Tammy Albarrán
Tammy Albarrán ’99 is the Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary of Peloton where she manages the company’s Legal, Compliance, Information Security, and Public Policy & Government Affairs teams.
Prior to joining Peloton, she was Chief Deputy General Counsel and Deputy Corporate Secretary at Uber where she oversaw the APAC, EMEA and Latam legal teams, as well as the global labor and employment, and corporate teams. Before Uber, Tammy was a Partner at Covington & Burling LLP where she advised public and private companies and their officers and directors on important and complex regulatory investigations, SEC enforcement actions, securities litigation, and internal investigations. While at Covington, Tammy led the 2017 investigation of Uber’s workplace culture issues and co-authored the Covington Report with former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
Tammy studied at the University of California at Berkeley and received her law degree from Harvard Law School.
Raquel E. Aldana
Raquel E. Aldana ’97 joined UC Davis in 2017 to serve as the inaugural Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Diversity with a law faculty appointment. She returned to full time law teaching in 2020. She began her law teaching career in 2000 and was a human rights lawyer with the Center for Justice and International Law and in private practice with Jones Day Reavis & Pogue prior.
Aldana has led multiple research projects and programs around gender violence, transitional justice, criminal justice, sustainable development, immigrant justice, and immigrant trauma. Her research has focused on transitional justice, criminal justice reforms and sustainable development in Latin America, as well as immigrant rights. She has authored or edited five books and published over thirty law review articles or book chapters on transitional justice, criminal justice, sustainable development, inter-cultural legal sensibility, and immigration. She is the recipient of several research grants, including serving as Principal Investigator of Building Bridges: Narrowing the Legal-Scientific Divide in Immigration Forensic Assessments, UC Davis Academic Senate Interdisciplinary Grants 2019-2020. For more information about this collaboration, please visit the website, Compassion in Immigration. Aldana teaches criminal procedure, asylum and refugee law, immigration law and policy, comparative forced displacement, and immigration federalism. She has also taught international human rights, lawyering for immigrants, “crimmigration,” criminal law and procedure, international labor law, Latin American comparative law, international public law, international human rights, statutes and regulations, and specialized courses such as the Central American migration corridor. From 2021 to 2025, Aldana served as Co-Director of the Aoki Center for Critical Race and Nation Studies. In 2023, the AOKI Center partnered with UC Press to produce a new Critical Race Theory Book Series. This series, co-edited by Aldana and Professor Kevin R. Johnson, breaks new ground in critical race theory by developing a global, interdisciplinary, multiracial, and accessible series of books that reveal how racial subordination and white supremacy are embedded in US life and law. From 2006 to 2007, Aldana was a Fulbright Scholar in Guatemala.
Since starting at UC Davis, Aldana has received numerous awards including the American Bar Association Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, the UC Davis Chancellor’s Achievement Award for Diversity and Community and the UC Davis Office of Research and Policy for Equity Ubuntu Award for Inspiring Social Change. In 2019, Aldana was selected as an inaugural fellow of the Hispanic Association Colleges and Universities’ Academia de Liderazgo. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute (ALI), widely considered the nation’s preeminent law reform organization. Aldana is also a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and previously served as the co-president of the Society of American Law Teachers. In 2022, she was selected as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
In June 2018 Chancellor May invited Aldana to join a task force to help UC Davis become a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). The HSI Taskforce submitted a report forging a vision with concrete steps on how UC Davis can become a premier Hispanic Serving R1 land grant institution. In 2024, UC Davis joined dozens of other R1 universities and only a handful that are also land grant in becoming an HSI. For over a decade, Aldana has served in the Latin American and Caribbean Council of the ABA’s Rule of Law Initiative (ROLI), including as its Chair, and as a member of the ROLI BOARD. She also serves as a Regent of the International Bar Association’s Foundation, and is a founding member of the Graciela Olivarez Latinas in the Legal Academy Initiative. Aldana has served on multiple non-profit Boards, including Oasis Legal Services, and currently serves on the California Immigration Project, Torus, and the Yolo Museum and Cultural Center Steering Committee.
Julie Anna Alvarez Rivera
Julie Anna Alvarez Rivera ’88 – With a passion for helping people succeed in their career goals and find jobs they find satisfying, Julie Anna is a Career Advisor and Career Development Professional with 20 years of experience in the higher education sector at highly regarded institutions including the career services offices of Columbia Law School, Fordham Law School, Yeshiva University’s Cardozo Law School, and The University of Chicago Law School. She also oversaw all career services for the three schools comprising Manhattan University and worked as part of the professional development team at Paul Weiss (2021-2023). She enjoys guiding individuals on their unique career journeys and is a strong supporter of career well-being and professional sustainability. Since April 2024, Julie Anna has been the Co-Chair of the NALP Hispanic/Latinx affinity group. Her leadership roles within NALP include appointment from 2024-2025 by then NALP President, Rebecca Calman, to the Change Management Task Force; elected service in the NALP Board of Directors (2016-2018 term); elected service on the NALP Nominating Committee (2014-2015 representing the Northeast Region Schools); Co-Chair of the NALP Law School Alumni Career Services Section for two terms (2012-13 & 2013-2014). She is the author of the book chapter “Working with Alumni” in NALP’s book Perspectives on Career Services (NALP, 3rd Ed., October 2015). She has 7 co-authored and 10 solo-authored published articles to her credit. She has moderated or spoken on numerous panels throughout her career, including a career-focused panel for alumnae as part of the Harvard Law School Women’s Alliance. In June 2020, she received The Latina 50+ Carmen Vega-Rivera Education Award “in honor of [her] lifetime commitment, wisdom and dedication to the Latino Community”.
After graduating Harvard College in three years with an A.B. cum laude in History and Literature of England, Julie Anna went straight through to HLS where she was an active member of La Alianza, the Harvard Law School Forum (Board Member, 1986-1987 & 1987-1988), the Committee on Sports & Entertainment Law (Board Member/Publicity Director), and the Dormitory Student Affairs Council among other activities. She even did blue booking for the Civil Rights – Civil Liberties Law Review as 1L. She launched her legal career as a Corporate Associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. She then subsequently pursued her interest in Entertainment, Copyright and Trademark law at Weiss, Dawid, Fross, Zelnick & Lehrman, P.C. before embarking on an “alternative legal career” path. Before finding her path in career services in 2006, these experiences included six years as second in command at the New York City Bar Association’s Legal Referral Service, where among her other contributions and management responsibilities, she organized special projects such as ABA award-winning National Law Day events (2nd Place 1995 and 1st Place 1998). There she also engaged in community outreach appearances on TV and radio in both English & Spanish.
Also, an entrepreneur, this past Spring Julie Anna launched Career Journey Now as her career advising consultancy. Additionally, for over 25 years she has been the Founder and Chief Harmony Officer of a business serving individuals and commercial clients, including law firms and clients like The New York Times, providing holistic topic workshops and Feng Shui design consulting services. The business is now called A Life in Harmony x HCS (an expansion of her original business Happy Chi Solutions). She is considered an expert on Feng Shui and vision/goal boards, in addition to being a certified “Infinite Possibilities” trainer under the auspices of author Mike Dooley, a trained Reiki practitioner, and will soon be a graduate of Dawson Church’s Professional Clinical EFT Practitioner program utilizing “Tapping Meditation” techniques. While her entrepreneurial activities often have taken a backseat to her work in Career Development, they have been yet another outlet to help people live their best lives and have helped her keep a positive perspective when dealing with stressful workloads in her primary career engagements. About this portion of her career, Julie Anna likes to say that she has gone from practicing the laws of New York State to practicing the laws of the Universe!
A New York City native proud of her Puerto Rican heritage, Julie Anna is currently active in her community as a volunteer with the National Puerto Rican Day Parade, Inc., the Puerto Rican Institute for the Development of the Arts, and Comité Noviembre. At a New York State level, she was selected to be a Board Member of the NYS Minority Business Opportunity Committee for 1994-1996. She served on many committees at the New York City Bar Association and participated in professional development programming and panels offered by the Association. Her Harvard-affiliated service has included having been Chair/Co-Chair of the HLS Alumni Association Latino Alumni/ae Committee from 1991-1994 and a Trustee and Co-Chair of the Recent Graduates Committee for the HLSA of New York from 1992-1995. She was a moderator/panelist most recently for HLS Celebration 65.
Fabiola Alvelais
Fabiola Alvelais ’19 is a staff attorney with the ACLU of Texas, where she works to protect and advance civil rights and civil liberties.
A native of the El Paso–Juárez border region, Fabiola earned her bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Texas at El Paso, graduating with honors, and her law degree from Harvard Law School. During law school, she was a student attorney in the International Human Rights Clinic, a member of the Harvard Latin American Law Review, and a board member of La Alianza student organization.
Prior to joining the ACLU of Texas, Fabiola was the recipient of two prestigious human rights fellowships, through which she worked on justice initiatives in Bolivia, Brazil, and Mexico. She has also advanced legal and advocacy efforts in Puerto Rico, Ghana, Western Sahara, and Honduras, among others. Before returning to public interest work, Fabiola practiced commercial litigation in New York, representing clients in state and federal courts.
Fabiola is proficient in Spanish, English, and Portuguese.
Ricardo Anzaldua
Ricardo Anzaldua ’90 began his career at Cleary, Gottlieb, where he was elected partner in 1998. He began his in-house career at The Hartford Financial Services Group in 2007 and has since served as general counsel of MetLife, Freddie Mac and most recently the Everest Insurance Group. He has deep experience in US securities law as well as banking and insurance regulatory matters, public and private M&A and international trade, having advised the governments of Mexico, Chile and the Republic of Korea in their free trade negotiations with the United States. Ricardo counts among his successes the only successful challenge to an attempted designation of a too-big-to-fail company (MetLife) under the Dodd-Frank Act, which led to the adoption by the federal government of new standards for such designations. Ricardo is best known in the profession as a champion of diversity and inclusion initiatives. Having begun his career in equal justice as a community organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1970s, he was (while serving as General Counsel of MetLife) one of the original signatories of the ABA’s Model Diversity Survey and led the creation of groundbreaking stewardship programs for creating diverse leadership pipelines at MetLife and Freddie Mac. He serves on the Boards of Directors of Latino Justice/PRLDEF and Greater Hartford Legal Aid Foundation (where he served as Board President from 2015-2018). He is retired from the Boards of The New York City Bar Fund, MCCA and International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (which he chaired from 2017-2022). He is currently an active member of General Counsels United, focusing particularly on efforts to protect and defend the rule of law.
Honorable Christine M. Arguello
Senior United States District Court Judge
District of Colorado
The Honorable Christine M. Arguello ’80 is a Colorado native and first-generation high school graduate who obtained a degree in Elementary Education from the University of Colorado at Boulder where she graduated with Special Honors, was number one in her class, and was selected by the faculty as Outstanding Senior of the School of Education class of 1977. In 1977, she became the first Latina from Colorado to be admitted to Harvard University School of Law. She graduated from Harvard in 1980, where she served as Articles Editor for the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review.
Judge Arguello was sworn in as a judge of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado in 2008. On July 15, 2022, Judge Arguello moved to senior status. Prior to her presidential appointment to the bench, Judge Arguello’s career included partnership at two private law firms, Holland & Hart LLP and Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP; government service as Chief Deputy Attorney General of Colorado and as Managing Senior Associate Counsel at the University of Colorado at Boulder; and teaching at the University of Kansas School of Law, where she was a tenured full professor. Judge Arguello is the co-author of a casebook, “Evidence: The Objection Method,” which is used in numerous law schools around the country.
In 2014, Judge Arguello implemented Law School…Yes We Can (LSYWC), a law school pipeline mentoring program in which college students who are interested in becoming lawyers are paired with mentors, provided with skill-building and exposure programming, and participate in an intensive LSAT preparation course. The end goal of LSYWC is to level the playing field and assist the students in gaining acceptance into the law school of their choice. To date, 12 students from LSYWC have graduated from law schools such as Harvard, University of Colorado, University of Denver, University of New Mexico, Seattle University, University of Wyoming, and Howard University. An additional 16 LSYWC alumni are in law school, and an additional 167 LSYWC Fellows are currently participating in LSYWC. For more information on the program, please go to http://lawschoolyeswecan.org.
Her “Firsts” include:
- First Colorado Latina to Graduate from Harvard University School of Law – 1980
- First Latina Elected to the Colorado Springs District 11 School Board – 1987
- First Latino/a to Make Partner in One of the Big Four Law Firms in Denver – 1988
- First Latino/a Chief Deputy Attorney General in Colorado – 2000
- First Latino/a Federal Judge in Colorado – 2008
Judge Arguello has received numerous honors and awards for the many glass ceilings she has shattered and for the work she has done to provide guidance and inspiration to those who wish to enter the legal profession. Those honors include being inducted into both the Colorado Latino Hall of Fame (2019) and the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame (2014), George Norlin Outstanding Alumni Award, University of Colorado–Boulder (2021), Judge Wiley Daniel Lifetime Achievement Award, Center for Legal Inclusiveness (2021), Celebration Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Legal Profession and Public Welfare, Harvard Law School Celebration ’65 (2018), Latina Judge of the Year, Hispanic National Bar Association (2015), and Lifetime Achievement Award, Colorado Hispanic Bar Association (2015), Latina Trailblazer, Latinas First Foundation (2013), Honoree, Women Attorneys Who Continue to “Raise the Bar”, Colorado Women’s Bar Association Foundation (2012), Social Justice & Human Rights Champion of Change Award, Escuela Tlatelolco (2012), Honorary Order of the Coif Award, University of Colorado School of Law (2012), “Scouting . . . Vale La Pena!” Service Award, Denver Area Boy Scout Council (2007), Qwest Diversity Trailblazer Individual of the Year, Rocky Mountain Legal Diversity Summit (2007), The Denver Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Fiesta Colorado Hispanic Pioneer Award (2001), Colorado Women’s Bar Association’s Mary Lathrop Award (honoring women trailblazers) (2000).
Anoush Baghdassarian
Anoush Baghdassarian ’22 is an associate at Boies Schiller Flexner LLP. She also serves as co-founder and legal director of Rerooted, a non-profit focusing on identity and justice efforts for victims of atrocity crimes. Before joining the firm, Anoush clerked for the Hon. Joseph F. Bianco of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Anoush’s experience includes working at the International Criminal Court and litigating before the International Court of Justice, United Nations treaty bodies, regional courts, foreign national courts, and U.S. domestic courts. Anoush has also led teams on the ground in conflict zones, investigating, gathering evidence, and conducting interviews to build and litigate cases.
Anoush is a member of the HLS class of ’22, and a proud recipient of the Kaufman Pro Bono Award. Prior to HLS, she received her Master’s in Human Rights Studies from Columbia University, and graduated magna cum laude from Claremont McKenna College.
Dino Barajas
Dino Barajas ’93 focuses his practice on domestic and international project development and finance, with particular emphasis on infrastructure projects, debt financings and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Barajas regularly represents lenders, investors and developers in a wide range of domestic and international project financings in the energy, power, infrastructure and commercial sectors, as well as in traditional banking, structured finance, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, asset finance, joint ventures and venture capital transactions. His clients include commercial lenders, institutional investors, investment funds, project sponsors, and public and private companies. Mr. Barajas has worked on transactions in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curacao, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guam, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States, Yemen and elsewhere.
Arlene Burgos
Arlene Burgos ’97 is Mayor of the Village of Irvington, New York, and a law firm partner who advises multijurisdictional ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families on international corporate, tax, trusts and estates, and business succession planning matters.
Burgos was elected to the Irvington Village Board in 2021 and served as Deputy Mayor before becoming Mayor. As a Village Trustee, she worked closely with residents, business owners, Village staff, and fellow elected officials on a range of issues affecting the community, including environmental sustainability, infrastructure, housing, parks and recreation, downtown development, police reform, and community engagement. She also helped the Village pursue significant grant funding for infrastructure and environmental projects.
Burgos’s civic leadership grew out of her involvement in Irvington’s schools and her commitment to fostering a diverse and engaged community. She co-chaired the PTSA Diversity Committee and helped lead “Irvington is Everyone,” a project that used children’s artwork to promote diversity, inclusion, and belonging. She has also served on the Village’s Arts and Culture Committee and as a board member of Commemorate, an organization dedicated to commemorating, preserving, and uplifting Black histories in Westchester County through community education, engagement, and activism to dismantle the legacies of racism.
Burgos brings to public service the same approach that has shaped her legal career: listening carefully, navigating complex issues, building consensus, and working collaboratively toward practical solutions. Her commitment to local government reflects a broader belief in the importance of community participation and in creating opportunities for residents to contribute their time, talents, and perspectives to civic life.
Burgos and her husband, Jorge, moved to Irvington in 2011 with their two daughters. Raising their family in the community has deepened her understanding of the issues facing local families and strengthened her commitment to ensuring that Irvington remains a welcoming and vibrant place for residents, businesses, and families of all backgrounds.
Burgos received her B.A. from Yale University and her J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Raul Campillo
Raul Campillo, B.A. ’09, J.D. ’14, serves as the District 7 Councilmember on the San Diego City Council, representing more than 157,000 residents in the city’s urban core. First elected in 2020 and re-elected without opposition in 2024, he has earned a reputation for pragmatic and responsive constituent service. He has authored legislation that expanded childcare options, supported workers and job creation, strengthened public safety, and invested in neighborhood infrastructure.
Before entering public office, Campillo taught fifth grade through Teach For America in Las Vegas, practiced law at O’Melveny & Myers LLP in Los Angeles, and served as a prosecutor in the San Diego City Attorney’s Office. Those experiences shaped his enduring commitment to effective local government.
A native San Diegan with family roots in Calexico, California, and Mexicali, Baja California, Campillo credits his father, an immigration attorney of over 45 years, with inspiring his dedication to law and public service. Campillo and his wife, Nadia Farjood Campillo, B.A. ’13, J.D. ’18, are the proud parents of two young children.
Yvonne E. Campos
Judge Yvonne Campos ’88 was sworn in to the Superior Court of California on October 2003, after being appointed by Governor Gray Davis. Judge Campos is a general jurisdiction trial judge in the County of San Diego. In addition to hearing criminal cases, she has presided over limited civil matters, a juvenile dependency department in Juvenile Court handling cases regarding neglected and abused children, and has also served on the Appellate Division of her court.
Judge Campos serves as the President of the Harvard Law School Association (HLSA). She has previously served for nine years as a Trustee of the San Diego Law Library, eight years as Treasurer of the California Latino Judges Association, and previously served three years as an Elected Director of the worldwide Harvard Alumni Association. Judge Campos previously served for five years as a co-chair of the countywide high school mock trial competition, serving hundreds of high school students annually. California Women Lawyers awarded her the Joan Dempsey Klein Distinguished Jurist Award in 2015 for her excellence as a jurist and her longstanding vigorous service and inspiration to women lawyers of California, and the Lawyers Club of San Diego awarded her its Community Service Award in 2017. She received the Woman of Color Excellence Award from the Diverse Women’s Committee in 2022. For service to her undergraduate alma mater, she received an Award of Merit from the Stanford Associates in 2017 for her engagement work on her 30th college reunion.
Prior to joining the bench, Judge Campos served as an Assistant US Attorney in the Southern District of California from 1995 to 2003, serving as a Deputy Chief in the General Crimes Section. In 1994, Judge Campos was awarded a White House Fellowship by President Clinton and served on the staff of Attorney General Janet Reno at the US Department of Justice in Washington, DC.
Judge Campos was an attorney in private practice specializing in real estate transactions, land use, and environmental law with the California law firms of Morrison & Foerster (Los Angeles) and Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison (San Diego). Immediately upon graduation from law school, Judge Campos served as a Senate Fellow with the California State Senate (Sen. Gary K. Hart) in Sacramento. While in college, she served as an LBJ Congressional Intern for the US House of Representatives (Rep. Martin Frost) in Washington, DC.
Judge Campos earned her JD from Harvard Law School and her AB from Stanford University, with Distinction in 1985. She is the mother of two young adults in Generation Z.
- 2024-2026: Harvard Law School Association President
Norma Cantú
Norma V. Cantú ’77 and her mother attended college together. Gregoria, the mother of six, was determined her children would not become farmworkers, and to prove her point, Gregoria took Norma to help cousins pick cotton. Norma took that lesson to heart.
Following her mother’s example, Norma became a high school teacher at age 19 and graduated from HLS at age 22. Norma investigated long-term care facilities for the State of Texas, and as a MALDEF attorney she represented low-income persons in employment and education cases. After 14 years of service at MALDEF, Norma became the federal OCR chief, and first Latina to chair the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
At MALDEF, she was a litigator, administrator, fundraiser and community builder. Among other responsibilities, she nominated community leaders to White House transition teams in both Republican and Democratic administrations. When she placed her own resume before the White House Personnel Team in 1992, she was selected by President Clinton to serve as the head of OCR for the U.S. Department of Education. From 1993 to 2001, her OCR management ran a tight ship, adhering to Supreme Court rulings while relying heavily on negotiation to open doors for students from K through doctoral programs.
In 2001, Norma was recruited by UT Austin where she earned tenure as full professor in 2002. For two decades, she served as teacher, mentor, scholar and advocate for students; this included her chairing dissertation committees and creating UT Law’s first disability law class in 2002. As accomplishments, she points to her selection as department chair twice; serving on the management team for the Dean of the College of Education; and celebrating when her departments were listed among the top ten departments nationally. In 2020, she was invited to serve on the search committee of the Biden White House Transition Team. In 2021, Norma became the first Latina Chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from February 2021 to January 21, 2023, working part-time in Austin and in D.C. Finishing her term at USCCR in 2023, Norma returned full-time to UT at Austin and has recently retired from teaching. She is very proud of her students.
Joaquin Castro
Congressman Joaquin Castro ’00 (D-TX) proudly represents his hometown, San Antonio, in Congress. Serving his 7th term, he is the highest-ranking Democrat in the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere and is a senior member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Joaquin is a tireless advocate for those who call San Antonio home. From supporting military families and protecting immigrants to investing in education and healthcare, Joaquin remains committed to helping build an infrastructure of opportunity for San Antonians and Americans. He believes that our centuries-long commitment to building and preserving this infrastructure is what distinguishes America among the nations of the world.
Julián Castro
Julián Castro ’00 serves as Chief Executive Officer of the Latino Community Foundation, the nation’s largest Latino-serving foundation.
Julián’s deep commitment to the future of this nation is woven into his DNA. Raised by his mother Rosie Castro, a civil rights and Chicana activist, and his grandmother, Victoria Castro, on the westside of San Antonio, Texas, Julian grew up with a profound understanding of what it meant to love and serve community. Inspired by a legacy of leaders working to safeguard our democracy and strengthen community, Julian has dedicated his life to public service.
Julián was elected to the San Antonio City Council in 2001 at age 26, then was elected Mayor of San Antonio in 2009. The youngest mayor of a Top 50 American city at the time, Julian revitalized and transformed San Antonio into one of the country’s leading economies. In 2014, President Barack Obama appointed Julián U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, where he served until the end of the Obama administration.
In 2020, Julián ran for the Democratic nomination for President.
Julián earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University and a law degree from Harvard Law School. His memoir, An Unlikely Journey: Waking Up From My American Dream, was published by Little Brown in 2018.
Julian is the proud father of a daughter, Carina, and a son, Cristián. Julián’s brother Joaquin currently represents Texas’ 20th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. In his free time, Julian loves spending time and traveling with his family.
Andrew Crespo
Andrew Manuel Crespo ’08 is the Morris Wasserstein Public Interest Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he teaches criminal law and procedure and serves as the Executive Faculty Director of the Institute to End Mass Incarceration. Professor Crespo’s research and scholarly expertise center on the institutional design, legal frameworks, and power structures of the American penal system, and on the relationship between lawyers, organizers, and social movement actors in effecting transformational change. His scholarship has been honored by the Association of American Law Schools and profiled in The New York Times, with his leading articles appearing in the Harvard Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal. Together with John Rappaport, he is the author of Criminal Law and the American Penal System, an innovative casebook that recasts the traditionally required criminal law course as a class about the role law and lawyers have played in building and sustaining American mass incarceration. In 2025, he was awarded Harvard University’s Albert M. Sacks-Paul A. Freund Award for Teaching Excellence in recognition of his teaching ability, attentiveness to student concerns, and contributions to student life at Harvard Law School.
Nationally recognized for his expertise on a range of legal issues, Professor Crespo’s public commentary can be found in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and online at Lawfare, Just Security, Take Care, and Inquest, where he is a founding editor and Co-Editor in Chief. A publicly engaged academic, he regularly shares legal analyses and commentary in print, on television, and on the radio, with appearances on CNN, MSNBC, Democracy Now!, NPR’s On Point and All Things Considered, and NBC’s Meet the Press.
Through his leadership of the Institute to End Mass Incarceration, Professor Crespo works to develop modes of legal practice that integrate lawyers effectively and responsibly into organizer-led anti-carceral campaigns and movements. Related to that work, he serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Leading Change Network, an international nonprofit dedicated to teaching community organizing and to supporting organizers working to build more just and democratic societies across the globe. Professor Crespo also serves on the Board of Directors of the ACLU of Massachusetts, the Academic Advisory Board of the American Constitution Society, the Board of Trustees of the Harvard Law Review Association, the Standing Advisory Committee on the Rules of Criminal Procedure for the state of Massachusetts, and as an elected member of the American Law Institute. In 2021, at the appointment of President Biden, he served as a Commissioner on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Professor Crespo is the General Counsel of the Harvard Faculty Chapter of the American Association of University Professors, the nation’s leading association of faculty members dedicated to safeguarding academic freedom and independence, promoting shared faculty governance of institutions of higher learning, and protecting the economic security of the profession.
Prior to beginning his academic career, Professor Crespo served as a Staff Attorney with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, where he represented over one hundred adults and juveniles charged with serious felonies, ranging from armed robberies, to burglaries, to homicides. As a member of the Harvard Law School faculty he continues to be active in litigation, authoring merits stage and amicus briefs on various issues, often in close collaboration with his students.
Professor Crespo graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2008, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review, the first Latino to hold that position. Following law school, Professor Crespo served for three years as a law clerk, initially to Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, then to Associate Justice Stephen Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court, and finally to Associate Justice Elena Kagan during her inaugural term on the Court. Following his time as a public defender, Professor Crespo returned to Harvard as an assistant professor of law in 2015. In 2019, he became the first Latino promoted to a tenured position on the law school’s faculty.
Ryan Doerfler
Ryan Doerfler ’13 focuses his research on the role of the judiciary within a democratic system. His recent work includes a critical reassessment of the embrace of judicial review within the liberal legal tradition and an analysis of the relationship between theories of statutory and constitutional interpretation and a fundamental commitment to democratic self-rule. Ryan’s academic work has been published in numerous leading law journals. His popular writing has appeared in the Atlantic, Dissent, Jacobin, the Nation, the New Republic, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.
Ryan graduated from Wake Forest University with a BA in philosophy. He then received a PhD in philosophy from Harvard University and a JD from Harvard Law School. Prior to joining the Harvard faculty, Ryan taught at the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania.
Jorge Elorza
Jorge Elorza ’03 is Chief Executive Officer of Democrats for Education Reform. He is one of the most prominent Democratic voices in the country calling on the party to embrace an abundance reform agenda built on accountability, innovation, and choice. He took the helm at DFER in 2023, bringing a record of bold, outcomes-focused leadership and a deep conviction that every child—regardless of ZIP code, income or background—deserves access to an excellent education and the opportunity to thrive.
Before leading DFER, he served two terms as mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, where he earned a reputation as a pragmatic progressive willing to challenge entrenched systems in pursuit of better results for families. As mayor, he undertook bold actions to advance a social and racial justice agenda. This included taking the unprecedented step to engage the state Department of Education to turn around the city’s chronically underperforming school system, creating the city’s Eat, Play, Learn Initiative to expand out-of-school enrichment, and launching a nationally recognized African American Ambassador Group to bring Black leaders into the center of policymaking. Notably, he invested $400 million into repairing school buildings, and supported the expansion of high-quality public charter schools.
Born and raised in Providence, Mayor Elorza is a graduate of Classical High school, the University of Rhode Island, and Harvard Law School. Prior to being elected mayor, he was a legal aid attorney, he served as a Providence Housing Court Judge, and he co-founded the Latino Policy Institute while he served as a professor at Roger Williams University School of Law. Jorge lives with his wife, Stephanie, and his son, Omar, in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Providence.
Asseret Frausto
Asseret Frausto ’19 is a partner in the Boston office of McDermott Will & Schulte LLP, where she focuses on high-stakes commercial litigation and government and internal investigations, including complex trial and appellate matters in federal and state courts across the country. Asseret also maintains a robust pro bono practice focused largely on immigration and criminal justice issues. She has been recognized for that work with several honors, including the Boston Bar Association’s inaugural 2025 Mary K. Ryan Achievement in Pro Bono Award, selection as a Social Impact Finalist in the 2025 New England Legal Awards, and the Victim Rights Law Center’s 2026 Shining Star Award. Asseret is also a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, where she teaches Spanish for Lawyers. Before joining McDermott and teaching at Harvard, she clerked for Chief Judge Mary Murguia of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Judge John A. Mendez (HLS ’80) of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. Asseret graduated from Harvard Law School in 2019. While at HLS, she served as Co-President of La Alianza and as a student attorney with the Prison Legal Assistance Project, the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic, and the Family Law and Domestic Violence Clinic.
Dolores Lola Garcia
Dolores “Lola” Patria Garcia ’09 is a dedicated first-chair trial lawyer who handles complex commercial litigation matters. She counsels business clients both before and after litigation arises on wide ranging issues involving business disputes, commercial contract interpretation, and compliance issues. She has represented large and small organizations, including financial institutions, real estate developers, health care facilities and providers, and manufacturers in state and federal courts. Lola has particular experience in defending companies subject to government investigation and follow-on civil and criminal litigation. A former Assistant United States Attorney, Lola has extensive experience with litigation involving various state and federal statutes regulating business conduct and competition, including investigations and pre-suit analyses related to each of these areas.
Joe Garcia
Joe Garcia ’83 recently retired as Chancellor of the Colorado Community College System, where he led a system of 13 colleges serving over 100,000 students at 35 locations. Prior to his role at CCCS, Garcia served as President of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.
From 2011 to 2016, he served as the Lt. Governor of Colorado and as the Exec. Dir. of the Colorado Department of Higher Education. He previously served as President of both Pikes Peak State College and Colorado State University-Pueblo. He has also served in other leadership roles in state and federal government.
Garcia is a graduate of the University of Colorado in Boulder and Harvard Law School. He is married to Dr. Claire Garcia, a faculty member at Colorado College, and they have four adult children.
Jasmine Gonzales Rose
Professor Jasmine Gonzales Rose ’04 is an evidence law scholar whose research examines how race, language, and racism shape legal proof and who can serve as factfinders in the justice system. Grounded in critical race studies and informed by epistemology and sociolinguistics, her work reimagines evidence law to promote fairness, accuracy, and equity. She is Professor of Law and an award-winning teacher at Boston University School of Law, where she teaches Evidence, Criminal Law, and LatinXs and the Law, and previously served as Associate Dean for Equity, Justice, and Engagement. Before joining Boston University, she taught for nearly a decade at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. A graduate of Harvard Law School, where she was active in La Alianza and served as co-editor-in-chief of the (then named) Harvard Latino Law Review, Professor Gonzales Rose clerked for Judge Damon J. Keith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and Judge Héctor M. Laffitte of the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. She is a member of the American Law Institute, serves on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Advisory Committee on Evidence Law, has led antiracist legal policy initiatives within academia and the broader community, and has served on the boards of the American Civil Liberties Union of Greater Pittsburgh and the Abolitionist Law Center, founded by her former students.
Juanita C. Hernández
Juanita C. Hernández ’85 recently retired as senior litigation counsel in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. after serving 20 years at the SEC. Currently, Juanita is taking a hiatus from her litigation practice as she transitions to her next career chapter and relocation to her home state of Texas. Juanita received her law degree and undergraduate degree, cum laude from Harvard University. She is licensed to practice law in Texas and the District of Columbia. She is also admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit; all four U.S. District Courts in Texas and for the District of Columbia. Juanita was earlier Board Certified in Labor and Employment Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Previously, she was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of Texas, served in the Justice Department as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division and was a litigator practicing in major law firms in San Antonio. She clerked for the Hon. William Wayne Justice, then Chief Judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Juanita is also a seasoned speaker on litigation, employment law and securities law as well as inclusion issues.
Juanita is an experienced leader and organizer in various bar associations, professional, alumni and civic groups. Within the American Bar Association (ABA), Juanita serves on the Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities. She has previously served on various ABA committees and commissions. She has also contributed to ABA publications on issues affecting women in the law and diversity in the legal profession.
She is a past-President of the Harvard Law School Association (HLSA) of the District of Columbia. A founding member and chair of the HLSA’s Latino Alumni Network, Juanita has served as a speaker and co-chair for the Celebrations of HLS Latino Alumni. She currently serves on the HLSA Senior Advisory Council. Juanita was recognized as a dedicated leader within the Harvard alumni community when she was awarded the Harvard Alumni Association Award for her outstanding service to Harvard University through her many alumni activities.
Argenis Herrera
Argenis Herrera ’28 is a second-year student at Harvard Law School interested in civil rights litigation. At HLS, he serves as Vice President of Communications for La Alianza and Admissions & Recruitment Co-Chair for Lambda. He is also an editor of the Harvard Latin American Law Review and a member of the Harvard Black Law Students Association, QTPOC, and First Class. As a research assistant with the Center for Labor and a Just Economy, Argenis has studied policy approaches to protecting workers across the globe from extreme heat. During the summer of 2026, he worked with the ACLU of Alabama on civil rights and civil liberties matters. In summer 2027, he will split his time between Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP and a public-interest organization.
Before law school, Argenis was a product manager at Fidelity Investments. He graduated from Williams College in 2022 with a degree in Political Economy. Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in Waterbury, Connecticut, Argenis is the proud son of Dominican immigrants. He came to the United States at age five—and still remembers the exact day he arrived.
Luz E. Herrera
Luz E. Herrera ’99, Professor of Law at Texas A&M University School of Law, is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School. She is a nationally recognized leader in clinical legal education, access to justice, and community lawyering. She has served as an Associate Dean at Texas A&M University and an Assistant Dean at UCLA School of Law.
The daughter of immigrants and a first-generation college graduate, Professor Herrera has devoted her career to expanding opportunity through education and the law. For more than two decades, she has worked to increase access to justice while preparing future lawyers to serve communities that have historically lacked meaningful access to legal representation. She founded Community Lawyers, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing affordable legal services and advancing innovative models of community-based law practice. Her projects include launching a medical-legal partnership in the Rio Grande Valley, and a legal services project that helps youth who are transitioning out of foster care. Her scholarship and leadership have helped shape law firm incubator programs across the United States and internationally, creating sustainable pathways for attorneys committed to serving low- and moderate-income communities.
Professor Herrera’s lifelong commitment to leadership and public service includes serving two years as the chair of the American Bar Association’s Special Committee on Hispanic Rights and Responsibilities. Throughout her career, she has mentored aspiring lawyers and civic leaders, championed educational opportunity, and worked to strengthen the legal profession through education, innovation, service, and a steadfast belief that every community deserves meaningful access to justice. Her selection as a CHCI Distinguished Alumni Award recipient reflects a career dedicated to empowering others and advancing the next generation of Latino leaders.
Kristi Jobson
Kristi Jobson ’12 is the Assistant Dean for Admissions and Chief Admissions Officer. Kristi graduated from Harvard College and taught in New York City as a Teach For America corps member. As a student at HLS, Kristi participated in the Board of Student Advisers, the Women’s Law Association, and the Parody musical. She also led the Harvard Journal of Law & Gender as co-Editor-in-Chief. After clerking for judges in the Boston area, Kristi joined Ropes & Gray as a litigation associate. Of all the many things she enjoys about her current role, Kristi most values the ability to stay connected with students during their years in law school. In 2021, the Women’s Law Association honored Kristi with an award for exceptional support for students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Class of 2022 selected her for the Suzanne L. Richardson Staff Appreciation Award at graduation.
Massiel Leiva
Massiel Leiva ’21, Law Clerk, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
For the past two years, Massiel has clerked for judges at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Previously, she worked at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom’s Washington D.C. Office, where she focused on white collar government investigations. She also represented clients on a pro bono basis in immigration and child custody appeals.
Massiel graduated from the University of Miami and earned her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.
Louis Lopez
Louis Lopez ’96 is Senior Vice President of Litigation at AARP Foundation, where he oversees a public interest law firm working at the intersection of aging and social justice. In this role, he leads a team of lawyers and legal professionals advocating for systemic change in federal and state courts nationwide to advance the legal rights and interests of people 50 and older, particularly those who are vulnerable and have low income.
Mr. Lopez has a long history of civil rights law experience, having served in executive leadership, legal, and policy roles in the public and private sectors. In these positions, he oversaw nationwide programs involving employment discrimination, consumer rights, veteran issues, and whistleblower protections. Prior to joining AARP Foundation, Mr. Lopez served in federal leadership roles at the Department of Justice, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Office of Special Counsel. Mr. Lopez also worked in private practice at law firms in Chicago and Washington, DC, and at Washington Post Digital. For eight years, he was an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown Law School, where he taught advanced courses in labor and employment law.
Mr. Lopez currently serves as a Commissioner on the ABA’s Commission on Law and Aging, a Board Member of the D.C. Bar Board of Governors, and a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. Earlier in his career, he served as Chair of the ABA’s Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities, Commissioner on the ABA’s Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, President of the Hispanic Bar Association of D.C., and Board Member of the Harvard Law School Association of Washington, D.C.
Mr. Lopez was named the Federal Labor and Employment Attorney of the Year by the American Bar Association (ABA) in 2021, and received the Hugh A. Johnson Memorial Award from the Hispanic Bar Association of D.C. for his unwavering commitment to equality and social justice in 2025.
Mr. Lopez is a graduate of the University of Kansas (B.S. in Journalism), Harvard Law School (J.D.), and Georgetown Law School (LL.M. in Labor & Employment Law), where he graduated first in his class.
Loretta Lynch
Loretta E. Lynch ’84, the former United States Attorney General, is a partner in the Paul, Weiss Litigation Department. Ms. Lynch advises clients on government and internal investigations and on high-stakes litigation and regulatory matters. Ms. Lynch’s legal career has included both private law practice and public service, including three presidential appointments. Ms. Lynch served as the U.S. Attorney General from 2015-2017, where she was appointed by President Barack Obama. As Attorney General, Ms. Lynch oversaw more than 100,000 employees across numerous agencies and offices, including the 93 U.S. Attorneys; major investigative agencies, including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); the U.S. Marshals Service; the Bureau of Prisons; the National Security Division; and the Office of the Solicitor General, among others. Ms. Lynch has been named one of Benchmark Litigation’s “Top 250 Women in Litigation.” Additionally, Ms. Lynch has been recognized by Chambers in the Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations (New York) category. Ms. Lynch received her J.D. and her B.A. in American Literature from Harvard University.
Glenda E. Martinez
Glenda E. Martinez ’90 is Assistant General Counsel of Fox Rothschild LLP. Previously, she was Senior Vice President and Associate General Counsel of Univision Communications Inc. and headed its Legal Department’s Los Angeles Office. Before joining Univision in 1995, Glenda was an associate at the law firm of Morrison and Foerster in Los Angeles, California.
Glenda served as a commissioner in the West Los Angeles Area Planning Commission from 2006 to 2013 and held the positions of President and Vice President. She has also served on several non-profit boards. Currently, she is serving on the boards of Wildwood School, CARECEN, Upward Bound House, and the National Hispanic Media Coalition, where she holds the position of Chair.
Glenda graduated from Yale University, cum laude, and earned her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.
Gonzalo C. Martinez
Gonzalo C. Martinez ’03, AB ’98 is the Presiding Justice of his division on the California Court of Appeal in Los Angeles. He previously served in the California Governor’s Office as deputy judicial appointments secretary, where he advised on the appointment of almost 400 judges. Martinez was also a deputy solicitor general for the State of California, representing the State in significant civil and criminal matters, including in the United States Supreme Court. He was previously in private practice, most recently as partner in the Appellate and Supreme Court Practice Group at Squire Patton Boggs (U.S.) LLP.
Jenny Martinez
Jenny Martinez ’97 is an international and constitutional law scholar and academic leader. She became Stanford University’s fourteenth provost in 2023. Prior to that, she served as a faculty member and then Dean of Stanford Law School.
As provost, she is Stanford’s chief academic and budgetary officer, responsible for advancing the university’s teaching and research mission and working closely with the leadership team in support of strategic priorities. These include promoting a culture of curiosity on campus, advancing data-driven discovery and human-centered AI, and renewing public support for universities.
Provost Martinez is a proud member of Harvard Law School’s class of 1997. After law school, she clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and for Justice Stephen Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court. She was also an associate legal officer for Judge Patricia Wald of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague and a litigator in private practice who argued before the Supreme Court.
Loretta P. Martinez
Loretta Martinez ’91 is Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Loyola Marymount University. In 1995, she returned to Harvard as a fellow and associate attorney in Harvard’s Office of the General Counsel. It was there that she discovered her passion for higher education law and the educational and opportunity missions of colleges and universities. Since then, she has spent nearly 30 years serving as chief legal officer and board secretary for Colorado College, Colorado State University, Metropolitan State University of Denver, the City University of New York, the University of New Mexico, and now LMU.
As she has advanced in her legal career, Loretta has endeavored to be a key advisor to her institutions not just on important legal and governance issues but on strategic initiatives that have the potential to transform the educational landscape. She is passionate about Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) and the educational advancement they afford Latina/o students. She has worked in the legal, legislative, policy and community arenas to accomplish her institutions’ missions. For example, Loretta was instrumental in the implementation and defense of an affordable tuition rate for undocumented students at MSU Denver before passage of the Colorado “dream act;” creation of public private partnerships in the hospitality and music industries at MSU Denver; development of a privately funded football stadium at CSU Pueblo and addition of new Division II sports; the cofounding of the Latino/a Lawyers Affinity Group within the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA) and the cofounding of COCEAL, a statewide coalition of Colorado Latina/o educators focused on improving recruitment, retention and graduation of Hispanic students. As a chief legal officer, Loretta lives out her values of promoting access and opportunity for women and lawyers of color by hiring and championing diverse in-house legal teams and outside law firms as well as providing work opportunities and mentorship for diverse undergraduate students who are interested in legal careers.
Loretta devotes substantial volunteer time to local and national boards, commissions, and associations. Two Colorado governors appointed her to serve on the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education (WICHE) and the Colorado Educational and Cultural Facilities Authority (CECFA) as Chair. She recently completed her terms of service on the board of directors for NACUA, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) and the Latin American Education Foundation (LAEF). She has also served on the legal advisors’ groups for United Educators, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) and is currently serving the legal advisors committee for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) and the Chair of the MALDEF Property Management Corporation. Loretta is a frequent speaker at national conferences on a variety of legal, higher education and leadership topics.
Marcela Viviana Ruiz Martinez
Marcela Viviana Ruiz Martinez (Viviana), LL.M. ’15, is an Associate at Mayer Brown LLP. Viviana has extensive experience developing and managing global intellectual property portfolios for clients in the entertainment, media, pharmaceutical, food, beverage, chocolate, confectionery, spirits, and wines industries. She holds an LL.B., magna cum laude, from Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico) and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School. Viviana is also an IP Law Specialist graduate of Universidad Panamericana (Mexico), where she graduated top of her class. Before joining Mayer Brown, Viviana was a partner at a leading IP firm in Mexico. As a native Spanish speaker and dual-qualified civil and common law attorney with multiple years of trademark practice in Mexico and the United States, Viviana has achieved success for clients in particularly challenging jurisdictions. Her understanding of common and civil law, combined with her willingness to appreciate and navigate cultural differences, allows her to provide invaluable service to clients. Viviana is the President of the Harvard Law School Association of the District of Columbia and a member of the HLSA Executive Committee, where she Co-Chairs the International Section and the Domestic and Special Interest Groups. While at HLS Viviana was a contributor for the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology (JOLT) and edited a piece for the JOLT Summer Symposium. She was a member of La Alianza and the Women’s Law Association.
Lino Mendiola
Lino Mendiola ’94 is the Global Co-CEO of Eversheds Sutherland and US Chief Executive. He leads the firm’s lawyers and business professionals in collaborating to provide high-quality, efficient and creative service to clients across Eversheds Sutherland’s global platform, focusing on strategic initiatives and driving growth and innovation.
Lino is a veteran lawyer and litigator with three decades of experience representing and advising clients on matters involving energy policy and regulatory issues. Top ranked in Chambers for over a decade, he counseled electric utilities and cooperatives, private equity investors, project developers, and other clients in state and federal courts and before public agencies. Lino brought deep and broad knowledge of electrical markets to advise clients in navigating complex regulatory requirements for traditional and renewable energy infrastructure assets as well as in litigation and disputes.
Prior to being elected Global Co-CEO and US Chief Executive, Lino served as Co-Head of the Eversheds Sutherland Global Energy Sector. He also served on the firm’s US Executive Management Committee from 2019 to 2023.
Martha Minow
Martha Minow, 300th Anniversary University Professor at Harvard University; she served as dean of Harvard Law School between 2009-2017. Her books include Saving the News: Why the Constitution Calls for Government Action to Preserve the Freedom of Speech (2021); When Should Law Forgive? (2019); In Brown’s Wake: Legacies of America’s Constitutional Landmark (2010); Partners, Not Rivals: Privatization and the Public Good (2002); Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing History After Genocide and Mass Violence (1998); and Making All the Difference: Inclusion, Exclusion, and American Law (1990). Her book, A Constitution Is Not Enough: Vital Ingredients For Democracy, will be published by University of California Press in 2027. Her honors include 11 honorary degrees from institutions in three countries.
The chair of the board of Massachusetts public media (GBH) and co-chairs the Committee on Law, Science, and Technology for the National Academies of Sciences, Medicine, and Engineering; she recently co-chaired the Access to Justice Project of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she serves on the boards of other philanthropies, including the Carnegie Corporation. She also is a board member at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan organization devoted to strengthening electoral and voting processes in the United States.
Hugo Morales
Hugo Morales ’75 is co-founder and Executive Director of Radio Bilingüe, the National Latino Public Radio Network. An indigenous Mixteco immigrant from Oaxaca, Mexico, he came to the U.S. at the age of 9 to join his father working in the California farm fields. Propelled to succeed to help others in poverty, Hugo was the only Mexican-American or indigenous member of the Harvard Class of 1972, and one of twelve at Harvard Law School Class of 1975.
While at Harvard, Hugo founded Harvard-Radcliffe Raza in 1971 and “La Hora,” the first Chicano/Boricua bilingual radio show in the U.S. at Harvard’s WHRB, bringing in voices of Puerto Rican residents from the local Boston community. He was also a negotiator for Chicano/Boricua studies at Harvard in the effort led by PhD candidate Rogelio Reyes. Throughout his years at Harvard and Harvard Law, Hugo returned home during the breaks to live and work with his family in the fields.
With law degree in hand, Morales returned to California in 1975 to co-found the Radio Bilingüe network, now with 25 of its own public radio stations and 75 affiliates carrying its originally produced news, public service and cultural programming in the U.S. and Mexico. Radio Bilingüe’s team of award-winning journalists is now the leading producer of Latino news in public broadcasting, bringing linguistically and culturally relevant issues to an underserved audience. Its programs are now part of the American Archive of Public Broadcasting at the Library of Congress.
Hugo has received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, journalism honors including public media’s Edward R. Murrow Award from The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and a National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship for the promotion of Latino traditional music and languages. He received an honorary doctorate from Harvard University in Humane Letters in 2023. He serves on several foundation boards and recently completed his tenure as a trustee of the California State University System with half a million students.
Rachel F. Moran
Rachel F. Moran is University Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Education Law Program at Texas A&M University. Previously, she was Distinguished and Chancellor’s Professor of Law at UC Irvine, Michael J. Connell Distinguished Professor of Law and Dean Emerita at UCLA, and Robert D. and Leslie-Kay Raven Professor of Law at UC Berkeley. She helped to found the law school at UC Irvine in 2008. Professor Moran has written over 100 articles, book chapters, and short commentaries exploring such topics as bilingual education, desegregation, and affirmative action. In addition, she is co-author (with Mark Yudof, Betsy Levin, James Ryan, and Kristine Bowman) of Educational Policy and the Law, one of the most widely adopted casebooks in the field. She co-edited (with Devon Carbado) a leading anthology on Race Law Stories, and she published a pathbreaking book on Interracial Intimacy: The Regulation of Race and Romance. She has co-edited a new book on Realizing Education as a Human Right: Global Norms and Local Challenges (with Kristine L. Bowman and Nina Ranieri), which is forthcoming in 2026.
As the inaugural Neukom Fellows Research Chair in Diversity and Law, she collaborated with Director Emeritus Robert L. Nelson to launch an initiative on “The Future of Latinos in the United States: Law, Opportunity, and Mobility.” In 2011, President Obama appointed her to the Permanent Committee for the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise. She was President of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) in 2009 and previously was a member of the AALS Executive Committee. In 2019, she was a Distinguished Lecturer for the Hagler Institute for Advanced Studies, and in 2020, the Institute selected her as a Fellow. In addition, Moran is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a member of the American Law Institute, and a Fellow of UCLA’s Civil Rights Project/Proyecto de Derechos Civiles. From 1993 to 1996, Moran served as Chair of the Chicano/Latino Policy Project (now the Center for Latino Policy Research) at UC Berkeley’s Institute for the Study of Social Change, and in 2003, she became Director of the Institute. In 2026, she received the Michael A. Olivas Award for Outstanding Leadership in Diversity and Mentoring in the Legal Academy from the Association of American Law Schools as well as the Outstanding Scholar Award from the American Bar Foundation. In 2025, she was awarded the Professor Michael Olivas Educational Excellence Award by the Hispanic Lawyers Section of the State Bar of Texas, and in 1995, she received the UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award.
Marisia Parra-Gaona
Marisia Parra-Gaona ’99 is currently an Assistant Vice President—Senior Legal Counsel with AT&T. Ms. Parra-Gaona has worked for AT&T and its predecessors for over twenty years serving in various legal roles including litigation, privacy and compliance, product marketing, network outsourcing, strategic transactions, and network contracting. Prior to her career with AT&T, she was an Associate at Locke, Liddell, & Sapp, L.L.P. a predecessor to Troutman Pepper Locke. Immediately following her 1999 graduation from Harvard Law School, Ms. Parra-Gaona had the opportunity to work as a judicial clerk for then-Chief United States District Court Judge George P. Kazen in Laredo, Texas. Ms. Parra-Gaona graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government with a concentration in Public Service from the University of Notre Dame in 1996. Ms. Parra-Gaona is a past-President of the Dallas Hispanic Bar Association and has also served on the Board of The Hockaday School, the Dallas Hispanic Law Foundation and the Anita N. Martinez Ballet Folklorico. Ms. Parra-Gaona resides in Dallas with her husband and three children.
Edith Ramirez
Edith Ramirez ’92 served as Chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission during the Obama administration, where she focused on promoting competition, safeguarding consumer privacy, and protecting vulnerable communities from deceptive and unfair practices. Following her time at the FTC, she was co-head of Hogan Lovells’ global antitrust practice. Edith continues to represent clients in antitrust, privacy, and cybersecurity government investigations and litigation matters.
Jorge A. Ramírez
Jorge A. Ramírez ’90 is the inaugural Walter and Anne Huffman Professor of Law and former Associate Dean for International Programs at the Texas Tech University School of Law. A first-generation college and law school graduate, he was born and raised in McAllen, Texas, where his parents instilled in him a love of learning, teaching, resilience, and resourcefulness.
An internationally recognized academic, Ramírez is a recipient of Texas Tech’s Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Teaching Award, the university’s highest teaching honor; the Person of the Year Award from Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania—the first American so honored—for his teaching and scholarly contributions; and Texas Tech’s Global Vision Lifetime Achievement Award.
Before entering academia, his career encompassed law, government, business, and communications. His teaching and research focus on international law, and he has taught courses and seminars in Bolivia, China, Costa Rica, Lithuania, Mexico, and Paraguay. He has also created, directed, and taught study abroad programs in Denmark, France, Germany, Lithuania, Mexico, and Spain. He serves on the Steering Committee of the American Bar Association International Law Section’s Contracts Committee and is an editor of the Baltic Journal of Law & Politics.
Ramírez also serves on the Boards of Directors of Covenant Health System and the Lubbock Methodist Hospital System. He earned an A.B. in Economics from Harvard College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Nancy Ramirez
In 2017, Governor Jerry Brown appointed Nancy Ramirez ’90 as a judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court. She is currently assigned to the appellate division where she sits on a 3-judge panel hearing appeals of misdemeanors, limited civil cases, infractions, and small claims cases. She spent nine years in juvenile dependency where she oversaw child welfare cases and civil adoptions. She spent three years as a court commissioner presiding over child support matters. In 2016, 2017 and 2019, Judge Ramirez was the Shikes Fellow in Civil Liberties and Civil Rights and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. As an attorney, she practiced civil rights law at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and was executive director of the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice (now Survivor Justice Center). Last year, she swore in her husband, David Garcia, as judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Edgardo Ramos
Edgardo Ramos ’87 was appointed United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York on December 6, 2011 and entered on duty on December 15, 2011. Judge Ramos graduated from Yale College and Harvard Law School. From 1987 to 1992, Judge Ramos was an associate with the law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. In 1992, he joined the Office of the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York where he prosecuted a wide array of federal crimes including white collar frauds and public corruption. He received the Director’s Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant United States Attorney in 1999. Judge Ramos joined the law firm that would ultimately become Day Pitney LLP in June 2002 as a partner in the white collar defense group. In 2003, he was appointed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to serve on the Commission to Combat Police Corruption. In 2008, Judge Ramos was elected as a James W. Cooper Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation. In 2014, he was selected as Latino Judge of the Year by the Hispanic National Bar Association, and in 2021, received the Judicial Leadership Award from the Hispanic National Bar Foundation. Judge Ramos has served on the governing boards of the New York City Bar Association, the Hispanic National Bar Association, the Connecticut Hispanic Bar Association and the Puerto Rican Bar Association of New York City. He is a member of the Federal Bar Council Inn of Court.
Honorable Lauren Reeder
The Honorable Lauren Reeder ’09 is the Presiding Judge of the 234th (Civil) District Court, Harris County, Texas. Before her election to the bench in 2018, Judge Reeder was in both private practice and public service. In private practice, Judge Reeder worked at a large law firm and a litigation boutique, where she represented a wide range of clients in complex commercial disputes. She left private practice to begin her career in public service as an Assistant District Attorney where she first-chaired numerous jury trials and cases involving serious crimes such as murder, sexual assault, and aggravated robbery. She was also a member of the Public Corruption division where she investigated and prosecuted public officials accused of crimes in their official capacities. Judge Reeder received her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2009.
Prior to her legal career, Judge Reeder graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dramatic Writing with honors. During her tenure at NYU, she wrote multiple full-length and short plays and screenplays, culminating in a staged reading of her senior thesis play by Actors Equity Association actors and a professional director.
During her judicial tenure, she served as the Administrative Judge of the Harris County District Courts’ Civil Trial Division, chaired the Harris County District Courts’ Civil Trial Rules Committee, and has served as the Chair of the Harris County Purchasing Committee. She has also served as Co-Chair of the Houston Bar Association’s 2020-2021 Civil/Appellate Bench Bar Conference Committee, for which she received the Houston Bar Association’s President’s Award. Additionally, Judge Reeder has been recognized by her peers on the bench and bar through numerous awards. She received the 2025 Trial Judge of the Year by the Texas Association of Civil Trial and Appellate Specialists, the Co-Jurist of the Year award from the Mexican American Bar Foundation of Texas in 2025, and the Judicial Leadership Award from the Texas Association of District Judges in 2025. When Judge Reeder is not on the bench, she enjoys spending time with her husband Michael, their two children, and two dogs.
Veronica Relea
Veronica Relea ’04 has significant experience representing project developers and lenders in highly structured and complex finance transactions in the United States and Latin America.
Veronica represents commercial and investment banks, sponsors, developers, and private equity firms in connection with the development, construction, operation, and financing of energy, oil and gas, and infrastructure projects. She also has extensive experience in leveraged finance transactions, including acquisition financings, asset-based facilities, private equity transactions, mezzanine facilities and cross-border financings.
Veronica has developed a robust Latin America practice, advising Clients on a range of complex finance transactions. Her seasoned guidance on banking and finance matters has earned recognition from Latinvex, as one of Latin America’s top 100 female lawyers (2017-2024).
A native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Veronica is fluent in Spanish and proficient in Portuguese and French.
Kim Rivera
Kim Rivera ’94 has built a career on a single throughline: she is the executive boards and CEOs call when the corporate crisis is at its worst. She began as a litigator at Jones Day, representing Fortune 500 companies in corporate, commercial, and product liability litigation, then moved in-house and up — from general counsel to operating president to public company director. As Chief Legal Officer of DaVita HealthCare Partners, she led a transformational $4.7B merger and steered the executive team and board through criminal and civil investigations by the DOJ and OIG. As Chief Legal Officer and later President of Strategy and Business Management at HP Inc., she designed a three-year, $1.2B enterprise transformation and led the successful defense against an activist-driven hostile takeover. At OneTrust, where she serves as Chief Legal and Business Officer leading 180 professionals across trust, cybersecurity, people, governance, legal, and communications, she executed a complete overhaul of the company’s governance, operating model, and capital structure — cutting cash burn by 85% in a single year and repositioning the company to attract new capital and return to growth. She sits on the board of Thomson Reuters (Audit and Compensation Committees), previously served on the board of Cano Health through financial distress and a contested proxy campaign, chairs the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, serves as Vice Chair of the American Leadership Forum of Silicon Valley, and is a member of the Harvard Law School Dean’s Advisory Council.
Isabel Carlota Roby
Isabel Carlota Roby LL.M. ’17 is the Senior Staff Attorney for Latin America at the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center, where she leads strategic litigation and advocacy initiatives across the region, including in Venezuela, El Salvador, Guatemala, Brazil, and Cuba.
She holds law degrees from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas, Venezuela, and from Harvard Law School. Her research has focused on international criminal responsibility for core international crimes, as well as the instrumentalization of legal frameworks and human rights discourse by emerging authoritarian regimes.
Jacabed Rodríguez Coss
Jacabed Rodríguez Coss ’91 is Of Counsel with DLA Piper- Puerto Rico and DLA Piper Washington D.C., where she focuses her practice on defending white collar criminal matters, including public corruption, money laundering and fraud; conducting Federal Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and internal corporate compliance investigations; and providing Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-money laundering compliance advice to banks and corporate clients. She also assists clients in complex commercial litigation. In addition, Jacabed collaborates with Kind and Human Rights First in the representation of Pro Bono clients in immigration cases.
Jacabed began her career as a Judicial Clerk for the Hon. Juan R. Torruella of the First Circuit. After three years with a corporate firm in San Juan, she joined the U.S. Department of Justice as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Puerto Rico, where she handled complex drug-trafficking, money laundering, violent crime, healthcare fraud and white-collar cases, among others. Following her time as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico and Maryland, Jacabed served as a Trial Attorney for the Capital Case Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, where she assisted the Attorney General’s Committee for the Review of Capital Cases and investigated and prosecuted capital cases in several districts across the nation. Jacabed ended her 24-year career as a federal prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut, where she served as the Deputy Chief of the National Security and Major Crimes Unit. She handled investigations and prosecutions involving economic espionage, trade secret theft, cyber intrusions, export violations, material support to terrorist organizations, mail and wire fraud, crimes against children, extortion and kidnapping, among others.
Jacabed serves as the Secretary for the Board of Directors of the Bridgeport Caribe Youth Leaders, a community-based organization that provides youth with educational, athletic and community-based programs in the greater Bridgeport, CT area. Jacabed also serves as the Governor for the Puerto Rico Region and a member of the Board of Governors of the Hispanic National Bar Association.
She is a graduate of Yale University and a proud member of the Harvard Law School Class of 1991.
Rudy Rodriguez
Rudy Rodriguez ’90 is Consulting General Counsel with General Counsel Solutions, PLLC, where he serves as fractional general counsel to startups, growth-stage companies, and middle-market businesses. He advises boards and executive teams on corporate governance, enterprise risk, commercial transactions, employment matters, litigation strategy, regulatory compliance, and executive transitions.
Rudy’s career has given him a front-row view of how lawyers can help companies make better decisions not only from inside the legal department, but also in partnership with boards of directors and senior management. He has held Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel roles at both public and private-equity-backed companies. He most recently served as Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary of Dave & Buster’s Entertainment, Inc., where he led the Legal, Compliance, Risk Management, Security, and Business Licensing functions and regularly advised the Board of Directors and executive leadership on corporate governance, fiduciary duties, securities law compliance, disclosure matters, and strategic legal issues. Before D&B, Rudy spent nine years as Chief Legal Officer (and, for five of those years, Chief Human Resources Officer as well) at CEC Entertainment, LLC, the company behind the Chuck E. Cheese and Peter Piper Pizza brands. At CEC, Rudy successfully navigated a host of enterprise challenges, including a 2020 Chapter 11 restructuring and COVID-era crisis response.
Rudy has spent over half of his career as an in-house lawyer. He was General Counsel of American Eagle Airlines from 2000 to 2003, and was part of the litigation teams at J.C. Penney Corporation and American Airlines. He has been recognized twice as Outstanding General Counsel for a Small Legal Department, first by the Association of Corporate Counsel and Texas Lawbook in their 2020 Dallas/Fort Worth Corporate Counsel Awards, and again in 2022 with a Magna Stella Award presented by the Texas General Counsel Forum. In September 2025, the Dallas Hispanic Bar Foundation presented him with the La Luz award in recognition of his contributions to the legal profession, community service, and record of leadership.
Rudy lives in Dallas, Texas with his wife, Stacy, who is Deputy Chief of Litigation for Dallas City Attorney’s Office. They have two grown children, Grace and Jimmy.
Ramona E. Romero
Ramona Emilia Romero ’88 is the Vice President and General Counsel of Princeton University. She joined the University’s senior leadership team in December 2014 after serving as the general counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a position to which she was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Earlier in her career, Romero worked at E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company in a variety of legal roles, and as a commercial, white collar and government contracts litigator at Crowell & Moring LLP in Washington, D.C.
Romero serves on the Board of Trustees of TIAA, a retirement company ranked in the Fortune 100. Consistent with her history of volunteer service to the non-profit sector, she currently serves on the boards of Legal Services of New Jersey and the National Association of Women Lawyers. Her past experience includes serving as a member of the U.S. Presidential Commission on White House Fellowships, as well as on the governing boards of Barnard College, the McCarter Theatre Center, Greater Trenton, Inc., The Justice at Stake Campaign, the American Red Cross of the Delmarva Peninsula, and the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, in addition to the Advisory Committee of The O’Connor Judicial Selection Initiative at the University of Denver. She is a former National President of the Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA), and the founder of the HNBA’s Latina Commission.
Throughout her career, Romero has been a strong and prominent advocate for an inclusive legal profession and access to justice. Her leadership and contributions have earned her numerous recognitions, including the American Bar Association’s Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, NMIC’s Catalyst for Justice Award, the HNBA’s Mari Carmen Aponte Award and President’s Award, the Hispanic Bar of D.C.’s Ricardo M. Urbina Lifetime Achievement Award, the Virginia S. Mueller Outstanding Member Award from the National Association of Women Lawyers, the Platinum Award from the New Jersey Women Lawyers Association, The Hon. Sylvia H. Rambo Award from Dickinson Law School, and the Lucero (“guiding star”) Award from Latino Justice PRLDEF. She has also been included in Women Inc. Magazine’s list of most influential women corporate board directors and identified by Hispanic Business Magazine as one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the United States.
An immigrant from the Dominican Republic, Romero holds a B.A. from Barnard College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute.
Ana Maria Salazar
Ana Maria Salazar ’89 is considered one of the most versatile journalists/analysts in Latin America. In the last 20 years she has interviewed in English and Spanish, presidents, presidential candidates, ministers, politicians, analysts, artists, authors, chefs, business, and social leaders. Her extensive background in government and politics in the USA and Latin America gives her an extraordinary advantage during her interviews and investigative reporting since she is considered one of the foremost experts on security issues, US/Latin American relations, and US politics. She has worked and studied in the US, Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala in addition to have traveled for professional reasons to most Latin America and Caribbean nations. She is bilingual and bicultural and is one of the few journalists who can broadcast and anchor TV and radio programs, in addition to publishing, in both languages. She has written five books on politics, security and leadership issues and is a popular speaker at business, government and academic forums regarding security, politics and international relations. Ms. Salazar received her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1989 and a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1986.
In addition to her daily TV and radio work in both English and Spanish, since 2001 she writes a highly regarded column on politics, international affairs and security matters, and publishes in more than 10 newspapers including El Financiero-Bloomberg and is the author of various books and publications on national security, negotiations and leadership.
US Government Experience: Before moving to Mexico in 2001, she held various high-level political appointments in the US government. Between June 1998 and January 2001, Ms. Salazar served at the Pentagon as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Drug Enforcement Policy and Support. As a result of her efforts at the Pentagon, in 2000 Ms. Salazar was recognized by Hispanic Business Magazine as one of the 100 most influential Hispanic Americans in the United States. Prior to joining the Pentagon, Ms. Salazar served at the White House as Policy Advisor for President Clinton’s Special Envoy for the Americas in 1998 and from March 1995 to June 1997, she served in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. Ms. Salazar has also worked and lived in Latin America. In Colombia she served as the Judicial Attaché at the United States Embassy in Bogotá, coordinating evidence and information requests between the United States and the relevant Colombian agencies, including the Pablo Escobar and Cali Cartel prosecutions.
Dave Sanchez
Dave Sanchez ’92 is the Director of the Office of Municipal Securities at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Office of Municipal Securities oversees the $4.5 trillion municipal securities market. Dave has over 30 years of experience in varied aspects of securities regulation and the municipal finance market, including over 15 years in private law firms. He also previously served as general counsel to an investment bank and as in-house counsel for a subsidiary of a major French bank. Prior to those roles, he was Deputy City Attorney for the City and County of San Francisco.
Dave was also formerly Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown Law Center, where he taught “The Securities Law of Public Finance.” Dave earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. in Social Psychology from the University of New Mexico.
Gloria Sandrino
Gloria Sandrino ’84 is Managing Principal and Co-Chair of the Partner Practice at Lateral Link, where she leads high-level recruiting initiatives for law firm partners and practice groups across the United States and London. A graduate of Harvard Law School and former Corporate M&A attorney, Gloria brings nearly two decades of experience advising law firms and senior lawyers on strategic growth and career transitions.
Gloria works closely with law firm leadership to identify and recruit leading partners and practice groups whose capabilities align with a firm’s long-term strategic priorities. Her work focuses on confidential lateral partner and group placements, helping firms strengthen core practices, expand client ecosystems, and build platforms capable of competing at the highest levels of the legal market. She has developed a reputation for guiding complex partner transitions with discretion, strategic insight, and a deep understanding of the evolving dynamics of the Am Law and global legal markets.
Before joining Lateral Link, Gloria practiced corporate law with a focus on mergers and acquisitions. Her legal background provides her with a practical understanding of law firm economics, client relationships, and the strategic considerations that drive partner mobility. She brings this perspective to her work advising both firms and partners, helping each side evaluate opportunities through a thoughtful and informed lens.
Known for her relationship-driven approach, Gloria maintains a broad network of law firm leaders, partners, and rising talent across multiple practice areas and geographies. She works closely with firm management teams to develop recruiting strategies that support sustainable growth and advises partners as they consider career-defining opportunities.
Fluent in English and Spanish, Gloria brings a cross-border perspective and cultural fluency to her work. She is also deeply committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal profession and regularly partners with firms to build more dynamic, representative leadership teams.
Judge Virna L. Santos
Appointed to serve in the Fresno County Superior Court in March 2022, Judge Virna L. Santos ’90, is currently presiding over misdemeanor matters, following her initial Juvenile Justice assignment. Prior to her appointment, Judge Santos worked as a Sole Practitioner. She also served as Regional Director for Judicial Studies and Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training from 2011 to 2014 and was a Senior Legal Advisor detailed to the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia from 2007 to 2011. Judge Santos served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of California from 1995 to 2007 and as a Law Clerk for the Honorable Gilberto Gierbolini at the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico from 1993 to 1995. She served as a Deputy Attorney General at the California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General from 1990 to 1993. Judge Santos earned a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1990 and a Bachelor of Arts degree from UCLA in 1987.
Raúl Tapia
Through the entity Tapia & Associates, Raúl R. Tapia ’75 has served as an independent Consultant most recently in the Washington, DC office of FTI Consulting, an international business advisory firm. Prior to FTI’s acquisition of C2 Group, LLC, he was associated with C2 in its government relations practice group. Mr. Tapia focuses on legislative relations and public affairs where he concentrates on issues related to strategic planning, crisis management, telecommunications, municipal services, health care and public affairs.
Before his association with the C2 Group, LLC, he was the founding partner of the law firm of Tapia & Buffington specializing in corporate, communications and administrative law. His law practice has also included association with the firm of Doub, Purcell, Muntzing & Hansen after his service as Law Clerk to the Honorable Edmond W. Burke, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Alaska.
Preceding the opening of his law firm, Mr. Tapia served on the White House staff of President Jimmy Carter as Deputy Assistant to the President for Hispanic Affairs. His duties consisted of liaison to the Hispanic business community focusing on the issues of economic development, education, community outreach, housing, and employment.
Mr. Tapia is admitted to the practice of law before the bars of the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the United States District Court for the Central District of California, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, the State of California, and the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia.
In addition to his law and legislative representation practice, Mr. Tapia has been involved in entrepreneurial activities for his own account. He is the founder, former Chairman of the Board, President & CEO of Republic Communications Corporation (RCC). Before its sale to Paramount, RCC built, owned and operated KRRT-TV, a then FOX Network affiliated television station serving San Antonio, Texas. Additionally, he was a founder, Director, President & CEO of AMO Broadcasting Company which built, owned, and operated KIVA-FM, Santa Fe/Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Mr. Tapia has been active in a number of for profit and non-profit boards of directors. He served for five years as one of nine members of the Denny’s/FRD (ADVANTICA) board of directors where he was a member of the Audit and Finance Committee. During this period “FORTUNE” magazine, in its annual review of the top 1,200 companies in the U.S., selected Denny’s among its “America’s 50 Best Companies for Minorities”. At the request of the AVANTICA Board, Mr. Tapia headed a successful Chapter 11 restructuring of its FRD subsidiary composed of 682 Coco’s and Carrows stores.
Additionally, he has served as a member of the Advisory Board to the Chairman & CEO, William O’Donnell, of GTECH Corporation. GTECH is a gaming technology company formerly based in West Greenwich, Rhode Island and was acquired by Lottomatica of Italy (now International Game Technology PLC) for $4.5 billion.
Mr. Tapia received his Juris Doctoris from Harvard Law School, a Master in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University and his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from California State University, Fullerton where he was honored with the “President’s Award” as the outstanding member of his graduating class.
Reynaldo “Rey” Anaya Valencia
Reynaldo “Rey” Anaya Valencia ’90 became the 13th president and dean of South Texas College of Law Houston July 1, 2025 — the first Hispanic individual and first person of color to be appointed to the position.
A Harvard Law School graduate who earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in sociology from Stanford University (joint four-year program), Valencia was the first in his family to go to college. He led Capital University Law School as dean and professor of law from 2020 until his appointment to South Texas Law.
He previously served as associate dean for finance and administration and a faculty member at the University of North Texas at Dallas (UNT-D) College of Law. He joined the faculty at St. Mary’s University School of Law in 1995 as an associate professor, earning tenure in 1999 and promotion to the rank of full professor.
Valencia served as a White House Fellow in the Office of the Chief of Staff in 1999-2000, working on race, civil rights, immigration and Hispanic education issues. In 2008, having returned to St. Mary’s, he was appointed associate dean of administration and finance and held the Ernest W. Clemmons Professor of Corporate and Securities Law, an endowed professorship. He has practiced, taught, written, and lectured nationally and internationally on corporate law, corporate bankruptcy, and race and gender issues, and also has served as an expert witness in complex corporate and bankruptcy multimillion dollar litigation.
Immediately out of law school, Valencia practiced corporate bankruptcy and general corporate law at the Dallas office of the international law firm Jones Day for five years while serving as an adjunct professor of law at Texas Tech School of Law (where at age 25 he became the youngest faculty member in the law school’s history).
He was elected to the board of trustees for the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) and has served on several key LSAC committees. He chaired the American Bar Association Self-Study Committee at St. Mary’s, UNT-D College of Law, and Capital and has extensive accreditation experience, serving as a member of numerous ABA and AALS site inspection teams. He has published a number of articles and won awards for teaching and legal work, including St. Mary’s University Distinguished Faculty Award (Law School) in 2008 and the Outstanding Legal Achievement award by the Mexican American Bar Association of San Antonio in 2003 and 2006.
James Vigil
In June 2024, James Vigil, Jr ’89, retired after 26 years as Senior Advisor for Cybercrime and Intellectual Property Rights at the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) at the U.S. Department of State.
In his State Department position, James worked to strengthen global law enforcement capacity to fight cybercrime and intellectual property rights crime. He originated and implemented the first-ever U.S. Transnational and High-Tech Crime Global Law Enforcement Network (GLEN). James served on numerous U.S. delegations to international meetings and received performance awards from the Departments of Justice (DOJ), State and Homeland Security for his work. From 1998-2000, James served as a Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of INL as an appointee of President Clinton, and from 1999-2000 as a Senior Advisor in the White House to the President’s Special Envoy for the Americas. In 2005, James was a Brookings Fellow in the office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY).
At DOJ, from 1991-1998, James served as a Trial Attorney in the Civil Rights Division, as an Assistant Associate Attorney General, and as a Special Assistant United States Attorney. A native of Southern California, James earned his bachelor’s degree in history and political science from U.C.L.A. and his Juris Doctorate in 1989 from Harvard Law School. He is a past President of the Hispanic Bar Association for the District of Columbia, and a member of the bars of California and D.C.
David Wilkins
David B. Wilkins ’80 is the Lester Kissel Professor of Law, Vice Dean for Global Initiative on the Legal Profession, and Faculty Director of the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School. He is also a Senior Research Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a Fellow of the Harvard University Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics.
Professor Wilkins has written over 80 articles on the legal profession in leading scholarly journals and the popular press, and is the co-author or editor of five books, including one of the leading casebooks in the field. His current scholarly projects include Globalization, Lawyers, and Emerging Economies, Disruptive Innovation in the Market, the Reemergence of the Big Four Accountancy Networks in the Market for Legal Services, and After the JD: A Ten Year Longitudinal Study of Lawyers Careers.
Professor Wilkins teaches several courses on lawyers, including The Legal Profession, and Challenges of a General Counsel. In 2007, he co-founded Harvard Law School’s Executive Education Program, where he teaches in several courses including Leadership in Law Firms and Leadership in Corporate Counsel. Professor Wilkins has given over 50 endowed lectures at universities around the world and is a frequent speaker at professional conferences, law firms and corporate retreats.
He holds honorary degrees from Roger Williams University (2017) and Stockholm University in Sweden (2012). He is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the Harvard Law School Alumni Award, (2016), the Aptissimi Award for Academic Excellence from ESADE UNIVERSITY in Spain (2014), the Distinguished Visiting Mentor Award from Australia National University (2012), the American Bar Foundation Scholar of the Year Award (2010), the J. Clay Smith Award from Howard University School of Law (2009), and the Order of the Coif Distinguished Scholar Award (2008). In 2012, Professor Wilkins was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2014 he was elected as a corresponding member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Doctors.
Bianca Williams-Alonzo
Bianca Williams-Alonzo ’26 recently graduated from Harvard Law School, where she served as President of the Harvard Black Law Students Association (BLSA) in her third year. During her tenure as President of the Harvard BLSA, she was named Northeastern BLSA President of the Year, and Harvard BLSA won the National Black Law Students Association’s Large Chapter of the Year. She was also involved in Harvard Defenders, the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, and the Women’s Law Association.
Originally from Los Angeles, California, with family roots in El Salvador and Brazil, she earned her B.A. in Political Science and History from Columbia University, where she was a member of the varsity track and cross-country team. Before law school, Bianca worked as an executive assistant at Essie Justice Group, an organization dedicated to empowering women with incarcerated loved ones through collective advocacy. During her 1L summer, Bianca interned with the Special Litigation Unit of the Legal Aid Society in New York City. She spent her 2L summer at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, where she will return as an associate this fall.
Juan E. Zúñiga
Juan E. Zúñiga ’92 is an international transactions attorney who has worked on cross-border deals throughout the United States, Latin America and in over 60 other countries. He is also the Managing Partner of Rimon.
His practice is focused on buying and selling real estate, resort and hospitality transactions, mergers & acquisitions, overseas distribution agreements, international joint ventures, foreign trade and commerce, workouts of distressed assets, lending and investment issues. He has been particularly sought out for his handling of cross-border transactions, especially in Latin America. In this work, he represents American clients in their investments in overseas properties and in establishing subsidiary operations internationally. Additionally, he represents foreign clients in their investments in the United States.
Prior to Rimon, Juan was the founding partner of Cross Border Law Group, P.C. Before that he was an attorney at both Heller Ehrman and Baker and McKenzie. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School (1992) and his A.B. from Harvard College (1986).