Panelist Bios
Randy Shaw, keynote speaker
Randy Shaw is a longtime social change activist and the author of three widely praised books on activism: The Activist's Handbook; Reclaiming America; and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century, his most recent work on the ongoing legacy of the farmworkers’ movement. Mr. Shaw also has a chapter on the immigrants' rights movement in a book being released in May 2011. Mr. Shaw is the founder and Executive Director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, San Francisco’s leading provider of permanent housing to homeless single adults. Mr. Shaw is the editor of the online daily news source BeyondChron.org, where he frequently writes on immigrants' rights and Latino voting issues.
Suzanne McCormick, panelist on the Human Rights Law and Crisis Immigration and Nonprofit Law and Immigration panels
Suzanne McCormick is the founder and Executive Director of the Immigration Center for Women and Children (ICWC). Suzanne graduated from the University of Oregon School of Law in 1997. Since law school, she has been dedicated to providing legal services to at-risk youth and victims of domestic violence. Suzanne worked as a Staff Attorney at Public Counsel Law Center in Los Angeles. While at Public Counsel, she represented clients in probate guardianship, Violence Against Women Act, and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status cases. She was the Project Coordinator for the Guardianship Volunteer Program, a pro per clinic at the Los Angeles central district courthouse that assists unrepresented litigants. Suzanne co-authored Abandon Probate Court for Abandoned Children: Combining Probate Guardianship of the Person and Dependency into one Stronger, Fairer Children's Court, which appeared in the spring 2003 Southern California Review of Law and Women's Studies. In 2004, Suzanne founded the Immigration Center for Women and Children. Through her work, Suzanne identified a need in the community for a legal service agency that provided services on a sliding scale fee system. Suzanne has established ICWC as one of the leading legal service agencies in California that provide immigration options for victims. In 2010, Suzanne opened the ICWC San Francisco office in an effort to replicate the successful service model she has created in the ICWC Los Angeles office. Suzanne is active in many immigration and child advocacy groups in California and nationwide. Please e-mail Suzanne at [email protected].
Ryan Bounds, panelist on the Criminal Law and Immigration panel
Ryan Bounds is an Assistant United States Attorney for the Department of Justice, which has exclusive responsibility for prosecuting violators of the nation’s criminal immigration laws in federal court. Mr. Bounds has coordinated the criminal immigration docket for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Oregon since 2010. Mr. Bounds served in the White House as Special Assistant to the President for Justice and Immigration Policy in 2008-09; he also served as the chief staff lawyer on immigration policy in the Department of Justice during the 109th and 110th Congresses’ consideration of immigration reform legislation from 2005-07. Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Mr. Bounds was a law clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Mr. Bounds graduated from Yale Law School in 1999.
Anna Ciesielski, panelist on the Civil Rights Law and Crisis Immigration and Nonprofit Law and Immigration panels
Anna Ciesielski is a Staff Attorney at the Immigration Counseling Service (ICS), a non-profit immigration law firm in Portland, Oregon. For over thirty years, ICS has been dedicated to improving the lives of Oregon’s immigrant communities through access to affordable legal services and educational forums. In 2008, ICS partnered with the Vera Institute of Justice to assist unaccompanied and undocumented children in federal custody and under the care of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Ms. Ciesielski is the lead attorney for the ICS-Vera project, which provides Know Your Rights presentations and individual legal screenings for juveniles housed at Oregon detention facilities. She is the lead trainer for pro bono attorneys who work with these juveniles and is also the juveniles' "friend of the court." Prior to joining ICS, Ms. Ciesielski worked as an attorney helping refugees with immigration matters at Sponsors Organized to Assist Refugees (SOAR) in Portland, Oregon.
Francisco López, panelist on the Nonprofit Law and Immigration panel
Francisco López is a Salvadoran-American who came to the United States in 1985 as a refugee from the civil war in El Salvador. Francisco fled El Salvador because of the risks involved in his work in the pro-democracy movement during the war. Francisco is the Executive Director of CAUSA: Oregon's Immigrant Rights Coalition, the largest Latino organization in the Pacific Northwest. In 2008, Francisco was the field director with the Voz Hispana voting project, a Woodburn-based organization that seeks to empower Latinos by increasing their participation in the American democratic process.
Francisco is a recipient of the 1997 Mexican Government Ohtli Medal; the 1998 Hispanic Heritage Award from the Austin Independent School District; the 2000 Providence Portland Medical Center Mission Leadership Award; and the 2006 Citizen of the Year Award from the Oregon Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. Francisco earned his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of El Salvador and has thirty years of experience in community organizing, leadership development, and social service program design in the United States and Latin America.
Ryan Dibble, panelist on the Criminal Law and Immigration panel
Ryan Dibble has been a Deputy District Attorney for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office since 2006, and he currently carries a felony trial caseload in Long Beach. As a District Attorney, Mr. Dibble has prosecuted crimes ranging from petty theft and driving under the influence to homicide. Mr. Dibble also prosecuted juvenile crimes for one year in Compton. Today, a significant number of Mr. Dibble's cases involve immigration issues. Mr. Dibble most frequently encounters immigration issues in his work through immigrant case filings, as well as through the negotiation of defendant plea bargains and the location of material witnesses for trial. While in law school at the University of Southern California, Mr. Dibble served as a summer intern for the United States Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C., where he assisted the Transnational Crimes Unit in the prosecution of immigration fraud.
Randy Shaw is a longtime social change activist and the author of three widely praised books on activism: The Activist's Handbook; Reclaiming America; and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century, his most recent work on the ongoing legacy of the farmworkers’ movement. Mr. Shaw also has a chapter on the immigrants' rights movement in a book being released in May 2011. Mr. Shaw is the founder and Executive Director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, San Francisco’s leading provider of permanent housing to homeless single adults. Mr. Shaw is the editor of the online daily news source BeyondChron.org, where he frequently writes on immigrants' rights and Latino voting issues.
Suzanne McCormick, panelist on the Human Rights Law and Crisis Immigration and Nonprofit Law and Immigration panels
Suzanne McCormick is the founder and Executive Director of the Immigration Center for Women and Children (ICWC). Suzanne graduated from the University of Oregon School of Law in 1997. Since law school, she has been dedicated to providing legal services to at-risk youth and victims of domestic violence. Suzanne worked as a Staff Attorney at Public Counsel Law Center in Los Angeles. While at Public Counsel, she represented clients in probate guardianship, Violence Against Women Act, and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status cases. She was the Project Coordinator for the Guardianship Volunteer Program, a pro per clinic at the Los Angeles central district courthouse that assists unrepresented litigants. Suzanne co-authored Abandon Probate Court for Abandoned Children: Combining Probate Guardianship of the Person and Dependency into one Stronger, Fairer Children's Court, which appeared in the spring 2003 Southern California Review of Law and Women's Studies. In 2004, Suzanne founded the Immigration Center for Women and Children. Through her work, Suzanne identified a need in the community for a legal service agency that provided services on a sliding scale fee system. Suzanne has established ICWC as one of the leading legal service agencies in California that provide immigration options for victims. In 2010, Suzanne opened the ICWC San Francisco office in an effort to replicate the successful service model she has created in the ICWC Los Angeles office. Suzanne is active in many immigration and child advocacy groups in California and nationwide. Please e-mail Suzanne at [email protected].
Ryan Bounds, panelist on the Criminal Law and Immigration panel
Ryan Bounds is an Assistant United States Attorney for the Department of Justice, which has exclusive responsibility for prosecuting violators of the nation’s criminal immigration laws in federal court. Mr. Bounds has coordinated the criminal immigration docket for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Oregon since 2010. Mr. Bounds served in the White House as Special Assistant to the President for Justice and Immigration Policy in 2008-09; he also served as the chief staff lawyer on immigration policy in the Department of Justice during the 109th and 110th Congresses’ consideration of immigration reform legislation from 2005-07. Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Mr. Bounds was a law clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Mr. Bounds graduated from Yale Law School in 1999.
Anna Ciesielski, panelist on the Civil Rights Law and Crisis Immigration and Nonprofit Law and Immigration panels
Anna Ciesielski is a Staff Attorney at the Immigration Counseling Service (ICS), a non-profit immigration law firm in Portland, Oregon. For over thirty years, ICS has been dedicated to improving the lives of Oregon’s immigrant communities through access to affordable legal services and educational forums. In 2008, ICS partnered with the Vera Institute of Justice to assist unaccompanied and undocumented children in federal custody and under the care of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Ms. Ciesielski is the lead attorney for the ICS-Vera project, which provides Know Your Rights presentations and individual legal screenings for juveniles housed at Oregon detention facilities. She is the lead trainer for pro bono attorneys who work with these juveniles and is also the juveniles' "friend of the court." Prior to joining ICS, Ms. Ciesielski worked as an attorney helping refugees with immigration matters at Sponsors Organized to Assist Refugees (SOAR) in Portland, Oregon.
Francisco López, panelist on the Nonprofit Law and Immigration panel
Francisco López is a Salvadoran-American who came to the United States in 1985 as a refugee from the civil war in El Salvador. Francisco fled El Salvador because of the risks involved in his work in the pro-democracy movement during the war. Francisco is the Executive Director of CAUSA: Oregon's Immigrant Rights Coalition, the largest Latino organization in the Pacific Northwest. In 2008, Francisco was the field director with the Voz Hispana voting project, a Woodburn-based organization that seeks to empower Latinos by increasing their participation in the American democratic process.
Francisco is a recipient of the 1997 Mexican Government Ohtli Medal; the 1998 Hispanic Heritage Award from the Austin Independent School District; the 2000 Providence Portland Medical Center Mission Leadership Award; and the 2006 Citizen of the Year Award from the Oregon Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. Francisco earned his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of El Salvador and has thirty years of experience in community organizing, leadership development, and social service program design in the United States and Latin America.
Ryan Dibble, panelist on the Criminal Law and Immigration panel
Ryan Dibble has been a Deputy District Attorney for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office since 2006, and he currently carries a felony trial caseload in Long Beach. As a District Attorney, Mr. Dibble has prosecuted crimes ranging from petty theft and driving under the influence to homicide. Mr. Dibble also prosecuted juvenile crimes for one year in Compton. Today, a significant number of Mr. Dibble's cases involve immigration issues. Mr. Dibble most frequently encounters immigration issues in his work through immigrant case filings, as well as through the negotiation of defendant plea bargains and the location of material witnesses for trial. While in law school at the University of Southern California, Mr. Dibble served as a summer intern for the United States Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C., where he assisted the Transnational Crimes Unit in the prosecution of immigration fraud.
