Co-founder and partner of the Nueva Vista Group, Maria Echaveste has built a distinguished career working as a senior White House official, long-time community leader and corporate attorney. Prior to founding NVG, she served as Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for President Clinton. In this role, Ms. Echaveste had oversight responsibility for many of the President’s domestic policy initiatives, including education, civil rights, immigration and bankruptcy reform. Ms Echaveste is also a non-resident fellow of the Center for American Progress working on issues such as immigration, civil rights, education and Latin America. Media includes: television and print.

Sayu Bhojwani is the President and Founder of The New American Leaders Project (NALP), the only national organization specifically focused on preparing first- and second-generation immigrants for civic leadership. From 2002 to 2004, she was New York City’s first Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs, under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, and in 1997 she founded South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!), the first and only organization working exclusively with South Asian youth. Media includes: ABC News, The Chicago Tribune, WNYC/NYC, El Diario and The New Yorker.

Marisa Franco is a Phoenix-based organizer, writer and strategist. She is the Director and co-founder of Mijente, a digital and grassroots organizing hub for Latina/o and Chicana/o people. Most recently she led the #Not1More Deportation campaign, recognized in 2014 by the National Organizing Institute as Campaign of the Year and co-authored How We Make Change is Changing, which describes Not1More’s campaign strategy and structure that activated hundreds of organizations across sectors and communities to demand a stop to deportations. As a staff member at the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, Marisa has worked to turn the tide on anti-immigrant policy and rhetoric in some of the most contentious political battle grounds, including the Southwest and Southeastern region. Media includes: Politico, CNN, MSNBC, Univision, and The Washington Post.

Jessica Therkelsen is a social justice lawyer who advocates for the dignity and rights of immigrants, minorities, women and children. As the Director of the Pro Bono Justice Program at OneJustice, her mission is to bring life changing legal services to all who need them. In her previous role as Global Director of Advocacy and Communications at Asylum Access, an international refugee rights nonprofit, Jessica worked closely with local human rights leaders in the US, Ecuador, Tanzania, Thailand and Malaysia to advocate for systems, laws and policies that help refugees build a new life. Her work has focused on access to jobs and labor protections for refugees around the world.

Margie McHugh is the Director of the National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy at the Migration Policy Institute. The Center is a national hub for leaders in government, community affairs, business, and academia to obtain the knowledge and skills they need to respond to the challenges and opportunities that today's high rates of immigration pose for local communities across the United States. The Center provides in-depth research, policy analysis, technical assistance, training, leadership development, and information resource services on a broad range of immigrant integration issues. Media includes: Associated Press, The Washington Post, Voices of America and the New York Daily News.

Sarita Gupta is the executive director of Jobs With Justice. She is a nationally recognized expert on the economic and political issues affecting working people across all industries, particularly low-wage workers. Sarita also serves as co-director of Caring Across Generations, a national coalition of 200 advocacy organizations working together for quality care and support and a dignified quality of life for all Americans.

Cristina Tzintzún is the Executive Director of Workers Defense Project (WDP), a statewide, membership-based workers’ rights organization that is winning better working conditions for Texans. WDP has been called one of the nation’s most creative organizations for immigrant workers by The New York Times. 

Christine Neumann-Ortiz is the founding Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera, a low-wage and immigrant workers center with chapters in Milwaukee and Racine, Wisconsin, including a student chapter called Students United for Immigrant Rights with members from 3 high schools. Voces de la Frontera is increasingly recognized as Wisconsin’s leading voice for immigration reform. Recent accomplishments include leading nationally recognized Immigrant Rights Marches with 80,000 participants. Media includes: CNN, NPR, The Nation, Telemundo, Fox News, ABC, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Kathleen Newland is co-founder of the Migration Policy Institute and directs MPI's programs on migrants, migration, and development and comprehensive protection for refugees and internally displaced people. Her work focuses on the relationship between migration and development, governance of international migration, and refugee protection. 

Rinku Sen is the President and Executive Director of Race Forward: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation and the Publisher of the award-winning news site Colorlines. Race Forward brings systemic analysis and an innovative approach to complex race issues to help people take effective action toward racial equity through research, media, and practice. Under Sen’s leadership, Race Forward has generated some of the most impactful racial justice successes. One example is the groundbreaking Shattered Families report, which changed the immigration debate with research on how record deportations of parents were leading to the placement of thousands of children in foster care, often separating them permanently from their families. Sen was the architect of Drop the I-Word, a campaign for media outlets to stop referring to immigrants as “illegal,” Extensive media experience.

As a former Assistant Professor of Religion at Spelman College, Jamillah Karim specializes in Islam and Muslims in the United States (African American, South Asian and Arab), Islamic Feminism, Race and Ethnicity, and Immigration and Transnational Identity. She is the author of several published articles including “To Be Black, Female, and Muslim: A Candid Conversation about Race in the American Ummah” and “Islam for the People: Muslim Men’s Voices on Race and Ethnicity in the American Ummah.” Media includes: Local cable television, Muslim magazines and academic journals and anthologies.

Laura Carlsen is the Director of the Americas Policy Program at the Center for International Policy. Prior to joining the Americas Policy Program, Carlsen was an international relations consultant, freelance writer and researcher. She publishes numerous articles and chapters on social, economic and political aspects of Mexico and recently co-edited Confronting Globalization: Economic Integration and Popular Resistance in Mexico. Media includes: Radio Pacifica, NPR, BBC, CBC, Univisión and Democracy Now.

Shannon O'Neil is the Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher. Her expertise includes U.S.-Latin America relations, trade, energy, and immigration. She is the author of Two Nations Indivisible: Mexico, the United States, and the Road Ahead (Oxford University Press, 2013), which analyzes the political, economic, and social transformations Mexico has undergone over the last three decades and why these changes matter for the United States. Media includes: PBS, New York Times, Bloomberg, MSNBC, Univision, CNN and BBC.

Madeline Janis is co-founder and national policy director of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE). Under her stewardship as executive director, LAANE became an influential leader in the effort to build a new economy based on good jobs, thriving communities and a healthy environment. Prior to founding LAANE, Ms. Janis served as executive director of the Central American Refugee Center (CARECEN), where she helped lead a successful campaign to legalize and regulate the activities of the mostly Latino immigrant sidewalk vendors. During this time, she also headed efforts to combat civil rights abuses of Central American immigrants by the L.A. Police Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and helped tens of thousands of Central American immigrants achieve legal immigrant status. Media includes: Television and Print.

Vanessa Perez is an author and professor of Latino Studies at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. She is an expert on Latinas and immigration and has published extensively on how the experience of immigration negatively impact Latina’s educational outcomes, economic development, health, and self-esteem. Media includes: NPR, Huffington Post and Huffington Post Live.

Linda Sarsouris a working woman, community activist, and mother of three. Ambitious, outspoken and independent, Linda shatters stereotypes of Muslim women while also treasuring her religious and ethnic heritage. She is the Executive Director of the Arab American Association of New York and co-founder of the first Muslim online organizing platform, MPOWER Change. Linda co-chaired the March2Justice, a 250-mile journey on foot to deliver a justice package to end racial profiling, demilitarize police and demand the government invest in young people and communities. Media includes: New York Times, The Guardian and WNYC.

Juhu Thukral, the Director of Law and Advocacy at The Opportunity Agenda, where she leads strategic communications and policy initiatives on economic, immigrant, and gender and sexuality concerns. She is a leading expert on the rights of low-income and immigrant women in the areas of sexual health and rights, gender-based violence, economic security, and criminal justice. She is a founder of numerous ventures supporting women and LGBT people, and has been recognized as one of “21 Leaders for the 21st Century 2012.” Media includes: ABC News, WNYC, New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe

The former Executive Director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), Deepa Iyer has been a civil and immigrant rights advocate for over a decade. Deepa is an attorney who has worked on civil and immigrant rights issues in the non-profit and governmental sectors for 15 years. An immigrant who moved to the United States when she was twelve, Ms. Iyer has devoted her professional career to advocacy and communications on : Asian Americans; South Asian Americans; immigration; civil rights and race relations in a majority-minority nation; hate violence, xenophobia and Islamaphobia in a post 9/11 environment. Media includes: NPR's Michel Martin Show, NPR's Brian Lehrer Show, New York Times, USA Today, and The Huffington Post.