at AVP as an Equal Justice Works fellow.

DesRosiers started her legal career as a litigation associate at a large law firm in New York City, representing clients in civil matters and maximizing the use of the firm’s generous pro bono policy with an active docket of pro bono immigration cases.

She received her JD from the University of Michigan Law School and BA from Bard College at Simon’s Rock.

Tsveta Dobreva is a third-year sociology PhD student at the University at Albany. Her research interests include immigration, race, education, urban sociology, and belonging. Dobreva’s current research project looks to understand the role that skin tone and racial differences play in children of immigrants’ educational experiences and sense of belonging at school, in their community, and nationally. Prior to beginning her graduate studies, Dobreva worked at a New Jersey-based legal organization assisting Darfurian asylum seekers in navigating the immigration system to obtain refugee status, develop language skills, enroll in college, and find jobs. In her native Bulgaria, she worked with an international NGO that was actively involved on a community level in assisting asylum seekers with their economic, social, and civic integration.

Vera Eccarius-Kelly is a professor of comparative politics in the Department of Political Science & International Relations at Siena College in Albany, New York. She currently is an academic community engagement scholar-in-residence (2019-2025). In this role, she is responsible for creating collaborations with refugee communities and shaping communal projects related to migration and refugee studies, refugee resettlement efforts, and Every Campus a Refuge (ECAR). Her research projects focus on ethnic nationalism and diaspora politics, revolutionary movements in the Middle East and Latin America, transnational social mobilization, ethnic lobbying, and cultural expressions of nationalism. Among her recent publications are “Digital Storytelling and Visual Representations: Refugees Disrupt Stereotypical Narratives” in Collaborations Journal: A Journal of Community-Based Research and Practice 5, 1 (Winter 2022); “Kurdish Lobbying and Political Activism in the United States,” in a book she co-edited titled Kurdish Autonomy and US Foreign Policy (Peter Lang, 2021); and a chapter in the Art of Minorities (Edinburgh Press, 2020) that is titled “‘Do I Even Exist?’ Kurdish Diaspora Artists Reflect on Imaginary Exhibits in a Kurdistan Museum.” Eccarius-Kelly has published articles in journals such as Kurdish Studies, Peace Review, South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, etc. Her book chapters have appeared in Edinburgh Press, Lexington Press, Mazda Press, Palgrave Macmillan, Roman & Littlefield, the University of Utah Press, and Walter de Gruyter. In addition to her teaching and research activities, Eccarius-Kelly serves as an expert witness for asylum cases held in New York immigration court, participates weekly in political talk shows on WAMC radio, an affiliate of National Public Radio (NPR), and holds several leadership positions on nonprofit boards.

Beroro T. Efekoro is the first African-born immigrant elected to the Albany County Legislature and the first Nigerian-born immigrant elected to public office in the State of New York. He is the founder and executive director of the International Organization for Education Inc., an organization in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Through this organization, Efekoro organizes ESL classes for New York Capital Region immigrants and educational programs for high school students in the United States and abroad. In the Albany County Legislature, Efekoro introduced the idea to provide grants to small businesses in Albany County during the pandemic. He has introduced and passed several pieces of legislation aimed at improving quality of life for the residents of Albany, including legislation to ban smoking in common areas of multi-dwelling units, a proclamation calling on President Biden to forgive student loans for millions of borrowers, and teleworking legislation for Albany County.

Cecilia Espinosa, received her PhD from Arizona State University. As an immigrant from Ecuador, Espinosa started her journey in education as a teacher assistant, bilingual-multiage K-2nd grade teacher, and a dual language program director in Phoenix, Arizona. Espinosa’s research focus includes collaborative research, bilingual children’s writing, translanguaging, descriptive processes, and children’s literature that affirms and nurtures multiple identities. She is an affiliated faculty member of the New York City Writing Project (NYCWP) and a member of the Descriptive Inquiry Philosophy Study Group. Espinosa is the new chair of the Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature in Fiction (National Council of Teachers of English). Espinosa served as an associate investigator of the City University of New York (CUNY) New York State Initiative Emergent Bilinguals (CUNY NYSIEB), and currently, through CUNY-IIE, she is supporting schools to reimagine policies to serve immigrant-origin students and their families better. She co-led the New York State Education Department Best Practices for Multilingual Learners Project and Next Generation Learning Standards (NGLS). She co-authored the book Rooted in Strength: Using Translanguaging to Grow Multilingual Readers and Writers (Scholastic, 2021).

Nele Feldmann is the associate director for the Welcome Corps on Campus at the Community Sponsorship Hub, where she is leading the organization’s work to implement private sponsorship of refugee students at US campuses. She previously served as the executive coordinator of the Global Task Force on Third Country Education Pathways and as the head of Student Emergency Initiatives at the Institute of International Education, where she supported the creation of higher education pathways for refugee students globally. Feldmann has more than nine years of experience designing, managing, and supporting programs that expand access to higher education for refugee and displaced student populations. Feldmann graduated from the University of Bonn in Germany with a master’s in translation for Arabic and French and a bachelor’s in political science. She worked and studied in France, Egypt, and Syria and participated in the prestigious yearly Arabic program at the French Orient Institute in Damascus from 2009-2010.

Laura Gonzalez-Murphy is executive director of the New York State Office for New Americans. Previously, as the director of immigration policy and research at the New York State Department of State, she led the design and implementation of unique initiatives to ameliorate the human impact of the latest federal immigration policies and demographic flows, such as Governor Cuomo’s Golden Door program, which provides mental health assistance to immigrant families across New York, and the Ramirez June Navigator, which focuses on empowering immigrant families with developmental disabilities support as they seek to access services to which they are entitled. Prior to this position, Gonzalez-Murphy served as director of the agency’s State Office for New Americans (ONA), overseeing the operation of the Office’s network of service providers across the state, a model of immigrant integration in the country, and the implementation of NaturalizeNY, the first public-private partnership of its kind, aimed at lifting the financial barrier to citizenship faced by New Yorkers.

Aubrey Grant, MPP, is a founding member of the Community Sponsorship Hub, where she serves as the program manager for practice and research. Grant manages the Sponsor Circle Program and the Community Sponsorship Catalyst Fund and leads evaluation, research, and learning programs for the Welcome Corps, the Welcome Corps on Campus, and the Sponsorship Circle Program. Additionally, Grant supervises resource development for the Community Sponsorship Essentials Training for sponsors and the Ready, Set, Launch training program for the resettlement agency-led community sponsorship program.

Grant began working in refugee resettlement in 2009 as a case manager for Church World Service in Greensboro, North Carolina. Over the past decade, she has held various refugee resettlement roles in research, policy, practice, and advocacy. Grant received a bachelor of arts in political science and international affairs from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, a master of public policy from American University, and is completing a doctor of philosophy in public policy from George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government.

Abdullah-Al Helal, MD, is a PhD candidate working as a graduate research assistant at Morgan State University School of Social Work. He previously worked as an assistant professor at Northern University Bangladesh. His area of research interest is underserved people. Helal has fourteen research articles published in national and international peer-reviewed academic journals. Additionally, Helal has a handful of experience in editorial jobs. His long-term goals include becoming an expert in health policy with a particular focus on undocumented immigrants’ healthcare.

Arielle Kandel is the granddaughter of Jewish immigrants from Poland and Germany to the US. Her father later immigrated to France, where he met her mother, and Kandel was born and raised in Paris.

Kandel holds a master’s degree in law with a specialization in humanitarian action and international law from Paul Cézanne University Aix-Marseille III in France. Prior to immigrating to the US, Kandel worked at several nonprofit organizations and think tanks in India and Israel with asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants on issues related to diaspora and transnationalism.

Kandel founded New Women New Yorkers in 2014, the first nonprofit organization in New York City dedicated to empowering immigrant women from all backgrounds. As the daughter and granddaughter of immigrants and refugees, and as an immigrant herself, Kandel believes in the vast potential that every immigrant woman can contribute to our city, regardless of her country or origin or educational level.

Kandel is a 2015 Agents of Change of the Centre for Social Innovation in New York City, a 2016 fellow of PresenTense, New York City, a 2018-2019 fellow of Coro Leadership Center’s Immigrant Civic Leadership Program, and a member of the 2022 Workforce Policy Strategy Council of the New York City Employment & Training Coalition.

Jisang Kim, PhD, is a senior research associate at the Center for Women in Government & Civil Society (CWGCS) at the State University of New York’s University at Albany. Kim also serves as an immigrant integration fellow at the Institute on Immigrant Integration Research and Policy. His research revolves around accountability, performance management, diversity in the public sector settings, and the policy issues concerning immigrant integration and policing. Kim is interested in what public accountability entails and how it should be managed when facing the problems of today’s fast-changing environment, such as increasing immigration, emerging new technologies, and environmental problems. At CWGCS, he has led analyses for multiple research projects, including the Pay Equity Study in New York State and Local Government. He holds a doctorate in public administration and policy from the University at Albany and a bachelor of law and master of public administration from Seoul National University in South Korea.

Tatyana Kleyn served as president of the New York State Association for Bilingual Education and was a Fulbright Scholar in Oaxaca, Mexico. Kleyn has authored books and articles on immigration, translanguaging, and bilingual education. Her latest book is Living, Learning, and Languaging Across Borders: Students Between the US and Mexico. Kleyn’s work in film as a producer and director includes the Living Undocumented Series, Una Vida, Dos Países: Children and Youth (Back) in Mexico, Supporting Immigrants in Schools, and the Not Too Young video series. Kleyn was an elementary school teacher in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and Atlanta, Georgia. For more information, see TatyanaKleyn.com.

Rey Koslowski is a professor of political science and director of the master of international affairs program at the State University on New York’s University at Albany. He has held fellowships at the Transatlantic Academy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Princeton University, and Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Koslowski has published extensively on the politics of international migration, immigration policy and border control, notably as author of Migrants and Citizens: Demographic Change in the European States System (Cornell University Press, 2000), editor of Global Mobility Regimes (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), editor of International Migration and the Globalization of Domestic Politics (Routledge, 2005), and co-editor (with David Kyle) of Global Human Smuggling: Comparative Perspectives, 2nd ed. (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011). Recent and forthcoming articles and chapters include: “Transforming Border Security through Transgovernmental Cooperation: US and Canadian Efforts to get ‘Beyond the Border’” with Geoff Leckey in Kiran Banerjee and Craig Smith, Understanding North American Migration Governance (McGill-Queens’ University Press, forthcoming); “Drones and Border Control: An Examination of State and Non-State Actor use of UAVs along Borders,” in Marie McAuliffe, ed. Handbook on Migration and Technology (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021); “Farmers Sponsoring Refugees,” in Scott Fein, Immigration: Key to the Future – The Benefits of Resettlement to Upstate New York (Albany: New York State Bar Association, 2021); “International Travel Security and the Global Compacts on Refugees and Migration,” International Migration, Vol. 57, No. 6 (December 2019).

Paola Martinez is director of strategic program development and special initiatives for the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York. Previously, she served as director of local government and legislative affairs for the State University of New York (SUNY). Prior to working at SUNY, she was director of social services and community engagement for Catholic Charities at the Betances Houses in the South Bronx. She oversaw a portfolio of 41 buildings and approximately 3,000 residents, making it the largest New York City Housing Authority development and only the second in New York City to participate in the Rental Assistance Demonstration program. Prior to this role, Martinez served as program manager and policy analyst for the New York City Department of Small Business Services, the NYC Commission on Human Rights, and the New York City Council. She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the City College of New York and a Master of Science in urban policy and leadership from the Hunter College Graduate School of Planning and Policy.

Cristina Medellin-Paz (she/her/Ella) is the associate director for the Straus Center for Young Children and Families at Bank Street College of Education. Her research examines the systems and structures that support the early childhood workforce through professional development, leadership opportunities, and “stackable” credentials (e.g., credit-bearing credentials like the child development associate leading to two-year, four-year, and graduate degrees). As a first-generation college graduate and bilingual/bicultural developmental psychologist, she applies a critical lens in her research that uplifts and affirms communities of color.

Cynthia Nayeli Carvajal, PhD, is a scholar and practitioner at the intersection of immigration and education. Originally from Zapopan, Mexico, Carvajal immigrated to East Los Angeles, California, at the age of five, where she navigated K-12 education as an undocumented immigrant. Her personal and professional goals are grounded in her experience as a formerly undocumented immigrant, student, and community member for twelve years of her life.

Carvajal currently serves as the inaugural director for Undocumented and Immigrant Student Programs at City University of New York (CUNY), the nation’s largest urban public university. This position is the first of its kind in New York State and was created to support undocumented and immigrant students across all the CUNY campuses.

Caroline Rakus-Wojciechowski is a social entrepreneur, mentor, and young professional in international education development with more than seven years of interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral experience in public speaking, research, gender equality, youth empowerment, educational inclusion and well-being, cross-cultural competencies, education in emergencies, and sustainable development. Currently, she is the monitoring & evaluation specialist at MapWorks Learning. Rakus-Wojciechowski is a published author on refugee educational inclusion in the DC-Maryland-Virginia area through the Refugee Educational Advancement Laboratory. Rakus-Wojciechowski’s work extends across four continents, and she is fluent in English, Polish, and Spanish. She has been a youth ambassador to conferences held by the United Nations Association of the USA, the World Bank, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the International Organization for Migration, UN-Habitat, the UN Economic and Social Council, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the Munich Security Conference Foundation, where she delivered policy recommendations.

She has also presented at academic conferences on experiential learning (Washington Consortium Student Research Conference), gender equality (George Washington University Diversity Summit), and educational inclusion for refugees, displaced persons, and migrants (Comparative and International Education Society Conference). Rakus-Wojciechowski previously worked for organizations such as UNESCO, Coalescion, Q-Q Research Consultants, EnCompass LLC, Global Policy Insights, and BlueRidge Impact Consulting. Rakus-Wojciechowski holds an MA in international education from the George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development and a BA in anthropology from Harvard College.

Racquel Sevilla is the director of program development, planning and evaluation at WES Global Talent Bridge. In her role, Sevilla develops programs that foster the economic inclusion of immigrants and refugees and bolster the efforts of immigrant and refugee leaders, such as the WES Gateway Program providing credential evaluation reports for displaced individuals and the WES Global Talent Leadership Network, which brings together immigrant leaders from across the US. Sevilla also leads departmental planning, reporting and review processes and oversees the department’s program evaluation efforts. Prior to joining WES, Sevilla served as director of immigrant employment initiatives at the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) where she launched new initiatives focused on the economic inclusion and career advancement of immigrants and refugees. Born and raised in the Philippines, Sevilla’s passion for her work is fueled by her lived experience as an immigrant to Canada and the US.

Ken Silverman is a PhD student in political science at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, specializing in comparative politics and public policy. Sliverman’s current research focuses on comparative citizenship, migration politics, and international conditions’ role in migration policymaking. He has collaborated with the Center for Urban Research on voting patterns and civic engagement studies in New York City. Silverman designed and taught political science courses, including on immigrant integration, at CUNY Baruch, Hunter, and Queens Colleges. Silverman presented his original research on migration-related topics at the Japan Association of Migration Policy Studies, Midwest Political Science Association, and International Studies Association conferences. Prior to receiving his master’s of international affairs from CUNY Baruch College’s Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, Silverman was an award-winning senior news producer at Japan’s largest private broadcaster, the New York Bureau of Fuji TV Network News, where he covered the United Nations as well as hundreds of international news events throughout Latin America and the US. Silverman is a recipient of the Presidential Research and Graduate Center Fellowships. He is also fluent in Japanese and Spanish.

Yaena Song is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Section for Health Equity of the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine at New York University. Her research interests are in community health education, promotion, and health behavior change, with a special focus on Asian American children and families. Through collaboration with community partners and using innovative methods, including digital health solutions and technology, she strives to provide more equitable access to health information and resources for underprioritized populations.

Andrew Sta. Ana (he/they) is the deputy director of research and policy at the Asian American Federation (AAF). As a member of AAF’s leadership team, Sta. Ana seeks to raise the influence and well-being of the pan-Asian community through partnership with our 70+ member agencies. Sta. Ana supervises the policy, research, and small business programs using data and deep community collaboration to steer AAF’s policy advocacy and legislative agenda. Further, Sta. Ana serves as an adjunct clinical professor at New York Law School, where he launched the nation’s first law school-based legal clinic to represent victims of cyber harassment. His legal practice centers on the intersections of cyber harassment, antiviolence, the rights of youth, and LGBTQ+ survivors. For over a decade prior, he served as a leader at Day One, a nonprofit organization based in New York City that serves young victims of dating and sexual violence. As a litigator, he has represented hundreds of survivors of intimate partner and sexual violence in litigation and advocacy. In 2019, the National LGBT Bar Association recognized Sta. Ana as one of the nation’s best LGBTQ+ Lawyers under 40. In 2018, Sta. Ana served on the Biden Foundation’s advisory council on Violence Against Women. He has previously served as an expert trainer with the American Bar Association’s Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence. In 2015, Sta. Ana was named a Movement Maker by the NoVo Foundation’s Move to End Violence. Having studied at the City University of New York’s School of Law and the State University of New York’s Binghamton University, Sta. Ana is a proud graduate of public education and a lifelong New Yorker.

Laurens G. Van Sluytman, PhD, LCSWc, is an assistant dean and professor at the School of Social Work at Morgan State University. His research agenda focuses on disparities among members of marginalized communities. His long-term career goals are 1) to investigate and elaborate the processes among micro- (individual risk and behavior), meso- (groups, families, and social networks), and macro-level factors (employment, schools, communities, and healthcare) trends in employment, incarceration, and environmental stress); 2) to contribute to developing and testing models of how individual, community, and local/global-level factors influence disparate health outcomes; 3) to develop effective evidence-based interventions with marginalized communities. Van Sluytman is also a curriculum developer, program evaluator, and psychotherapist in private practice.

Julia Vinagolu-Baur, MBA, MS, is a health program coordinator I at the Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities Prevention (OMH-HDP), New York State Department of Health (NYS DOH). Vinagolu-Baur’s work falls under the Center for Disease Control and Prevention: CDC-RFA-OT21-2103: National Initiative to Address COVID-19 Health Disparities Among Populations at High-Risk and Underserved. Vinagolu-Baur’s responsibilities include supervising staff and guiding initiatives toward grant-directed focus areas, including rural communities, New Americans, communities of color, immigrants, refugees, and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer + community. In line with OMH-HDP’s legislative charge and seeing how data drives disparities in minority areas, Vinagolu-Baur assists with the development of a toolkit pilot program to improve race and ethnicity data collection in hospital facilities and serves as a support to the liaison to the Health Equity Council. Prior to joining the NYS DOH, Vinagolu-Baur obtained her master’s of business administration from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and her master’s of science in medical technology from the State University of New York’s Upstate Medical University. Vinagolu-Baur has worked in federally qualified health centers as a Community Health Care Association of New York State AmeriCorps member and has gained health policy and project management experience at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Operations.

Amanda Vrsalović, MPH, is a senior health program coordinator at the Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities Prevention (OMH-HDP), New York State Department of Health (NYS DOH). Vrsalović’s role focuses on addressing health disparities in communities, including immigrants, refugees, communities of color, and folks with limited English proficiency across New York State. Vrsalović has assisted with developing materials for healthcare facilities to improve race and ethnicity data collection, revamping a health literacy committee, and supporting a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer + Lecture and Learn series. Vrsalović earned her master’s of public health with a concentration in social behavior and community health from the School of Public Health at the University at Albany. Previously, Vrsalović worked on another NYS DOH project that focused on creating a data repository for collecting and improving data for children with rare genetic disorders. Vrsalović is passionate about working to close the gaps in healthcare needs through New York State programming.

Furkan Yilmaz is a recent graduate of Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at the State University of New York’s University at Albany. Yilmaz specializes in integration policies, particularly for Southeast Asian refugees. With political science and law degrees, his research centers on international human rights and immigration policies. Furkan has gained experience as a research assistant at universities and institutions, contributing to projects focused on integrating Syrian refugees into the higher education system in Turkey. Yilmaz serves as a program assistant at the State University of New York and City University of New York’s Southeast Asia Consortium (SUNY/CUNY SEAC).