FIAC

"To protect and promote the basic human rights of immigrants of all nationalities"

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Staff

Sister Maureen Kelleher

Founder

Sister Catherine Cassidy

Founder - retired

Cheryl Little, Esq.

Executive Director & Founder

Michelle Abarca, Esq.

Staff Attorney/Co-Project Director

Alexsa M. Alonzo, Esq.

Charu al-Sahli

Oscar Alvarez

Susana Barciela

Angelina Castro, Esq.

Supervising Attorney

Maria Jose Fletcher, Esq.

Supervising Attorney, Lucha: A Women's Legal Proj

Serge Fleurimond

Paralegal

Tania Galloni, Esq.

Adrienne Arsht Human Rights Fellow

Natalia Gimenez

Receptionist

Sharon Ginter

Secretary

Mary Gundrum, Esq.

Managing Attorney, Immigration

Ursula Herrera

Paralegal

Jennifer Hill, Esq.

Skadden Fellow - Employment Law

Antoine Isma, Esq.

Staff Attorney

Allison D. Kent

Staff Attorney

Danelia Larios

Finance Clerk

Deborah Lee, Esq.

Staff Attorney/Co-Director

Romy Lerner, Esq.

Staff Attorney

Mercedes Lorduy, Esq.

Staff Attorney, South Dade Office

Lisette Losada, Esq.

Monique Noceda

Berdalis Reyes

Project Coordinator, Lucha

Haydee Rodriquez

Paralegal

Pierre A. Saintil

Paralegal

Sabrina Salomon, Esq.

Staff Attorney/Nou Kab

Mirtha Servat

Bookkeeper

Vivianna Stubbe, Esq.

Staff Attorney

Ellen Sunshine

Grants Manager

Ana Vallejo, Esq.

Supervising Attorney, Lucha-Womens Legal Project

Yoly Vasquez

Data Manager

Tal Winer, Esq.

Staff Attorney

Gail Wright

Director of Finance & Administration

Aidil Oscariz

Staff Attorney and Pro Bono Coordinator

Leslie Martinez

Children’s Legal Project Paralegal

Kate Sanderson

Paralegal

Julie Irvin

Paralegal

Sister Catherine Cassidy

Sister Catherine is a co-founder of FIAC and served as the Managing Attorney for its Outreach Offices before her retirement. She continues her involvement with FIAC by representing her congregation, Sisters of the Humility of Mary, as a partner in the Children's Legal Project' Immigrant Children's Legal And Service Partnership.

Sister Maureen Kelleher

Sister Maureen Kelleher, a Sister of the Sacred Heart of Mary, was a Supervising Attorney of the FIAC Immokalee office and co-founder of FIAC. She is currently practicing immigration law for Legal Aid Service of Collier County. Prior to joining FIAC, Sister Maureen was with Florida Rural Legal Services from 1984 to 1996.

Cheryl Little, Esq.

Cheryl Little has been a tireless advocate for immigrant rights for nearly two decades and has established herself as one of this country's leading experts in the immigration field. Cheryl's extensive involvement in immigration dates from 1985 when, upon her graduation from law school with honors, she began working at the Haitian Refugee Center. Since 1996, she has served as the Executive Director of Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, Inc. (FIAC), an agency she co-founded.

Cheryl is the recipient of numerous awards in connection with her work, including the 2004 Nelson Poynter Civil Liberties Award from the Florida Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division Public Service Award. She has also received the American Red Cross 2000 Spectrum Award for Women, Miami-Dade County Associations of School Social Workers' Community Service Award, St. Thomas University Center for Justice and Peace Institute for Pastoral Ministries' Peacemaker of the Community Award, Miami-Dade County Black Affairs Advisory Board's Pillars Awards 2003, and the Miami-Dade County Asian-American Advisory Board's Distinguished Community Service Award in 2003.

She has appeared on numerous television shows discussing immigration issues including 60 Minutes, Nightline, The McNeil-Lehrer Report, PBS's News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Frontline, The Today Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show and CNN. Cheryl has also appeared in award winning documentaries including Jonathan Demme's "Killing the Dream", "Black and White in Exile", "They Call Us Boat People", and "Abandoned: The Betrayal of America's Immigrants".

Cheryl is the author of numerous articles and reports including "Intergroup Coalitions and Immigration Politics: The Haitian Experience in Florida", published in the University of Miami Law Review and "INS Detention in Florida", published in the University of Miami Inter-American Law Review.

Michelle Abarca, Esq.

Michelle Abarca is an attorney with Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center and Co-Project Director of the Children’s Legal Project.

Michelle represents detained and nondetained immigrant children in immigration court and before the Department of Homeland Security. She advocates locally and nationally for improvements in the care of unaccompanied immigrant children in detention. She graduated from Northwestern University School of Law, in Chicago, Illinois.

Alexsa M. Alonzo, Esq.

Alexsa Alonzo is a Supervising Attorney. A graduate of Harvard University and New York University School of Law, she came to FIAC in 2004.

Prior to FIAC, Alexsa studied at Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia and clerked for the Honorable Robert Timlin of the US District Court in the Central District of California. She was also an intern with Lawyers for Human Rights Refugee Rights Project in South Africa and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania. She is a member of the California Bar and is fluent in Spanish.

Charu al-Sahli

Charu Newhouse al-Sahli was hired as FIAC’s Statewide Director in February 2006. She was FIAC’s Advocacy Coordinator for Detention from 2001-2004, where her work included monitoring conditions of immigration detention in county jails and other facilities throughout Florida; and researching and co-authoring several widely-read reports with Cheryl Little, FIAC’s Executive Director.

Charu returned to FIAC from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, where she advocated for the best interests of immigrant children in federal custody in the Southeast, and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, where she coordinated a national program for child victims of trafficking. Prior to FIAC, Charu founded and directed an independent volunteer program at the largest refugee camp in Hungary, where she was profiled in a documentary film that appeared in the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. Other past work experiences include: providing holistic services to children and others with mental health issues in immigration detention in Pennsylvania, interning at the Chilean Congress in Valparaiso, Chile, and advocating on human rights issues in the Americas for Amnesty International USA.

Oscar Alvarez

Oscar Alvarez is a Paralegal and BIA Accredited Representative who has worked in both Immigration and Public Benefits at FIAC. He joined the agency in August 2004 with a wealth of experience in the Cuban community as supervisor of the Elderly Refugee Program at Little Havana Activities & Nutrition Center for six years.

Oscar was case manager and job developer at Christian Community Service Agency for three years and property disposition manager of Region IV Housing and Urban Development. He was Executive Director of the Coordinating Group of Human Rights Organizations (CODEHU), reporting to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International about situations in the Caribbean. While at FIAC, Oscar has conducted outreach and intake interviews at Abriendo Puertas in East Little Havana and Camillus House homeless shelter. He also gives Know Your Rights presentations and visits immigration detention centers. Oscar speaks Spanish and has been a FIAC media spokesperson with the Hispanic media.

Susana Barciela

Susana provides a national focus on advocacy for more fair and just immigration polices. She has significant responsibility to lead FIAC’s efforts to improve U.S. immigration policies and practices in a time of increasingly punitive enforcement efforts nationwide and the absence of sensible immigration reform. Susana is responsible for producing reports and will manage FIAC’s communications with the English and Spanish media.

Susana comes to FIAC from The Miami Herald, where she served as a writer for its Editorial Board for 11 years. Immigration was an important and recurring topic of her coverage. She has been recognized for her understanding and writing on immigration issues by:
o The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA)
o Women’s Commission for Refugee Women & Children
o American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), and
o FIAC during its first annual dinner in 2003
Prior to her service on the Editorial Board, she was a business writer and columnist at the newspaper. Susana earned both a Bachelor of Arts and Master in Business Administration from Harvard University.

Sofana Castellon

Angelina Castro, Esq.

Angelina (Gina) Castro is a Supervising Attorney who has been at the helm of FIAC’s Fort Pierce office since 2001. She has created an increased awareness and has developed strong collaborative relationships around immigration issues in the community. She supervises a staff representing women and children who are victims of abuse and violent crimes, unaccompanied minors, asylum seekers, homeless persons and individuals with special medical needs.

After receiving her Bachelor Degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism, she spent 7 years in refugee camps in Thailand, the Philippines and Japan as a teacher and refugee case supervisor under the auspices of the US Bureau of Refugee Programs, Save the Children and the UNHCR.

In 1994, she attended the Refugee Studies Program at Oxford University, then returned to the US to attend law school at Northeastern University. While there, she spearheaded the creation of the Immigrant Workers Human Rights Project in collaboration with the Boston Coalition for Immigrants. Gina has served as a law clerk at the Boston immigration law firm of Kaplan, O'Sullivan & Friedman; the Miami Immigration Court through the Department of Justice Honors Intern Program; the US District Court for the District of Puerto Rico; and the law firm of Greenberg Traurig, PA, in Miami. From 1998 through 2001 she was an associate in the immigration department of Greenberg Traurig.

Gina speaks Spanish, Thai, and Tagalog, and is a member of the Florida Bar.

Maria Jose Fletcher, Esq.

Maria Jose T. Fletcher has been a supervising attorney at Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (FIAC) and the Director of Lucha: A Women’s Legal Project since June 2000. Her duties include overall supervision of project staff including staff attorneys, paralegals, intern students and volunteers, as well as direct representation of low-income immigrant victims of domestic violence, trafficking in persons and other violent crimes.

Maria Jose is actively involved in local, state and national domestic violence and victim’s rights organizations. She prepares and conducts educational presentations and trainings in the areas of immigration, domestic violence, and trafficking in persons in the United States and internationally. She has been invited to present at conferences, seminars and workshops by the US Department of State, the US Department of Justice and non-governmental organizations to address the needs of survivors of trafficking.

Maria Jose is a staff member of ASISTA, co-chair organization of the National Network to End Violence Against Immigrant Women and a founding member of the Freedom Network to Empower Trafficked and Enslaved Persons (USA). She received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida and a J.D. from Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Serge Fleurimond

Serge Fleurimond is a BIA accredited paralegal and has been with FIAC for more than 10 years. He is Haitian and speaks Creole, French and Spanish. He conducts Know Your Rights presentations and credible fear interviews with clients held in detention. He also provides written and oral translations for clients.

Tania Galloni, Esq.

Tania Galloni joined FIAC in October 2007 as the Adrienne Arsht Human Rights Fellow. She specializes in federal litigation. Tania graduated summa cum laude from Bryn Mawr College and earned her law degree from Yale Law School, where she was awarded the C. LaRue Munson Prize for excellence in the clinical program, and was twice selected to participate in the law school-sponsored Linkages student exchange program with Latin American law schools (Chile, Brazil).

Tania was an attorney with the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project of Florida Legal Services. She was also a law clerk to Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, and to Judge Rosemary Barkett in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. She speaks Spanish, French, Italian and some Portuguese.

Natalia Gimenez

Sharon Ginter

Mary Gundrum, Esq.

Mary Gundrum is Managing Attorney and has been with FIAC since September 2002. She is an experienced litigator and, at Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee, she litigated class action lawsuits. She was Associate Director there for six years and, as Litigation Director, supervised 24 attorneys.

Mary was with Southern Legal Counsel in Gainesville for five years. At the Center for Constitutional Rights, a national civil rights group, she litigated a docket of human and civil rights cases from all over the country for three years. She is fluent in Spanish and a member of the Florida, New York, and Wisconsin bars.

Ursula Herrera

Ursula Herrera has been at FIAC since July 2001. She coordinates the Cuban American Bar Association Pro-Bono Project which assists low income people seeking divorces and other types of civil matters such as name changes, wills, bankruptcies, etc. She also assists homeless people secure SSI, food stamps, medicaid and free medical assistance at Jackson Memorial Hospital and Camillus Health Concern.

Ursula has a master's degree in Translation from Northern Illinois University and her past experience includes working as a Teacher's Assistant for the Spanish Department and Coordinator for the Foreign Language Residence Program at NIU. Ursula has served as a volunteer interpreter for the police department and also for the Community Coordinated Child Care in Illinois, informing low income immigrants about family planning, nutrition, and related issues.

Jennifer Hill, Esq.

Jennifer Hill joined FIAC as a Skadden Fellow in 2007. Her Workplace Justice Project won a significant lawsuit in US District Court for the Southern District of Florida in the case of domestic workers whose wages were withheld.

Jennifer is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College, holds a Masters in Women's Studies from George Washington University, and a juris doctor from the University of Michigan Law School. She has a strong background in labor unions having worked in Tennesse, Washington, DC, Iowa, Miami and Orlando.

Antoine Isma, Esq.

Allison D. Kent

Allison D. Kent is an attorney at Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center who provides representation to detained and non-detained immigrants and conducts a weekly legal orientation program to detainees at Krome. A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University and the University of Michigan Law School, Allison joined FIAC in 2009.

Prior to FIAC, Allison clerked for the Honorable Reginald Lindsay in the U.S. District Court in the District of Massachusetts and worked in Uganda with refugees on a Bates Fellowship from the University of Michigan Law School. She has been a legal intern with Timap for Justice in Sierra Leone, Citizenship and Immigration Canada in Ottawa, and the Office of the Public Defender of Washtenaw County in Michigan. Prior to law school, Allison researched Afro-Bolivian identity and culture on a Fulbright Fellowship in Bolivia and spent nearly three years working on Latin American human rights issues as a Program Associate with the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.

She is a member of the Massachusetts Bar and is fluent in Spanish.

Danelia Larios

Deborah Lee, Esq.

Deborah Lee began working as Staff Attorney with FIAC in October 2004. As Co-Project Director of the Children's Legal Project, she primarily represents detained immigrant children in their Immigration Court proceedings. She also represents non-detained immigrant children, as well as adults, before the Immigration Court and the Department of Homeland Security. Prior to FIAC, Debbie was a staff attorney with the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) and its Detention Project in Los Angeles, California. As a CLINIC/Jesuit Refugee Service Fellow with CLINIC, she represented detained immigrant children, as well as detained adult clients, in the Southern California area.

She earned her law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center and is a member of the New Jersey bar. Prior to law school, Debbie earned her Bachelor's Degree from Swarthmore College and a Master's Degree in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School.

Romy Lerner, Esq.

Romy Lerner joined FIAC in May 2005, after two and a half years working as an associate for the law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP in New York. Romy received her bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from Columbia University, where she was also selected to be a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She attended the University of Cambridge, England as part of her undergraduate degree. Romy received her law degree from Columbia University School of Law in 2002.

While in law school, she interned with the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, spent a summer working for the Legal Aid Society, Federal Defender Division in New York City, and ran Columbia’s Domestic Violence Project. In February 2006, she resigned from FIAC to accept a Fulbright Fellowship to work on immigration issues in Argentina. She returned to FIAC in January 2007. Romy is fluent in Spanish and a member of the New York bar.

Mercedes Lorduy, Esq.

Lisette Losada, Esq.

Lisette Losada is a supervising attorney who joined FIAC in August 1997. She has litigated numerous cases on behalf of immigrants both in immigration court and before the Board of Immigration Appeals. She has been a speaker at numerous conferences regarding immigration laws and procedures. She also provides training and technical assistance to other attorneys and educational outreach to the community.

Prior to joining FIAC, Lisette practiced immigration law in New York. She received her Juris Doctorate from Brooklyn Law School where she was the recipient of the Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Fellowship. She also was granted a judicial internship with New York State Supreme Court Justice Richard F. Braun. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from New York University. She is a member of the New York, New Jersey and Florida state bars.

Sandra Maldonado

Sandra Maldonado is with FIAC for the second time, returning in January 2005. She originally worked with FIAC as a paralegal in the public benefits unit and coordinator of the Florida Immigrant Coalition from July 2000 to July 2001.

She has an associate’s degree in paralegal studies, a certificate in interpretation and translation, and a certificate in Legal Secretaries Studies. She was an intake paralegal at a private law firm and at Legal Services of Greater Miami for four years. She also worked for the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services for a year. Sandra is accredited by the BIA and represents clients before the USCIS. She is fluent in Spanish and translates documents and interprets for clients.

Monique Noceda

Berdalis Reyes

Haydee Rodriquez

Pierre A. Saintil

Pierre Saintil is a paralegal and BIA-accredited representative since February 2004. He has been with FIAC since October 1999. He is fluent in French and Creole.

Pierre conducts in-depth intake interviews of clients, assists them in obtaining needed documentation, completes immigration applications, and provides written and oral translations in court and at local detention facilities. Pierre maintains client files and enters data in the client data base program for his clients. He also files applications with DHS for other staff members.

Sabrina Salomon, Esq.

Sabrina Salomon is an Equal Justice Works Fellow at FIAC. She has duplicated the LUCHA: A Women's Legal Project in the Haitian community by creating the NOU KAB project. Her duties include representing low-income Haitian victims of domestic violence, violent crimes or trafficking before the various governmental agencies in charge of implementing and enforcing immigration laws within the United States.

Sabrina hosts a monthly radio show in Creole to educate the Haitian community about domestic violence, and relief available under the law; and encouraging clients to participate in a class to empower themselves and others. In 2003, she interned at the Children and Youth Law Clinic at the University of Miami School of Law, where she represented Haitian minors in Dependency Court. Sabrina received a B.S. degree in Accounting from Barry University and a J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law.

Mirtha Servat

Vivianna Stubbe, Esq.

Vivianna Stubbe is a Staff Attorney. She is a graduate of Boston College and Fordham University School of Law and has been with FIAC since 2004. She has both domestic violence and trafficking cases and has been a trainer on both topics for the Florida Freedom Partnership, the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the Florida Department of Children and Families Child Protective Services among others.

Vivianna interned at Lincoln Square Legal Services, New York Legal Assistance Group, and Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez in Mexico City. She is fluent in Spanish and a member of the Florida Bar.

Ellen Sunshine

Ellen Sunshine is the Grants Manager at FIAC. She began in July 2006 and both manages the organization’s applications and compliance with grants and contracts, and coordinates funded activities with project staff. Ellen came to FIAC after teaching at a rural high school in eastern Guatemala, where she also assisted other community projects. Previously, she worked at a Chicago non-profit childcare resource/referral agency and as a sign artist. Ellen graduated from The University of Chicago and studied abroad in both Spain and Mexico.

Ana Vallejo, Esq.

Ana Vallejo is a Lucha Supervising Attorney. Ana came to FIAC in 2003 after four years with St. Thomas University Human Rights Institute. She holds both a JD and a Master of Laws in Intercultural Human Rights from St. Thomas University School of Law and is currently pursuing her doctorate, focusing on victim’s rights in international law.

Ana has a breadth of immigration experience and has a full trafficking caseload pursuing various forms of relief for immigrants who are victims of trafficking. She recently worked on the development of an operation manual to address trafficking in persons for the government of Panama and presented at the Global Alliance to End Trafficking in Women’s conference in Bangkok, Thailand. She is fluent in Spanish and a member of the Florida Bar.

Yoly Vasquez

Tal Winer, Esq.

Tal Winer joined FIAC in 2006 and represents non-detained immigrants in immigration court and before the Department of Homeland Security.

He graduated from Macalester College and Fordham University School of Law where he was a Stein Public Interest Scholar. While in law school, Tal interned with the Legal Aid Society’s Immigration Unit in NY and with the New York State Defenders Association’s Immigrant Defense Project. He also interned with the Center for Justice & International Law in Asuncion, Paraguay. Prior to law school Tal worked as a paralegal with the Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Division in Bronx Family Court. Tal is a member of the Florida Bar and speaks Spanish and Hebrew.

Gail Wright

Gail Wright, Director of Finance & Administration, has more than 30 years of experience working with not-for-profits and has been with the agency since January 1996. She supervises the Office, Data, Grants and Finance Managers and three support staff and is a member of FIAC’s Management Team.

Gail is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University and has certificates in Human Resource Administration and Training from Florida International University. She has been the executive director of a foundation and chief development officer of several Miami area hospitals and not-for-profit organizations.

Aidil Oscariz

Aidil Oscariz has been with FIAC since December 2008. She is an attorney with the Children’s Legal Project and represents unaccompanied immigrant children before the Immigration Court and the Department of Homeland Security. She also assists with FIAC’s pro bono development efforts.

Aidil earned her law degree from Fordham University. Prior to law school, she earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology/Anthropology and Liberal Studies (1999) and Master’s Degree in Comparative Sociology (2002) from Florida International University (FIU).

Leslie Martinez

Leslie Martinez is a paralegal for the Children’s Legal Project. She is a 2007 graduate of Southeastern University where she earned her Bachelor’s in Journalism and Public Relations.

Leslie began her time at FIAC in September 2007 as a Humility of Mary – AmeriCorps volunteer and assisted the Children’s Legal Project during her volunteer year. After completing her year of service, Leslie joined FIAC in 2008 as a paralegal primarily assisting with detained immigrant children. She provides weekly Know Your Rights presentations at the Office of Refugee Resettlement contracted facilities where detained immigrant children are placed.

Kate Sanderson

Kate Sanderson has been with FIAC since December 2008. She is a 2004 graduate of the University of Virginia where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Spanish and Foreign Affairs. She recently interned with the Colombian American Service Association and was previously a Business Development Manager with Steptoe & Johnson LLP in Washington, D.C.

Kate is currently working on her Master’s degree in International Affairs from American University’s School of International Service.

Julie Irvin

Julie Irvin has been with FIAC since August 2008. She is a 2007 graduate of the University of North Carolina where she was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society and on the Dean’s List. She worked for a year as an Americorps Volunteer with Miami Bethany Community Services as a Development Facilitator.

3000 Biscayne Blvd, Suite 400, Miami, Florida 33137 tel: 305-573-1106 fax: 305-576-6273