Speakers & Sessions

Monica Andrade
Monica is currently an attorney & Skadden Fellow with the ACLU of Michigan, where she advocates for and protects the civil rights of the immigrant community. In this role, she has been on the frontlines of many of the ACLU’s legal challenges on behalf of immigrants’ rights, including the Muslim ban and 100-mile zone litigation and advocacy. Monica was also part of the litigation team in Hamama v. Adducci, the ACLU sued Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), after ICE arrested hundreds of Iraqi nationals, who faced deportation to Iraq, where they were likely to be tortured or killed because of their religion and ethnicity. A federal judge stopped the mass deportations and ordered ICE to release hundreds of Iraqis from detention. Prior to the ACLU, Monica worked for Justice Bridget Mary McCormack of the Michigan Supreme Court. She was also a summer fellow at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau where she represented indigent clients who were being evicted from public, subsidized, and private housing. Prior to law school and joining the ACLU, Monica worked in Arizona as a social worker for the Exodus program, an in-custody substance abuse treatment center.

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Sarah Yore Van-Oosterhout
Widely considered more complex than the tax code, U.S. immigration law is not something that is easily learned. Sometimes it doesn't even make logical sense and it is almost always rigid, mechanical, and without compassion.. Come learn about the most recent changes and complications in the US Immigration System. Sarah Yore Van-Oosterhout serves as Founder, Executive Director, and Managing Attorney for Lighthouse Immigrant Advocates. She is a graduate of the Michigan State University College of Law, where she devoted herself to the study of immigration and public interest law. In addition to her work at Lighthouse, Sarah is the West Side Co-chair for MCIRR and is a mother to two young daughters.

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Carmen Kucinich
Carmen Kucinich is a Masters Level Licensed Professional Counselor with the State of Michigan. Ms. Kucinich has been a Victim Specialist with the Federal Bureau of Investigation since 2005 and has worked with crime victims for over 20 years. Ms. Kucinich is active in working on the FBI’s West Michigan Based Child Exploitation (WEBCHEX) Task Force, formed in 2014 and is one of the original members of the Michigan Human Trafficking Task Force since 2007. Ms. Kucinich is also a member of several County Task Forces in the areas of domestic violence, sexual assault, and Human Trafficking.

Pam Schwallier
How can we better embrace and support our multilingual children in our schools and communities? Join Pam Schwallier, an English Learner (EL) consultant for West Michigan schools, to explore how schools and communities can better understand and serve the growing linguistically and culturally diverse student population in the area. An overview of our EL student population and the range of services provided by local school districts will be shared. This session will also provide an opportunity to collaborate around innovative ways in which various stakeholders can partner with educators to serve and advocate for multilingual students and families.

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Monica Andrade
Monica is currently an attorney & Skadden Fellow with the ACLU of Michigan, where she advocates for and protects the civil rights of the immigrant community. In this role, she has been on the frontlines of many of the ACLU’s legal challenges on behalf of immigrants’ rights, including the Muslim ban and 100-mile zone litigation and advocacy. Monica was also part of the litigation team in Hamama v. Adducci, the ACLU sued Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), after ICE arrested hundreds of Iraqi nationals, who faced deportation to Iraq, where they were likely to be tortured or killed because of their religion and ethnicity. A federal judge stopped the mass deportations and ordered ICE to release hundreds of Iraqis from detention. Prior to the ACLU, Monica worked for Justice Bridget Mary McCormack of the Michigan Supreme Court. She was also a summer fellow at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau where she represented indigent clients who were being evicted from public, subsidized, and private housing. Prior to law school and joining the ACLU, Monica worked in Arizona as a social worker for the Exodus program, an in-custody substance abuse treatment center.

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Elinor Jordan
Abusers and perpetrators often use immigration status as a tool to further abuse a survivor of violence. In response advocates should know all appropriate tactics at their disposal to empower immigrant victims to escape violence and hold their perpetrators accountable. Participants in this training will learn how recent immigration developments may affect immigrant survivors of crime and practical ways in which advocates can help.

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Rebecca Robichaud
Immigration detention is a growing industry. Since the passage of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) in 1996 there has been a fivefold increase in the number of noncitizens detained by the Department of Homeland Security. The National Immigrant Justice Center Reports that based on Immigration and Customs Enforcement Dates, in November 2017, ICE had a total average daily population for FY 2018 of 39,322 people. But numbers never tell the full story. Who is being detained? How is race part of the detention picture? We will briefly explore the history of immigration detention to better understand where we are now and how race intersects with our immigration detention system.
Rebecca Robichaud is an experienced immigration attorney whose work focuses on asylum and removal defense. For more than a decade she worked with immigration clients from around the globe including Egypt, Yemen, Rwanda, Uganda, the Republic of Congo, El Salvador and Guatemala. Currently she is is an assistant professor (clinical) and assistant director of externship programs at Wayne State University. Robichaud also serves as a secretary for the Michigan Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

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Stacey Sills
Human trafficking is considered modern day slavery.  The presentation will cover what human trafficking is, who is at risk, and  prevention.  It will also focus on recruitment methods including those with immigrant and refugee families. When you leave you will have a number of local and global resources to gain more knowledge and learn about "what you can do" regarding the underlying world of human trafficking.

Reyna Xiomara Masko was born in San Salvador, El Salvador. At the age of 8 she and her family immigrated to the United States leaving behind their native and war-torn country. In 1994 she graduated from Robert E. Lee High School but due to being undocumented, she was not able to attend college. In 1998 she moved to Michigan with her husband, Paul, to raise a family. She has 2 children, Kylie age 21 and Mikkel age 16. In 2005 Reyna’s dream of going to college became a reality after becoming a US citizen. She earned her Bachelor of Science from Ferris State University in 2013. She has worked for Ottawa County Friend of the Court for 20 years, and has been in her current position as an investigator enforcing custody, parenting time, and child support for the past 6 years. In 2013 Reyna was appointed by the Ottawa County Administrator as chair of the County’s Cultural Intelligence Committee (CIC). Through her work with the CIC Reyna has become an advocate within the Latino Community. She served on the Board of Directors for the Lakeshore Ethnic Diversity Alliance (LEDA), is an active member of the Steering Committee for the Lakeshore Latinas and Latina Network of West Michigan. She is currently the Children and Youth Coordinator at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven and a member of the Latino Ministry, El Corazón. She was nominated as an Athena Award Finalist in 2017, Top 50 Latinas of Michigan in 2018 and Alas Latinas for her community service and advocacy.

Rev. Angel Lopez began serving at Third Reformed Church in Holland in 2017, where he was called to foster ways for TRC to further engage with the local community, especially our Spanish-speaking neighbors, and help the church to grow its understanding of hospitality within multicultural surroundings. Angel loves to look for ways to build relationships and create space for people to connect and share life together. Angel leads various Spanish and Bilingual small groups each week, as well as being regularly involved in pastoral and practical support for immigrant families, and TRC's affordable housing ministry. Angel and his wife Janelle are both ordained ministers in the Reformed Church in America. Angel's undergrad degree is in Anthropology from the University of Chiapas, MX, and, with an MDiv from Western Theological Seminary here in Holland. They have lived as a family in Mexico, Canada, and the United States. They have two delightful young daughters and live in Holland's beautifully diverse downtown core.

Rev. Agshin Jafarov assists refugees, immigrants, churches, and NGOs in their resettlement efforts. In addition, he tutors and mentors unaccompanied refugee youth to help them adjust to life in the US. He does advocacy ministry as well by preaching and teaching about refugee and immigration crisis. Rev. Agshin Jafarov mostly works with refugees hailing from Muslim-majority nations.

Lotefa Bartlett de Villarreal
A facilitated discussion for professionals that work with immigrants in some capacity and have identified barriers to services or success within their fields. This session will help individuals problem solve and identify possible remedies. Lotefa Bartlett de Villarreal is Director of Circles Ottawa County at Good Samaritan Ministries, working towards Good Sam's mission of ending poverty and homelessness in our community. With a background in counseling psychology, she has worked in the field of Diversity & Inclusion in TX, TN, and MI. She has lived in Holland, MI since 2013.

Dr. Charles Green
Eggshell, Ivory, Cream, or Champagne: call it what you want, White is not a neutral color. There are many, many advantages to being White in this country. But one thing is more difficult, ironically: understanding what it means to be White.  This session is geared to help White-identifying service providers understand and address their Whiteness.  How does being White affect the way we interact with clients or co-workers of color?  How can we minimize the drawbacks of being White and still use the advantages of being White to be more effective anti-racists?

Ann Heerde
Individuals in helping professions can experience numerous joys and rewards.   There are also many risks, including Compassion Fatigue, Burnout and Secondary Traumatic Stress. This presentation will provide information regarding these risks and strategies for addressing these concerns at the individual, supervisory and administrative levels.

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Susan Prentice-Sao
Michigan has historically struggled with an underfunded public defense system that fails to meet the needs of individuals facing criminal charges. The Michigan Indigent Defense Commission was created in 2013 to reform and oversee local systems across the state providing indigent defense services to defendants. This presentation will address some of the changes that have occurred over the last few years related to public defense, including a discussion of how clients and professionals in the field can advocate for the rights of the accused under the new requirements.
Susan Prentice-Sao is based in Allegan County. She is the Western Regional Manager at the MIDC. Prior to joining the MIDC, she represented indigent defendants for over a decade in Kalamazoo County and surrounding areas. She has experience as a sole practitioner representing individuals in criminal, juvenile, neglect, domestic relations, probate, and bankruptcy matters. Prior to becoming a lawyer, she worked at the Cambodian Association of Illinois and interned at the US Mission to the UN, Geneva, Switzerland. During her internship, she participated in the UN's Human Rights Commission and Committee to Eliminate Racial Discrimination.

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