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Our Voices

Pamela Mercado Garcia

Pamela Mercado Garcia was born and raised in Mexico. In 2011, when she was 12 years old, she migrated to the United States. She remained undocumented until her family was granted residency in 2015 after her mother applied for adjustment of status through the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Pam joined NCLR as the Immigration and Asylum Program Associate in June of 2022. She is responsible for assisting the Immigration Project Director and the pro bono of Counsel Attorneys with a variety of...

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Ellen Caminiti

Ellen Caminiti is the Communications Coordinator for NCLR where she is largely responsible for creating public education through social media content. She works with the Advancement Team to develop communications strategy that amplifies all of NCLR’s impactful work for the LGBTQ community. Ellen truly enjoys the creative and intersectional nature of her position. Ellen began her activism career while living in Washington D.C. during an internship with the Environmental Investigation...

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Shauna Madison, Esq.

Shauna R. Madison, Esq. is the Vice President of People, Culture, and Equity and Compliance Counsel, and a member of NCLR’s Management Team as well as the Business Administration Team. Shauna utilizes her expertise in labor and employment law, people management, and 501(c)(3) consultation to advise NCLR on holistic, trauma-informed, legally compliant policies and practices. Prior to joining NCLR, Shauna was Managing Partner a queer-owned civil rights firm...

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Chelsea E. HaleyNelson

Chelsea E. HaleyNelson serves as pro bono Of Counsel for NCLR’s Immigration Project. Chelsea is a California State Bar Certified Specialist in Immigration and Nationality Law.  She graduated from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 2005 with a Certificate in Public Interest Law.  Before law school, she obtained an undergraduate degree from the University of California Santa Barbara in both Political Science and Security and Peace Studies.  Her legal practice focuses...

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Christina Lee

Christina Lee serves as pro bono Of Counsel for NCLR’s Immigration Project. Christina is a founding partner at Becker & Lee LLP. She received her law degree, JD, from King Hall, UC Davis School of Law in 2003, and her Bachelor of Arts in Economics, from Barnard College. Christina has represented clients in removal proceedings before the Immigration Court, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the Ninth Circuit. She has also represented many clients in Federal District Court filing mandamus...

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Cara Jobson

Cara Jobson serves as pro bono Of Counsel for NCLR’s Immigration Project. Cara has worked on legal issues affecting the LGBT immigrant community for over twenty years, and she worked on some of the first asylum cases in the United States based on sexual orientation. She frequently provides trainings to community groups and non-profits on immigration law. She is a partner at Wiley & Jobson LLP.

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Noemi Calonje

Noemi was born and raised in Managua, Nicaragua. At the age of 14, her family immigrated to the United States due to the unstable political climate in her country of origin. Her family applied for political asylum in 1982 and it was granted ten years later. After earning her B.A. in Spanish and a B.S. in psychology from the University of California at Davis in 1991, Noemi worked as a counselor at FamiliesFirst, a non-profit organization serving troubled youth in the Bay Area. In 1994 she...

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Imani Rupert-Gordon

Imani Rupert-Gordon is the President of the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR). NCLR is a national legal organization committed to advancing the civil and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families through litigation, legislation, policy, and public education. Before joining NCLR, Imani served as the Executive Director for Affinity Community Services. Affinity is a LGBTQ social justice organization honoring the experiences of Black LGBTQ women. She...

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Jennifer Bing

Jennifer Bing is NCLR’s Vice President of Advancement and oversees the cultivation and mobilization of support from individual donors, corporations, foundations and other institutions that share NCLR’s vision. Jennifer brings more thank 25 years of development and nonprofit leadership experience. Her long-standing relationship with NCLR includes creating and producing our fabulous NCLR Anniversary Celebration for the past decade, serving in various interim roles throughout the years and...

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Shannon Minter, Esq.

Shannon Minter is the Vice President of Legal (Legal Director) of the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), one of the nation’s leading advocacy organizations for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. Minter was lead counsel for same-sex couples in the landmark California marriage equality case which held that same-sex couples have the fundamental right to marry and that laws that discriminate based on sexual orientation are inherently discriminatory and subject to the...

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