top of page

Meet Our Team

14.png

Leadership

Lindsay Toczylowski, Executivde Director at Immigrant Defenders Law Center.

Lindsay
Toczylowski

Executive Director and Co-Founder

Lindsay is a social entrepreneur whose work to increase access to justice for immigrants is at the forefront of the movement for universal representation. For the past 15 years, Lindsay has provided legal representation to thousands of immigrants and refugees with various nonprofit organizations in the U.S. and abroad. Lindsay is on the Board of Directors of Asylum Access, an international nonprofit that fights for the rights of refugees in the global South. Lindsay is the proud mother of two revolutionaries-in-training, and they are her inspiration to keep fighting for social justice every day.

IMG_1872.JPG

Susan
Alva

Associate Director and Co-Founder

Susan was born in New York City to Mexican and Dominican immigrant parents. She has held various leadership roles defending vulnerable communities and worked on several high-profile cases, including the El Monte Thai garment workers case. She is on the Boards of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild and the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

Susan is a fierce defender of immigrant's rights and through her work, many lives have been positively impacted.

Yliana.jpg

Yliana
Johansen-Mendez

Associate Director 

Yliana is originally from Pasadena, CA. She is the wife and daughter of Mexican immigrants, and the proud mother of two.

As an Equal Justice Works Fellow she did groundbreaking work

with unaccompanied minors, creating the first One-Parent

SIJS Manual for attorneys

seeking predicate orders

before family courts in California.

She joined ImmDef in 2018 after almost five years in government service. Yliana is a fierce

advocate who draws from her experience in government

and removal defense to lead

and train the next generation of immigrant defenders.  

Bhairavi Asher, Managing Attorney at Immigrant Defenders Law Center

Bhairavi Asher

Directing Attorney

ImmDefportraits  (13 of 18).jpg

Nicole Cortes

Director of Human Resources

Kimberly Harbin (Self Picked).JPG

Kimberly Harbin

Directing Attorney

allstaff_4thanniv_edited.jpg

Katie Siler

Directing Attorney

Jonathan Barrales, Support Services Manager at Immigrant Defenders Law Center

Jonathan Barrales

Program Director

ImmDefportraits  (3 of 18).jpg

Mickey Donovan-Kaloust

Legal Services Director

MicrosoftTeams-image (14).png

Alvaro Huerta

Litigation and Advocacy Director

2022 Shepard_Melissa.jpg

Melissa Shepard

Directing Attorney

margaret headshotindex.jpeg

Margaret Cargioli

Directing Attorney Policy & Advocacy

2022 Felix_Cynthia.jpg

Cynthia Felix

Directing Attorney

2022 Sawczuk_Axel.jpg

Axel Sawczuk

Finance and Operations Director

Immdef Court Managers (1 of 2)(1).jpg

Amanda Schuft

Legal Services Director

Team Immdef

bottom of page