Asylum & Immigration Clinic 25 th Anniversary Celebration Speaker Bios Sioban Albiol Sioban Albiol serves as the Asylum & Immigration Law Clinic instructor and coordinator and as the Legal Resources Project director. Since joining the clinic in 2001, Professor Albiol has overseen the expansion of the Legal Resources Project from seven to 25 partner agencies. She previously served as associate director of the former Midwest Immigrant and Human Rights Center of Chicago's Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights (now known as the National Immigrant Justice Center, an immigrant legal services agency). Her responsibilities included supervising and training agency attorneys and accredited representatives, supervising a detention project and a naturalization hotline. Professor Albiol has represented low-income immigrants for more than 15 years and has served as managing attorney for one of the largest low-income immigration legal services providers in the Midwest. She has developed and conducted trainings for attorneys, accredited representatives and other legal service providers in various areas of immigration law. She is a former executive board member of the Chicago chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and also chaired the Immigration and Nationality Committee of the Chicago Bar Association. Professor Albiol teaches the yearlong Asylum & Immigration Law Clinic. Alicia Alvarez Alicia Alvarez is a Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Experiential Education at UIC Law. She teaches in the Community Enterprise & Solidarity Economy Clinic. Prior to joining UIC Law in 2019, she was a Clinical Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School where she directed the Community Economic Development Clinic. She also taught in the Civil Criminal Clinic. She began her teaching career in the Clinic at DePaul. She later founded the Community Development Clinic and co-founded the Asylum Clinic. While at DePaul, she was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of El Salvador. She is a member of the ABA Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. She has previously served on the Executive Committee of the Association of American Law School, the Executive Committee of the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education, and the Board of Directors of the Society of American Law Teachers. She is the co-author of the book Introduction to Transactional Lawyering Practice (with Paul R. Tremblay) Evelyn Anoya (JD ‘01) Evelyn Anoya graduated from DePaul College of Law in 2001 with a Juris Doctor and Certificate in International Law. She was an active member of the Asylum and Immigration Law Clinic and the International Human Right Law Institute. Since graduating from law school, Ms. Anoya spent 20 years as an international civil servant employed with international tribunals in The Hague, Netherlands. She is specialized in international justice with a focus on judicial administration, capacity strengthening and governance of international organizations. She is currently an international consultant with Axiom International Limited supporting a counter-terrorism justice project in Iraq. From 2017 to 2021, she led the Division of Judicial Services at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (“STL”). Ms. Anoya initially joined the STL in 2009 to serve as the Registry’s Senior Legal Adviser. Ms. Anoya worked at the United Nation’s International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (“ICTY”) since September 2001, holding various positions within the Registry. She was the Registry Court Officer at the ICTY on the Prosecutor v. Slobodan Milošević case and during the defense phase of the case was assigned as the Registry Pro se Legal Liaison Officer, acting as a conduit between the Court and the self-represented Accused. Ms. Anoya is also a graduate of the University of San Francisco, where she holds a bachelor’s degree in politics and the University of Chicago, where she earned a master’s degree in Middle East studies. Victor Cerda (JD ‘95) Victor X. Cerda began his professional legal career at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as a member of the DOJ Honors Program’s Class of 1995. On September 11, 2001, Mr. Cerda was appointed Counsel and Acting Chief of Staff for the legacy- Immigration and Naturalization Service. In March 2003, Mr. Cerda became the Counsel to the Assistant Secretary and Acting Chief of Staff for the newly created Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Mr. Cerda also served as ICE’s Principal Legal Advisor and Acting Director for Deportation and Removal Operations. Following ten years of government service, Mr. Cerda joined the private sector including as a partner at Jackson Lewis LLP where he represented Fortune 500 companies and high-profile individuals facing immigration removal and criminal investigations. In 2012, Mr. Cerda joined a Miami-based private investment group while maintaining his legal practice for a select number of clients. As part of this investment group, Mr. Cerda led the acquisition and restructuring of educational Spanish language channels and the successful launch of a national television network on Comcast NBCUniversal in January of 2017. Following the network’s launch, Mr. Cerda resumed his legal practice focusing on federal and international criminal cases along with immigration litigation. Mr. Cerda has extensive experience representing individuals in criminal, immigration, extradition, and INTERPOL proceedings. Mr. Cerda is a graduate of Brown University and obtained his law degree at DePaul University in Chicago where he was a Mayor Daley Leadership Scholar. He is fluent in Spanish and resides with his wife and three children in New York. Craig Mousin Craig Mousin has been the University Ombudsperson at DePaul since 2001. He received a BS from Johns Hopkins University, a JD from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and an M Div from Chicago Theological Seminary. He joined the College of Law faculty in 1990, and served as the Executive Director of the Center for Church/State Studies until 2001, Acting Director until 2003, and co-director from 2004-- 2007. Mousin co-founded and continues to participate in the Center’s Interfaith Family Mediation Program. He has taught in DePaul’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies, the Religious Studies Department, the Grace School of Applied Diplomacy, and the Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies program. He has also taught as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Illinois College of Law and Chicago Theological Seminary. Prior to DePaul, he began practicing labor law at Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson in 1978. In 1984, Mousin founded and directed the Midwest Immigrant Rights Center, a provider of legal assistance to refugees which has since become the National Immigrant Justice Center. He also directed legal services for Travelers & Immigrants Aid between 1986 and 1990. The United Church of Christ ordained him in 1989. At that time, Wellington Avenue U.C.C. called him as an Associate Pastor. He was a founding co-pastor of the DePaul Ecumenica l Gathering (1996 -2001). Mousin serves as a Life Trustee of the Chicago Theological Seminary. In addition, he is a member of the Leadership Council of the National Immigrant Justice Center, a member of the Leadership Council of the Marjorie Kovler Center for Survivors of Torture, a former President and member of the Board of the Eco-Justice Collaborative, and a former President and Board member of the Immigration Project of downstate Illinois. Mousin is a current member of the ABA Dispute Resolution Section Ombuds Committee. Lhesly Navarrete Fernandez (JD ’19) Lhesly M. Fernández is a staff attorney with NIJC's Legal Orientation Program (LOP) and Detention Project. Prior to NIJC, Lhesly received her J.D. from DePaul College of Law, where she participated in the Asylum and Immigration Clinic and interned with NIJC’s Detention Project. Lhesly graduated from San Francisco State University with a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Latin America Foreign Policy. During college, she studied abroad in Italy. Guadalupe Perez (JD ’16) Guadalupe (Lupe) Perez is a staff attorney with the Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender Immigration Unit Pilot. She represents noncitizens in front of the Chicago Immigration Court and gives Padilla consultations to Cook County public defenders. Prior to joining the Immigration Unit Pilot, she worked at the National Immigrant Justice Center in the Detention Project as a Supervising Attorney of the Legal Orientation Program (LOP). In her role as an LOP Attorney, she provided general orientations and individual orientations to pro se individuals at the McHenry County Jail and the Kenosha County Detention Center. The focus of the LOP program was to empower pro se applicants to make informed decisions in their immigration cases. She is the co-vice president of the Midwest Immigration Bond Fund (MIBF). MIBF is dedicated to releasing people from immigration detention while advocating for the abolition of detention. Lupe graduated from DePaul University College of Law where she participated in the Asylum and Immigration Law Clinic. Prior to law school, she was a Peace Corps volunteer in Jordan where she taught English and co-led girls' leadership camps. She received her bachelor's in political science and anthropology from Macalester College. Lupe is licensed in the state of Illinois. Annie Relias (JD ’01) Ms. Relias has over 17 years of experience practicing immigration law. She joined Scott D. Pollock & Associates, P.C. as an Associate Attorney in 2005. Prior to entering private practice, Ms. Relias was a Supervising Attorney at the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago where she concentrated in deportation defense. Ms. Relias has served on the National American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Asylum Committee, as the Chair of the Chicago Chapter AILA Asylum and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Liaison Committees and has spoken at conferences and trainings both locally and nationally. She has been recognized as an Illinois Rising Star and Emerging Lawyer in her field. Ms. Relias received her Juris Doctorate from DePaul University College of Law, with a Certificate in International and Comparative Law in 2001. Ms. Relias received her Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1998. Ilyce Shugall (JD ‘99) Ilyce is currently a Managing Attorney at ILD and Senior Counsel in the Immigration Program at Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto (CLSEPA). She was previously the Director of the Immigrant Legal Defense Program at the Justice and Diversity Center of the Bar Association of San Francisco. Prior to joining JDC, Ilyce served for 18 months as an immigration judge in the San Francisco Immigration Court. Prior to serving as an immigration judge, Ilyce was the Directing Attorney of the Immigration Program at CLSEPA from 2012-2017. Under Ilyce’s leadership, CLSEPA’s immigration staff grew from four to twenty. Ilyce also served temporarily as the first legal director for the San Francisco Immigrant Legal Defense Collaborative at the Bar Association of San Francisco in 2015. For 10 years, Ilyce was an attorney at Van Der Hout, LLP. Three of those years she spent as a partner. Before joining the private sector, she worked at the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (ProBAR) as a National Association of Public Interest Law/Equal Justice Fellow. Ilyce received the 2016 National Pro Bono Services Award from the American Immigration Lawyers Association; and was a 2015 Silicon Valley Business Journal’s “Women of Influence” awardee. Ilyce is a commissioner on the American Bar Association’s Commission on Immigration and previously served as a commissioner on the State Bar of California Commission on Immigration and Nationality Law. She was NIPNLG’s update editor for Immigration Law and the Family from 2012-2017, and has published numerous articles on immigration law. Ilyce is an active member of the Round Table of Former Immigration Judges. Ilyce holds a JD from DePaul University College of Law, and a BA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Eleni Wolfe-Roubatis (JD ‘07) Eleni has been recognized both locally and nationally for her service to immigrant communities. Prior to co- founding ILD in 2019, Eleni grew the immigrant rights unit of a local non-profit, Centro Legal de la Raza, from 2 attorneys to a staff of 38. During her tenure as directing attorney, which lasted from October 2013 to April 2019, Eleni secured and managed over 50 public and private foundation grants annually, including large grants from the California Department of Social Services and the Vera Institute of Justice. After Trump’s election, Eleni successfully advocated with local government and private funders to establish the Alameda County Immigration Legal & Education Partnership (ACILEP), a network that provides legal representation and rapid response services to immigrants in removal proceedings. Eleni was also instrumental in establishing the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice (CCIJ), a collective of Bay Area legal service providers dedicated to providing high-quality free legal services to immigrants detained in the jurisdiction of the San Francisco Immigration Court. Prior to relocating to California from Chicago, Eleni worked for 8 years in the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC)’s Detention Project in positions that demanded complex immigration litigation, multidisciplinary advocacy expertise, and management of creative, cutting-edge legal programs. Eleni has extensive experience providing direct representation for detained and non-detained individuals in removal proceedings, and has supervised, mentored and trained attorneys, paralegals and law students throughout her career. Eleni holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University, and a Juris Doctor degree from DePaul University College of Law. Eleni is a recipient of the national 2016 Michael Maggio Pro Bono Service Award for her work in establishing an innovative pro bono legal services program for detained immigrants. Her team also received the 2017 East Bay La Raza Association’s Tag Team Luchadores Award for outstanding representation of unaccompanied minors and families seeking asylum. Eleni is admitted to practice in Illinois and is a member of AILA and the NLG’s National Immigration Project.