Staff
Katia Cardoza
Immigrant Justice Corps Community Fellow
Immigration Law is an issue that is dear to my heart; although I was born in El Paso, Texas, I was raised in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. At the age of 15, I moved back to Texas to search for better opportunities. During this time, I faced the difficulties of learning a new language, living in a foreign country, and being unable to speak for myself. Although the adjustment was difficult, there were so many individuals that supported me, and encouraged me to keep fighting for my dream. Because of this, it is my responsibility to give back to my community and empower those who have been forced to stay behind the shadows. I work with UnLocal because I believe that everyone has the right to equal opportunity.
Elizabeth Fulton, Esq.
Staff Attorney and Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow
Lizzie Fulton is an Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow with UnLocal, Inc. While in law school, Lizzie engaged in workers’ rights, anti-discrimination law, and international human rights law, all of which inspired her to pursue a career advocating for immigrants. She clerked at the East Bay Community Law Center’s Immigration Law Clinic, researched access to medical care in immigrant detention centers with Human Rights Watch, and interned with Legal Aid at Work on a federal national origin-based employment discrimination case. Lizzie previously taught at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou and supported civil society groups while working at the Open Society Foundations. She holds a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from Berkeley Law School. She speaks Spanish and Mandarin.
Dennise Hernandez
Education and Outreach Coordinator
Dennise Hernandez is passionate about social change and advocacy for immigrant communities. She holds a B. A. in Government from Dartmouth College where she directed the Coalition for Immigration Reform and Equality at Dartmouth, one of very few immigrant rights organizations in the Upper Valley. Within this role, she advocated directly for undocumented students and conducted outreach to local migrant farmworker communities. She believes in making education accessible to all, irrespective of immigration status, and she brings past experience in non profit development, grassroots organizing, and policy research to her role as UnLocal’s Education and Outreach Coordinator.
Michele Lampach, Esq.
Executive Director
Michele Lampach is the Founder and Executive Director of UnLocal, Inc., which was incubated by the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law’s Incubator Program, an incubating space for non-profits and individual law practices that address the legal needs of communities traditionally underserved by legal services. At UnLocal, Inc., her legal representation focuses on serving immigrant youth. Michele is interested in utilizing technology, art and other media to distribute accurate, reliable information to immigrant communities in non-traditional settings and locations.
Tania Mattos
Education and Outreach Director
Tania Mattos is an immigrant and worker rights organizer who was born in La Paz, Bolivia and was raised in Jackson Heights, Queens, NY. For over 7 years, she has worked with and for the rights of undocumented immigrants, restaurant workers, vendors, and most recently on displacement policies directly affecting the immigrant community. Prior to this, she worked on environmental rights and indigenous peoples rights within the United Nations. Tania holds a B.S. in Marketing, a M.A. in Political Science, and is an Office of Legal Access Programs (OLAP) Accredited Representative.
Eva Mayhabal Davis
Intake Associate
Eva Mayhabal Davis was born in Mexico, raised in the United States, and studied art history at the University of Washington. She is UnLocal’s Intake Associate. Her personal immigrant narrative drives her personal work in immigration and advocacy as a cultural liaison in support for equity and social justice values in arts and culture. Her writing has been featured in Hemispheric Institute’s Cuadernos, Nueva Luz: Photographic Journal, CultureWork Magazine and the Guggenheim Museum Blog. In 2018, she participated in the Art & Law Program Fellowship, and in 2019 she was a Leadership Advocacy Fellow for the National Association for Latinos in Art and Culture. She is a founding member of El Salón, a meetup for cultural producers based in NYC.
Jake Newton
Development and Operations Associate
As UnLocal’s Development and Operations Associate, Jake oversees the organization’s fundraising and capacity-building efforts. He applies for grants, fosters relationships with prospective donors and develops strategies to improve the sustainability of UnLocal’s various immigrant-serving programs. Jake was born and raised in Redmond, Washington, and had originally relocated for a year of AmeriCorps VISTA service in 2016 at UnLocal to aid in New York City’s fight against immigrant poverty and the challenges that accompany undocumented legal status. After completing a successful year, he now works with UnLocal full-time. Jake graduated from Western Washington University with a B.A. in Political Science in the spring of 2016.
Juliana Perez Calle, Esq.
Staff Attorney
Juliana Pérez Calle is 2017 graduate of American University Washington College of Law. In law school she focused on the intersection of immigrant civil rights, international human rights, and corporate accountability. She interned at several branches of government including the NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and the Senate Judiciary Committee where she worked on various immigrant rights policy. Prior to law school Juliana worked as a paralegal doing Sandy disaster relief work, focusing on the needs of impacted immigrants. Juliana has a B.A from Stony Brook University where she was an undocumented student activist for undocumented student rights and immigration reform.
Rebecca Press, Esq.
Legal Director
Rebecca Press joined UnLocal’s team as Legal Director in May of 2019. In this role, she will work with UnLocal’s legal team to provide representation to New York’s immigrant communities, including those at imminent risk of deportation, those fleeing persecution, the long-time undocumented, and many others. Rebecca looks forward to helping UnLocal provide fierce and cutting-edge representation to immigrant New York and to work tirelessly to ensure that our communities have access to the legal representation they deserve and need.
Rebecca joins UnLocal with 10 years of experience representing immigrants of all ages in removal proceedings, with a particular focus in Asylum and Protection under the Convention Against Torture. She practices regularly before the Immigration Court, Board of Immigration Appeals, and Federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In addition, Rebecca clerked at the New York Immigration Court through the Attorney General’s Department of Justice Honors Program. She is a 2002 graduate of Oberlin College and a 2009 graduate of the New York University School of Law. Rebecca has two joyful and rambunctious little boys.
Michael Younker, Esq.
Senior Staff Attorney
Michael C. Younker utilizes his varied background in his role as Senior Staff Attorney to assist on a diversity of immigration advocacy. Throughout his career, Michael has worked in international affairs through the government of Japan with the JET Programme, as a human rights organizer and researcher in Mongolia, and as an advocate for children in general. He served in a judicial clerkship with the Superior Court of New Jersey and worked at a boutique family law firm getting exposure to a myriad of issues, especially custody and child welfare matters. Most recently, Michael worked at Catholic Charities of Newark handling many immigration cases for child migrants and asylum seekers from around the world. He is a graduate of the University of Kansas and Rutgers Law School and speaks Spanish and some Japanese.
Board of Directors
Raoul Anchondo
Raoul Anchondo is an artist living in New York City. In October, 2017 he helped to organize an art auction to benefit UnLocal. Since receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2011 from The Cooper Union, Raoul has worked as an arts administrator, artist assistant and freelance arts educator. He is currently an art installer for the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology and a seasonal news assistant for The New York Times.
Christhian Diaz
Board Chair
Christhian Diaz grew up in Latin America and then in Florida where as an undocumented immigrant he and his mother cleaned offices, did housekeeping, and worked in chain restaurants. He then attended art school in New York City where he began making performance art, while trying to create a space to unpack the sagging sack of emotions that his own family, immigration, and labor histories have left him. He currently works as Immigration Intake Paralegal with Queens Legal Services Immigrant Advocacy Project. He has performed at the Whitney Biennial, MoMA PS1 Printshop, the Museum of Arts and Design, Movement Research at Judson Church, and Abrons Arts Center, among others. Christhian holds an MFA from Rutgers University and a BFA from The Cooper Union. He was a 2013 MacDowell fellow, co-organizer of TradeSchool.coop, and currently organizes a series of open performance nights out of his living room called Fifteen Minutes of Doing Something Now.
Raymi Echavarria
Raymi Echavarria is the Human Rights Program Associate at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College and a consultant for the College Bridge for All Program, a CUNY and Department of Education Initiative to help New York City’s high school students with the college matriculation process. In both roles, she has been committed to social justice education and increasing access to higher education for underrepresented communities. Additionally, she has worked on advocacy projects and the development of support systems and professional trainings to help support undocumented youth. Supporting immigrants is important to her in part because of her personal experiences since her arrival in the United States from the Dominican Republic. Raymi holds a Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy and Sociology from Hunter College.
Emily Farrell
Board Secretary
As an educator and Australian migrant to the US, Emily Farrell was drawn to UnLocal’s mission to provide both legal services and educational outreach to communities in need. As a researcher, Emily worked in the field of sociolinguistics, examining intersections of language and migration. She received her PhD in Linguistics from Macquarie University in 2009 and has taught at the University of Sydney and the Free University, Berlin. She currently works for the academic publisher, De Gruyter.
Alexandra Goncalves-Pena, Esq.
Alexandra Goncalves-Pena is a supervising attorney with the Immigrant Rights Program of the American Friends Service Committee in Newark, New Jersey. Specializing in removal defense and asylum law, Alexandra has practiced immigration law since 2006 following her graduation from Vermont Law School. During her career Alexandra has represented hundreds of individuals before the Executive Office for Immigration Review and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service and has worked on numerous appeals before the Board of Immigration Appeals and Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
Max Hadler
Board Vice Chair
Max Hadler is the Health Advocacy Specialist at the New York Immigration Coalition. He works on a range of issues and campaigns at the city and state levels to improve health access, coverage, and delivery for immigrant communities. Prior to joining the NYIC he worked in many capacities related to access to care for immigrants, including project director and research associate at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, researcher at the UCLA North American Integration and Development Center, and Spanish-English medical interpreter at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Max received an MPH from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and an MA in Latin American Studies from the UCLA International Institute. He also holds a BA in Sociology and Latin American Studies from Wesleyan University.
Michele Lampach, Esq.
Michele Lampach is the Founder and Executive Director of UnLocal, Inc., which was incubated by the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law’s Incubator Program, an incubating space for non-profits and individual law practices that address the legal needs of communities traditionally underserved by legal services. At UnLocal, Inc., her legal representation focuses on serving immigrant youth. Michele is interested in utilizing technology, art and other media to distribute accurate, reliable information to immigrant communities in non-traditional settings and locations. Michele is an Adjunct Professor at the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law.
Laura Stein
Board Treasurer
Laura Stein is one of the co-founders of UnLocal. She currently serves as the Executive Director of Dancing Grounds in New Orleans, LA. Prior to moving to New Orleans, Laura lived in New York City, working in education policy and management. She was Director of Education & Production at Dancewave (2010-2011), NYC Executive Director of RISE (2007-2009), Education Pioneers Fellow (2007), Policy Associate at New Visions for Public Schools (2005-2007) and Program Assistant at the Social Science Research Council (2003-2005). In 2010, she lived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where she helped create a girls’ Hip Hop program for Tiny Toones. She received her Masters in Public Administration (M.P.A.) from NYU‘s Wagner School of Public Service in 2008. She received her B.A. in the College of Social Studies from Wesleyan University in 2003.