Steven Choi is an advisor and consultant who focuses on advocacy, organizational change, and leadership development. He has spent the last 20 years in leadership at social justice and movement organizations, most recently at One for Democracy, a coalition of philanthropists and foundations pledging 1 percent of assets to support democracy. Before that, Choi served as executive director at the New York Immigration Coalition, a coalition of 200 member groups that represents New York State’s immigrants. During his tenure, Choi quintupled the size of the organization, becoming the nation’s largest state immigrant rights coalition and winning historic victories to restore driver’s licenses for immigrant New Yorkers, create the $10 million New York State Liberty Defense Project, and launch the $40 million ActionNYC immigration legal services initiative.

Choi served as the executive director of the MinKwon Center for Community Action, where he led the building of several powerful coalitions to represent New York’s Asian American community. He was also the founding director of the Korean Workers Project at the Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund.

Choi received a JD from Harvard Law School, an MA from the University of Hawai’i, and a BA from Stanford University in history with honors. He has received numerous awards, including being ranked #1 in City & State’s “2019 Nonprofit Power 100,” the 2017 Community Leadership Award from the Asian American Federation. Choi serves on the boards of The Scherman Foundation and the United Way of New York City and previously served on the New York City Commission on Human Rights.

Nicole Saint-Louis, DSW, LCSW, is an associate professor of social work and the director of the undergraduate social work program at the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Lehman College. She has a doctorate in social work (DSW) and a master’s of social work (MSW) from the University of Pennsylvania. Saint-Louis also has a bachelor of science in psychology from the University of Scranton.

As the director of the undergraduate social work program at Lehman, Saint-Louis is responsible for developing, planning, overseeing, supervising, and monitoring the social work program and its accreditation by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) as well as the faculty and student progress within the program. She currently serves as a CUNY-wide interprofessional education (IPE) fellow, working collaboratively with faculty across the university on interprofessional simulations and related case and curriculum development.

Saint-Louis researches, publishes, and presents social work pedagogy, health operations, social work practice, IPE, virtual simulation, and race and racism in the implicit and explicit curricula. She has been instrumental in helping move forward departmental anti-racism efforts through Heals Social Work Honoring Education with Anti-Racist Learning Standards (SW Heals), a faculty-student-run committee, and a faculty learning community that addresses the application of the department’s anti-racism work.

Saint-Louis’ goal as an academic social worker is to continue integrating her clinical expertise and health research experience to advance the quality of clinical interventions with vulnerable and underrepresented populations, the professionals and systems that care for them, and the relationships between these stakeholders.

Amanda Sisselman-Borgia, PhD, LCSW, is an associate professor in the Social Work Department at City University of New York’s (CUNY) Lehman College. Sisselman-Borgia studies social determinants of health among young people and families, specifically the ways that trauma, racism, and housing and food insecurity intersect. Sisselman-Borgia is currently researching HIV prevention and PrEP (preexposure prophylaxis) engagement among young people in the community who experience homelessness and housing insecurity and testing interventions to raise awareness and improve health and well-being.

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.