NILC Welcomes New Board Member

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 12, 2022

CONTACT
Email: [email protected]
Madison Allman, 202-384-1279
Emily Morris, 213-457-7458

NILC Welcomes New Board Member 

WASHINGTON — The National Immigration Law Center today announced the addition of Jennifer M. Chacón, the Bruce Tyson Mitchell Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, to the NILC board of directors. 

“NILC’s board welcomes Jennifer M. Chacón, whose breadth of experience at the intersection of immigration, criminal, and constitutional law will be a tremendous asset to us as we continue working toward remedying longstanding injustices and inequities in our immigration system,” said Sara K. Gould, NILC’s interim executive director. “Professor Chacón brings decades of legal expertise that will further ground our work in racial equity and justice. I’m excited and honored to work together with her to advance racial justice and civil rights so that all of us, regardless of immigration status, have the freedom to thrive.” 

“Throughout my professional career, I have admired the efforts of the brilliant and dedicated staff of NILC, which has worked tirelessly toward equity and dignity for all people, regardless of immigration or citizenship status,” said Professor Chacón. “I am honored to join the NILC board, and I look forward to working with this amazing team.” 

Jennifer M. Chacón is the Bruce Tyson Mitchell Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. Her research focuses on the nexus of immigration law, constitutional law, and criminal law and procedure. Her writings elucidate how immigration and criminal law shape individual and collective understandings of racial and ethnic identity, citizenship, civic engagement, and social belonging. She has written dozens of articles, book chapters, and essays on immigration, criminal law, constitutional law, and citizenship issues.  

Professor Chacón is a past Chair of the American Association of Law School’s Section on Immigration, and a member of the American Law Institute. She is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation (ABF) and currently serves on the ABF Board of Directors. She has served on the Advisory Committee of the American Bar Foundation’s “Future of Latinos in the U.S.” project and on the University of Oxford Border Criminologies Advisory Group, and as the chair of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Rules Committee. She was a co-convenor of the Immigration Policy Advisory Committee to then-Senator Barack Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign, and an outside advisor to the Immigration Transition Team of President-Elect Barack Obama from November 2008 through January 2009.  

Professor Chacόn was an associate at the New York law firm of Davis Polk and Wardwell after clerking for the Honorable Sidney R. Thomas of the Ninth Circuit (1998-1999). She has also held appointments as a Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, the UCLA School of Law, and the UC Davis King Hall School of Law, and as a Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Senior Associate Dean for Administration at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law. She was a Visiting Professor of Law at Stanford Law School (2015-2016) and Harvard Law School (2014-2015).  

She holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and an A.B. in International Relations from Stanford University.  

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