Our Team

Founder and Director

Karen Tumlin (she/her/hers) is a nationally recognized impact litigator focusing on immigrants’ rights. She successfully litigated numerous cases of national significance, including a challenge to the Trump Administration’s effort to end the DACA program and the Muslim Ban, as well as the constitutional challenge to Arizona’s notorious anti-immigrant law, SB 1070. She formerly served as the Director of Legal Strategy and Legal Director for the National Immigration Law Center, where she built a legal department of over 15 staff who developed and led cases of national impact.

Contact Karen: Karen.Tumlin@justiceactioncenter.org

Legal Director

Esther (she/her/ella) is the Legal Director with JAC who has litigated a number of groundbreaking cases, including suits challenging the Trump Administration’s Muslim and Refugee Bans and Arizona’s anti-immigrant SB 1070 law. Before becoming an immigrants’ rights impact litigator, Esther practiced at Munger Tolles & Olson in Los Angeles for six years, where her clients included the Getty Museum, Southern California Edison, and Transocean. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Texas School of Law and clerked for the Honorable Lee H. Rosenthal on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas and the Honorable Allyson K. Duncan on the United States Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Contact Esther: Esther.Sung@justiceactioncenter.org

Deputy Director

Adela (she/her/ella) brings more than 15 years of communications and advocacy experience to Justice Action Center. Most recently, she served as a consultant to foundations and nonprofit organizations, advising on communications strategy and researching emergent themes in the integration between mobilization, fundraising, and communications. Prior to that, she was the communications director for the National Immigration Law Center, where she founded and built their communications platforms.

Contact Adela: Adela.Delatorre@justiceactioncenter.org

Communications Director

Tasha (she/her/ella) oversees all of JAC’s external communications strategies, applying more than a decade of nonprofit communications experience in service of social movements. Since joining JAC in 2021, she has co-directed communications efforts for the Safe Not Stranded campaign, contributing to a Supreme Court victory. She has also worked with partners to build narrative structures that activate diverse audiences to support a more immigrant inclusive future. Prior to JAC, she spent eight years as the Communications Director for the National Lawyers Guild, where she grew its digital audience tenfold, launched digital programs, and created a publication outlet featuring legal analysis, artwork, and poetry by people in prison. Before that, Tasha worked with LatinoJustice PRLDEF, NALEO, and the Hispanic Federation in various civic engagement, voting rights, and communications capacities. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa with honors from Reed College with a B.A. in Anthropology.

Contact Tasha: Tasha.Moro@justiceactioncenter.org

Communications Specialist

Joan (she/her/hers) oversees JAC’s online presence and contributes to messaging and narrative strategies. Joan worked closely with advocates and pollsters to develop a research-based narrative strategy focused on bringing new values to the immigration conversation, the results of which are used in campaigns today. She joins JAC from the Council on African Studies where she worked on lecture series, film festivals and media platforms. Joan also served as a Senior Intern at the Yale African Art Gallery and has conducted research on racial capitalism and organizing models for the Connecticut Bail Fund and Center for Popular Democracy. Joan graduated with honors from Yale University in the Ethnicity, Race and Migration Department where her studies centered around community organizing and black feminist thought.

Contact Joan: Joan.Agoh@justiceactioncenter.org

Skadden Fellow

Laura (she/her/ella) received her J.D. from UC Irvine, School of Law, where she pursued her passion for serving immigrant communities and community-centered lawyering through her work in the Immigrant Rights Clinic, the COVID-19 Civil Rights Clinic, and her internships at the National Center for Youth Law and Public Advocates. Laura contributed over 200 hours of pro bono service during her law school career, working on matters ranging from DACA and asylum applications to criminal expungement petitions. Laura also served as an Articles Editor of the UC Irvine Law Review and a student leader for the Latinx Law Student Association.

Contact Laura: Laura.Flores-Perilla@justiceactioncenter.org

Director, People Operations

Veonta (she/her) is a strategic human resources leader who brings more than 10 years of HR experience with more than 5 years of experience leading the HR function for organizations. Her experience spans various industries but is stewed in the public sector and non-profit organizations. She received her Bachelor of Business Administration from Cleveland State University, where she majored in human resource management, in 2011 and obtained a Master of Arts in Human Resource Management from the University of Houston-Clear Lake in 2016. In 2017, she obtained the senior certified professional certification from the Society of Human Resource Management and continues to maintain that credential.

Contact Veonta: Veonta.Weathers@justiceactioncenter.org

Program Manager

Elia (she/ella) joins JAC as a Program Manager. Prior to JAC, Elia was a Program Analyst at the Acacia Center for Justice and the Vera Institute of Justice where she worked with the Legal Orientation Program (LOP) and Legal Orientation Program for Custodians (LOPC). In her role, Elia provided support and technical assistance to nonprofit legal service providers providing legal orientations to detained immigrants and custodians of children released from immigration custody.

Contact Elia: Elia.GilRojas@justiceactioncenter.org

Digital Manager

Leila (she/her/hers) is a seasoned digital communications strategist who believes effective storytelling is key to building a better, more progressive future. A Georgia native and graduate of Agnes Scott College, she discovered her love of digital campaigning for social good upon founding a nonprofit focused on refugee resettlement on her college’s campus. Over the last seven years, Leila has honed her ability to meaningfully connect causes to their supporters across many different industries, including disability advocacy, immigration law, political campaigning, and tech entrepreneurship. Leila graduated with honors from ASC with a self-designed Human Rights major and independent research focused on the linguistic, legal, and theoretical frameworks of power and oppression.

Contact Leila: Leila.Chreiteh@justiceactioncenter.org

Counsel

Hillary (she/her/hers) joins JAC after serving as Policy Counsel with Detention Watch Network, where she drove federal legislative strategy to end immigration detention and assisted grassroots anti-detention campaigns around the country. Prior to that, Hillary litigated immigrant justice and voting rights impact cases with Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta. She successfully secured the release of immigrants from detention, supported class action and multi-plaintiff lawsuits challenging the unjust detention and deportation of community members, and led cases opposing voter suppression tactics implemented by the state of Georgia. Hillary received her J.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Contact Hillary: Hillary.Li@justiceactioncenter.org

Staff Attorney

Brandon Galli-Graves (he/him/his) joins JAC following an Immigrant Justice Corps fellowship on RAICES’ federal litigation team, where his work centered on holding the government accountable for harm inflicted on immigrants and pursuing systemic change. Brandon has been counsel in tort suits against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and private prison companies; in Texas v. DHS supporting the defense of parole pathways for individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela; and family separation litigation. He received his JD from BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School. In his free time, Brandon enjoys rock climbing, playing music, and spending time with his wife and young daughter.

Contact Brandon: Brandon.Galli-Graves@justiceactioncenter.org

Narrative Research Specialist

Liliana joins Justice Action Center as a Narrative Research Specialist dedicated to mobilizing storytelling for immigrant justice. She grew up undocumented in El Monte, CA, as the oldest daughter in a Mexican mixed status household. Her personal experience as an undocumented queer woman and as a DACA recipient since 2012 has motivated her to engage in research regarding undocumented immigration. She has a PhD in Anthropology from the University of California, Irvine, where she conducted ethnographic and auto-ethnographic research on how undocumented visual artists use their artwork towards political mobilization along with coping with and healing from migration trauma. She is also an independent curator dedicated to showcasing the nuances of being undocumented. At JAC, Liliana is inspired by the potential to use research to create change in the lives of directly impacted people. Outside of work, Liliana enjoys going to yoga, exploring art practices, drinking coffee, and spending time with family. 

Contact Liliana: Liliana.Ramirez@justiceactioncenter.org