NILC Staff Biographies

Marielena Hincapié, Los Angeles office.
Before assuming the position of executive director in September 2008, Ms. Hincapié served as NILC's director of programs, managing the organization's employment, public benefits, and immigration work. Ms. Hincapié specializes in and has dedicated her legal career to protecting and advancing the rights of immigrant workers, particularly those who are undocumented. She has written articles and policy analyses, provided technical assistance, and presented trainings to legal and social service providers, labor unions, and community-based organizations. Her work also has focused on using legal tools to help support community and labor organizing efforts, as well as to help build and strengthen community coalitions working to improve working conditions for all low-wage workers. Ms. Hincapié has litigated law reform and impact litigation cases dealing with the intersection of immigration laws and employment/labor laws, and she specializes in cases following the Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB decision. Before joining NILC, she worked for the Legal Aid Society of San Francisco's Employment Law Center, where she founded the Center's Immigrant Workers’ Rights Project. Ms. Hincapié holds a juris doctor degree from Northeastern University School of Law.

Legal & Policy Staff

Sonal Ambegaokar, Health Policy Attorney, Los Angeles office.
Ms. Ambegaokar monitors, analyzes and makes recommendations concerning federal, state and local policies affecting low-income immigrants' access to affordable health care. Prior to joining NILC in 2005, she served as supervising attorney of the Health Consumer Center of Los Angeles, a project of Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County, overseeing a multi-language consumer hotline that provides callers with help on a variety of health-related issues. Prior to her law career, Ms. Ambegaokar worked for several years as a business analyst. She earned her juris doctor degree from the University of California at Davis.

Josh Bernstein, Director of Federal Policy, Washington, DC, office.
Mr. Bernstein monitors, analyzes, and makes recommendations regarding federal legislative and administrative developments affecting immigrants, particularly in the areas of immigration law and the employment and public benefits rights of low-income immigrants. Before joining NILC in 1994, he served as a judicial clerk to the Hon. Harry Pregerson of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Bernstein's advocacy on behalf of low-income persons dates back to 1982, when he was Director of Californians for a Fair Share, a statewide coalition of low-income families and their allies that was formed to combat welfare cuts. He subsequently served as a welfare advocate for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and the Inner City Law Center, a Los Angeles skid row legal clinic. Mr. Bernstein holds a juris doctor from the University of California (Boalt Hall).

Jonathan Blazer, Public Benefits Policy Attorney, Philadelphia.
Mr. Blazer's main focus is on promoting immigrant access to critical safety-net programs, particularly within state and local programs. Prior to joining NILC, he was a national coordinator of Project Voice, the nationwide immigrants' rights organizing initiative of the American Friends Service Committee. From 1997-2003, he worked as a legal services attorney in Philadelphia, where he specialized in welfare law and founded the Language Access Project of Community Legal Services. Mr. Blazer holds a M.A. in political theory from the University of Toronto, and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. Mr. Blazer lives and works in Philadelphia.

Tanya Broder, Public Benefits Policy Director, Oakland.
Ms. Broder focuses primarily on analyzing the ways in which federal, state, and local governments have been implementing the welfare and immigration laws passed in 1996. She writes articles and policy analyses, provides technical assistance, co-counsels litigation, and presents trainings to legal and social service providers, legislative staff, and community-based organizations. Before joining NILC in 1996 she worked as a policy analyst for the Northern California Coalition for Immigrant Rights and as a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Alameda County in Oakland. Ms. Broder holds a juris doctor from Yale Law School.

Joan Friedland, Immigration Policy Director, Washington, DC, office.
Ms. Friedland focuses on post-9/11 documentation, data base, and information-sharing policy issues affecting low-income immigrants. Before joining NILC in 2002, she had a long career as a lawyer for nonprofit organizations and in private practice in New Mexico and Florida, and has litigated many civil rights and immigration cases. Ms. Friedland holds a juris doctor from Harvard Law School.

Mai P. Lam Huynh, Research Associate, Washington, DC, office.
Ms. Huynh monitors developments in immigration and public benefits policy and provides administrative support for NILC's DC office. Prior to joining NILC, she worked at Asian American LEAD as an advocate for immigrant youths. She also has worked abroad with several NGOs that dealt with victims of human trafficking and domestic violence survivors. She received her bachelor's degree from Wellesley College.

Linton Joaquin, General Counsel, Los Angeles office.
Mr. Joaquin became NILC's first general counsel in September 2008 after having served as executive director since 2004. Prior to that, he was NILC's legal director. In his 30 years of legal practice, Mr. Joaquin has gained national recognition for his expertise in immigration law and in litigation to preserve and promote immigrants' legal rights. He has served as lead or principal counsel in numerous class action lawsuits, such as Walters v. Reno, requiring the Immigration and Naturalization Service to comply with due process in charging immigrants with civil document fraud; Orantes-Hernandez v. Meese, prohibiting the INS from coercing a nationwide class of Salvadoran refugees into abandoning their right to seek asylum, and requiring the agency to allow detained class members access to counsel and legal rights materials; and Perez-Funez v. District Director, enjoining the INS from having detained children waive their right to a hearing without first having access to legal advice. Prior to joining NILC in 1990, Mr. Joaquin served as executive director and director of litigation for the Central American Refugee Center (CARECEN) in Los Angeles, and staff attorney for the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO. He also has taught immigration law on an adjunct basis at the University of Southern California Law School (1997) and Southwestern University School of Law (1991-1996). Mr. Joaquin holds a juris doctor degree from the University of California (Boalt Hall).

Tyler Moran, Employment Policy Director, Boise, Idaho.
Ms. Moran monitors and analyzes federal and state policies affecting low-income immigrants, focusing primarily on employment and driver's license policy, and educates key allies and policymakers on these issues. While overseeing NILC's employment issues-related work, she writes analytical, advocacy, and community education materials on issues affecting low-income immigrant workers in the U.S. She also provides technical assistance and training in her areas of specialty. Prior to joining NILC in 2002, Ms. Moran worked as a public policy consultant, and as the policy director for the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition in Boston. She holds a master of education from Harvard University.

Nora A. Preciado, Employment Policy Attorney, Los Angeles office.
Ms. Preciado focuses on promoting the rights of low-wage immigrant workers through litigation, technical assistance, and administrative advocacy. Before joining NILC, Ms. Preciado was an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the ACLU of Southern California Orange County office, where she litigated cases dealing with immigrants' rights issues and conducted extensive community outreach and education. She then joined the ACLU Los Angeles office as an immigration detention attorney, where she focused on immigration detention litigation and advocacy on conditions of detention. Ms. Preciado holds a juris doctor degree from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall).

Karen Tumlin, Staff Attorney, Los Angeles office.
Ms. Tumlin focuses on promoting the rights of low-income immigrants through litigation and administrative advocacy. Currently she is litigating cases challenging state anti-immigrant ordinances and federal immigration detention policies. Her practice also includes litigation on due process, detention, and employment issues. Before joining NILC as a Skadden Fellow in 2005, Ms. Tumlin clerked for Judge Dorothy W. Nelson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Prior to law school, she worked as a research associate at the Urban Institute, where she coauthored studies on immigration, welfare, and language access issues. She also spent a year as a Luce Scholar in Bangkok, Thailand, where she conducted a study on child trafficking in the region for the U.N. International Labor Organization. Ms. Tumlin holds a juris doctor degree and a master of public policy from the University of California at Berkeley.

Dinah Wiley, Public Benefits Policy Attorney, Washington, DC, office.
Ms. Wiley focuses on preserving and broadening immigrants' access to health care and other critical public benefits and services. Before rejoining NILC in 2006, she had served since 2000 as senior civil rights analyst at the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights. She was a policy analyst at NILC from 1997 to 2000, specializing in public benefits issues affecting low-income immigrants and their family members. Prior to that, she was legal services director at Whitman-Walker Clinic, the largest HIV/AIDS service organization serving the Washington, DC, metropolitan area.

Administrative & Support Staff

Marisa Aguayo, Grants Manager, Los Angeles office.
Ms. Aguayo helps implement NILC's fund-raising goals. This includes developing fund-raising strategies, researching funding prospects and coordinating all development-related communications activities. Prior to joining NILC in 2004, she worked as a program director for the MultiCultural Collaborative, a social justice organization created after Los Angeles' 1992 civil unrest. Prior to that, she was a development associate for El Rescate, a legal and social services agency serving immigrants in Los Angeles.

Richard Irwin, Editor and Publications Manager, Los Angeles office.
Mr. Irwin edits and helps design and produce the written resources NILC publishes, both online and on paper. He has edited NILC's newsletter, Immigrants' Rights Update, since 1992. Prior to joining NILC in 1990, he worked as a development officer for St. Joseph Center in Venice, CA, and in the education department of Los Angeles Catholic Charities' IRCA Legalization Program. Prior to that, he taught English composition at Cal Poly Pomona and UCLA.

Lourdes Jamer, Fiscal Associate, Los Angeles office.

Jim Komagata, Director of Finance, Los Angeles office.
As NILC's director of finance, Mr. Komagata oversees all of NILC's fiscal functions. His areas of responsibilities include managing the accounting department, grant budgeting, and financial reporting. Prior to joining NILC, he worked for many years in financial management in nonprofit human services organizations. He is a graduate of the University of Hawaii, with a degree in business administration.

Scott Lowther, Director of Administration, Los Angeles office.
As director of administration, Mr. Lowther oversees all human resource functions, day-to-day operations, information technology functions, strategic and long-range planning, and special events, as well as providing staff and supervisor training and coaching. He also participates on NILC’s development team. Mr. Lowther has worked in human services and nonprofit environments since 1978. He has held positions as executive director, deputy executive director, and director of youth and community services; and he has served as a strategic planning consultant and provided customized training to a wide variety of organizations. Mr. Lowther co-founded Citizens for Equal Protection in Omaha, NE, in the mid-1980s and has served as the co-chair of Partners for the Public’s Health as well as Partners for Healthy Neighborhoods in Oceanside, CA.

Bianca Marquez, Administrative Assistant, Los Angeles office.

Mike Muñoz, Program Coordinator, Los Angeles office.
Mr. Muñoz coordinates and monitors NILC's training activities. Working with the publications manager, he designs and produces materials intended for print and on-line dissemination, focusing on the production of community education materials. In addition to assisting with the maintenance of management information, he provides support to NILC and CIWC project staff, specifically on issues relating to trainings coordination. Prior to joining NILC in 1997, he worked as an organizer and field director for La Colectiva in East Los Angeles, and as an organizer for Service Employees International Union Local 399 in Los Angeles.