Annie Whitney
President
Annie is a 2L hoping to work in asylum law. She has bachelor’s degrees from Columbia and Sciences Po Paris and a master’s degree in refugee and forced migration studies from Oxford. Before law school, she worked at a refugee shelter in Texas and became an EMT. Since starting law school, she has interned with Al Otro Lado in Tijuana, Mina’s List in Istanbul, and the Legal Aid Society of New York. In her free time, she likes to cook, paint, explore cities by foot, and study languages.
Alfredo Rosales
President
Alfredo is a second-year student at Harvard Law School. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Texas at Austin with a BBA in Finance and Accounting. He spent his 1L summer at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Prior to law school, he worked at Wells Fargo in numerous business units including Home Mortgage, Corporate Treasury, and Investment Banking. Before joining Wells Fargo, he interned at an immigration law firm in San Antonio, Texas. On campus, he is also involved with Student Government, Harvard Association for Law and Business, and Harvard Business Law Review. Alfredo is a sports enthusiast and loves spending time with his family.
Josh Metzger
Policy Director
Josh is a second-year J.D. student at Harvard Law School. He studied international politics and Chinese at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, concentrating in international law and institutions. During his 1L summer, he interned at the United Nations International Law Commission in Geneva, while also advising the Republic of Palau about sea-level rise and its civilian protection responsibilities. He has worked at the UN International Trade Law Commission’s Asia division, DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, and the Public Defender’s Office in his home state of New Jersey. On campus, he is part of the International Law Journal, HLS Advocates for Human Rights, and the Law and International Development Society. Outside of law school, he enjoys playing tennis, pottery, and following the NBA.
Beatriz Ramon
Policy Director
Beatriz is a 2L at Harvard Law School. She graduated from the University of Florida, where she studied Political Science, International Relations, and Public Leadership. She spent her 1L summer at the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, in the Immigrant and Employee Rights Section. Prior to law school, she worked as a CHCI Public Policy Fellow in the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, a paralegal at the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, and a Local Government Fellow at the City of Gainesville. On campus, she is also involved with the Election Law Clinic, First Class, and the Harvard Journal of Legislation. Beatriz loves movies, food, and the gym.
Daisy Almonte
Client Engagement Services Director
Daisy Almonte is a 3L from Turkey, North Carolina. She is a first-generation daughter of Mexican immigrants and graduated from Duke University with an interdepartmental major in Public Policy and Sociology. Daisy joined the Harvard Immigration Project as a 1L and went on to explore the intersection of criminal and immigration law as a 2L with the Harvard Crimmigration Clinic. She is passionate about advancing and defending the rights of low-income immigrants and looks forward to another year with HIP.
Trace Dodge
Finance Director
Trace is a 2L at Harvard Law School from Cambridge, Massachusetts. He spent his 1L summer as a Summer Associate at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP doing private equity/M&A legal work and plans to join Ropes & Gray LLP in the summer of 2023. At HLS, Trace participates in various journals, student practice organizations, and other student groups, among them the Harvard Law and Policy Review, the Harvard Business Law Review, the Prison Legal Assistance Project, and the Harvard Law Entrepreneurship Project. Upon graduating from UMass Amherst in 2019 with degrees in economics and political science, Trace joined the DFA Program at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, spending his first rotation in the Operations Front Office and his second rotation in both the Office of Supervision Policy and SEFL Front Office.
Yara Hejazi
Speakers and Symposium Director
Yara is a second-year law student at Harvard Law School. He graduated summa cum laude from UCLA in 2017 with a B.A. in Political Science. While studying at UCLA, Yara created and led Vote for Our Future (now the Bruin Political Union), a non-partisan student organization that increased voter registration by approximately 700% and broke UCLA’s all-time voter registration record in 2016. Before law school, Yara worked as a Litigation Paralegal at Sheppard Mullin in Los Angeles for two years. He also helped provide free legal services to underserved communities as a Law Clerk for Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County. In his free time, Yara loves to play and teach guitar, watch sports (especially Rams, Lakers, & Dodgers games), listen to podcasts, and follow politics.
Emily Steirman
Pro Bono Partnerships Director
Emily is a 2L at Harvard Law School. She graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a B.A. in Political Science and International Studies. In addition to HIP, she is involved with the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, the Women’s Law Association, and the Harvard Plaintiffs’ Law Association. Emily loves word puzzles and learning languages.
Faculty Support
Cindy Zapata
Lecturer on Law, SPO Attorney Supervisor
Cindy Zapata is a Clinical Instructor in the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program. She supervises and trains students in the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic (HIRC) and in the Crimmigration Clinic. As part of HIRC, she supervises and trains law students working on applications for asylum and other humanitarian protections. In the Crimmigration Clinic, she focuses mainly on direct representation, including bond representation and immigration applications. She coordinates various community outreach efforts, including Know-Your-Rights presentations and Advice and Counsel sessions in the greater Boston area. She also serves as the supervising attorney for the HLS Immigration Project (HIP), a student-practice organization at HLS focused on immigration-related efforts and advocacy. She was previously a litigation associate at Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP. She holds a J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law, and a B.A. in Political Science from Queens College – CUNY.
Sabrineh Ardalan
Clinical Professor of Law, Director of Harvard Immigration & Refugee Clinic
Sabrineh Ardalan is director of the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program. At the clinic, Ardalan supervises and trains law students working on applications for asylum and other humanitarian protections, as well as appellate litigation and policy advocacy. She has authored briefs submitted to the Board of Immigration Appeals, as well as to the federal district courts, circuit courts of appeal, and U.S. Supreme Court on cutting edge issues in U.S. asylum law. She also oversees and collaborates closely with the clinic’s social work staff. She teaches courses on immigration and refugee law and advocacy, as well as on trauma, refugees, and the law, and on international labor migration.
Prior to her work with the clinic, Ardalan clerked for Hon. Michael A. Chagares of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and Hon. Raymond J. Dearie, district judge for the Eastern District of New York. She previously served as the Equal Justice America fellow at The Opportunity Agenda, where she worked on advocacy around a right to health care under U.S. and international law and as a litigation associate at Dewey Ballantine LLP. She holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. in history and international studies from Yale College.