2013 Conference - January 19, 2013
LALSA is proud to announce its 18th Annual Conference, entitled “¿Y ahora qué? The Latino Civil Rights Agenda After the 2012 Election.” Click for program and registration information.
This year’s LALSA conference will focus on the impact of the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election upon the civil rights agenda for the Latino community. We are very excited to announce that our Keynote Speaker is Wifredo Ferrer, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and a Penn Law Alumnus.
In addition to the Keynote, the conference will address Latino civil rights concerns affected by the 2012 Election in two panel discussions. Our first panel, Presidential Politics and the Latino Civil Rights Cases will feature panelists discussing recent and pending cases involving issues that will impact Latinos. The second panel, Diversity Within Diversity: Differences Among Latinos, will examine the challenges and opportunities created by the diversity of the growing Latino population in the United States.
This year’s LALSA conference will focus on the impact of the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election upon the civil rights agenda for the Latino community. We are very excited to announce that our Keynote Speaker is Wifredo Ferrer, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and a Penn Law Alumnus.
In addition to the Keynote, the conference will address Latino civil rights concerns affected by the 2012 Election in two panel discussions. Our first panel, Presidential Politics and the Latino Civil Rights Cases will feature panelists discussing recent and pending cases involving issues that will impact Latinos. The second panel, Diversity Within Diversity: Differences Among Latinos, will examine the challenges and opportunities created by the diversity of the growing Latino population in the United States.
Keynote - Wifredo Ferrer
Wifredo "Willy" Ferrer is the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. He was nominated on February 24, 2010 by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate on April 22, 2010. Mr. Ferrer earned a B.A. in Economics from the University of Miami in 1987, and a J.D. from Penn Law in 1990.
After graduating law school in 1990, Mr. Ferrer clerked for then-District Judge Stanley Marcus. Upon completing his clerkship in Fall 1991, he joined the Miami law firm of Steel, Hector & Davis where he remained for three years. Mr. Ferrer then returned to public service, first as a White House Fellow and Special Assistant to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and later as Deputy Chief of Staff and Counsel to then Attorney General Janet Reno.
After five years at the Department of Justice, Mr. Ferrer returned to Miami in 2000 to become an Assistant U.S. Attorney. As an Assistant U.S. Attorney, he handled and tried numerous high profile matters, including international money laundering, health care fraud, narcotics, international human rights abuses, immigration, and firearms offenses. In 2006, Mr. Ferrer joined the Miami-Dade County Attorney's office, where he was an Assistant County Attorney and chief of the Federal Litigation Section.
After graduating law school in 1990, Mr. Ferrer clerked for then-District Judge Stanley Marcus. Upon completing his clerkship in Fall 1991, he joined the Miami law firm of Steel, Hector & Davis where he remained for three years. Mr. Ferrer then returned to public service, first as a White House Fellow and Special Assistant to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and later as Deputy Chief of Staff and Counsel to then Attorney General Janet Reno.
After five years at the Department of Justice, Mr. Ferrer returned to Miami in 2000 to become an Assistant U.S. Attorney. As an Assistant U.S. Attorney, he handled and tried numerous high profile matters, including international money laundering, health care fraud, narcotics, international human rights abuses, immigration, and firearms offenses. In 2006, Mr. Ferrer joined the Miami-Dade County Attorney's office, where he was an Assistant County Attorney and chief of the Federal Litigation Section.
Confirmed Panelists
Panel 1 Presidential Politics and the Latino Civil Rights Cases
Teresa Rodriguez is an attorney with Haggerty, Goldberg, Schleifer and Kupersmith P.C. and practices in the area of personal injury actions. She has represented hundreds of immigrant, migrant, and seasonal farmworkers in labor and employment cases including wage and hour, unpaid minimum wage, unpaid overtime, concerted protected activity, health and safety, and discrimination. Ms. Rodriguez has also been a staff attorney with the legal services agency Friends of Farmworkers, Inc., where she represented close to 500 farmworkers throughout the state of Pennsylvania in labor and employment related cases, regardless of their immigration status. She is a former President of the Hispanic Bar Association of Pennsylvania, has been a member of its executive board, and has also served on the executive board of the Hispanic Bar Association of Pennsylvania’s Legal Education fund since 2004.
Jenny Rivera is a Professor of Law at the City University of New York School of Law in New York and the Founder and Director of the Law School's Center on Latino and Latina Rights and Equality (CLORE). CLORE promotes law reform scholarship, public education, and litigation in support of expanded civil rights, and focuses on issues impacting the Latino community in the United States. Professor Rivera is a former Administrative Law Judge of the New York State Division of Human Rights, a former member of the New York City Commission on Human Rights, and served as the Special Deputy Attorney General for Civil Rights for New York State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo. As Special Deputy Attorney General she assisted in the development and implementation of the Attorney General's civil rights agenda, supervised the Civil Rights Bureau and organized and held statewide outreach sessions on civil rights issues. Professor Rivera clerked in 1993 for then District Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Professor Rivera graduated from Princeton University and received her J.D. from New York University School of Law.
Panel 2 Diversity Within Diversity: Differences Among Latinos
Will Gonzalez is the Executive Director of Ceiba, a coalition of Latino community-based organizations in Philadelphia founded in 1989. Mr. Gonzalez has more than 25 years of experience working on issues of concern to the Latino community. The Philadelphia Foundation's Williams Award for Organizational Excellence and the Community Change Award from the Bread & Roses Community Fund recognized his leadership of non-profit organizations in the 1990s. In 2012, he received a Minority Business Leaders Award from the Philadelphia Business Journal. He has served as Ceiba’s director for the last 12 years. Mr. Gonzalez is the vice president of the Hispanic Bar Association of Pennsylvania and a board member of the Philadelphia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Fernando Chang-Muy is the Thomas O'Boyle Lecturer in Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he teaches Refugee Law and Policy. In addition, at the Graduate School of Social Policy and Practice, he lectures on Immigration and Social Work, and on Organizational Effectiveness, in the Executive Education Program, with a focus on strategic planning, board governance, staff communications, and resource development. Drawing upon his experience in law, refugee camp administration, and philanthropy, he builds capacity and increases effectiveness through consulting support, coaching, and training to government agencies, local and national philanthropic institutions, social service agencies, and cultural organizations. Mr. Chang-Muy is a graduate of Loyola, B.A, Georgetown M.A., Antioch, J.D. and Harvard Law School’s Negotiation Program.
Erika Almiron is the executive director of JUNTOS, a Latino immigrant community led organization in Philadelphia fighting for our human rights as workers, parents, youth, and immigrants. Previously, Ms. Almiron was the Assistant to the Mexico US Border Program and Education Coordinator of the American Friends Service Committee and also worked on education organizing with the Philadelphia Student Union. She has spoken at several universities on Latino issues from HIV/AIDS to teen pregnancy and has done political education workshops at Riverside Correctional Facility with youth incarcerated as adults. She has also used photography to document poverty and prison conditions on the Paraguayan/Brazilian border, living conditions for maquiladora workers on the Mexico/US border, the effects of mountain-top removal in West Virginia, and homelessness and gentrification in Harlem.
Teresa Rodriguez is an attorney with Haggerty, Goldberg, Schleifer and Kupersmith P.C. and practices in the area of personal injury actions. She has represented hundreds of immigrant, migrant, and seasonal farmworkers in labor and employment cases including wage and hour, unpaid minimum wage, unpaid overtime, concerted protected activity, health and safety, and discrimination. Ms. Rodriguez has also been a staff attorney with the legal services agency Friends of Farmworkers, Inc., where she represented close to 500 farmworkers throughout the state of Pennsylvania in labor and employment related cases, regardless of their immigration status. She is a former President of the Hispanic Bar Association of Pennsylvania, has been a member of its executive board, and has also served on the executive board of the Hispanic Bar Association of Pennsylvania’s Legal Education fund since 2004.
Jenny Rivera is a Professor of Law at the City University of New York School of Law in New York and the Founder and Director of the Law School's Center on Latino and Latina Rights and Equality (CLORE). CLORE promotes law reform scholarship, public education, and litigation in support of expanded civil rights, and focuses on issues impacting the Latino community in the United States. Professor Rivera is a former Administrative Law Judge of the New York State Division of Human Rights, a former member of the New York City Commission on Human Rights, and served as the Special Deputy Attorney General for Civil Rights for New York State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo. As Special Deputy Attorney General she assisted in the development and implementation of the Attorney General's civil rights agenda, supervised the Civil Rights Bureau and organized and held statewide outreach sessions on civil rights issues. Professor Rivera clerked in 1993 for then District Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Professor Rivera graduated from Princeton University and received her J.D. from New York University School of Law.
Panel 2 Diversity Within Diversity: Differences Among Latinos
Will Gonzalez is the Executive Director of Ceiba, a coalition of Latino community-based organizations in Philadelphia founded in 1989. Mr. Gonzalez has more than 25 years of experience working on issues of concern to the Latino community. The Philadelphia Foundation's Williams Award for Organizational Excellence and the Community Change Award from the Bread & Roses Community Fund recognized his leadership of non-profit organizations in the 1990s. In 2012, he received a Minority Business Leaders Award from the Philadelphia Business Journal. He has served as Ceiba’s director for the last 12 years. Mr. Gonzalez is the vice president of the Hispanic Bar Association of Pennsylvania and a board member of the Philadelphia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Fernando Chang-Muy is the Thomas O'Boyle Lecturer in Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he teaches Refugee Law and Policy. In addition, at the Graduate School of Social Policy and Practice, he lectures on Immigration and Social Work, and on Organizational Effectiveness, in the Executive Education Program, with a focus on strategic planning, board governance, staff communications, and resource development. Drawing upon his experience in law, refugee camp administration, and philanthropy, he builds capacity and increases effectiveness through consulting support, coaching, and training to government agencies, local and national philanthropic institutions, social service agencies, and cultural organizations. Mr. Chang-Muy is a graduate of Loyola, B.A, Georgetown M.A., Antioch, J.D. and Harvard Law School’s Negotiation Program.
Erika Almiron is the executive director of JUNTOS, a Latino immigrant community led organization in Philadelphia fighting for our human rights as workers, parents, youth, and immigrants. Previously, Ms. Almiron was the Assistant to the Mexico US Border Program and Education Coordinator of the American Friends Service Committee and also worked on education organizing with the Philadelphia Student Union. She has spoken at several universities on Latino issues from HIV/AIDS to teen pregnancy and has done political education workshops at Riverside Correctional Facility with youth incarcerated as adults. She has also used photography to document poverty and prison conditions on the Paraguayan/Brazilian border, living conditions for maquiladora workers on the Mexico/US border, the effects of mountain-top removal in West Virginia, and homelessness and gentrification in Harlem.
