Nancy Kelly and John Willshire Carrera win Dean’s Award for Excellence

Via the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program 

From left: John Willshire Carrera, Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow, Nancy Kelly, and Lisa Dealy, Assistant Dean for Clinical and Pro Bono Programs

Congratulations to Nancy Kelly and John Willshire Carrera, co-managing directors of HIRC at Greater Boston Legal Services, who recently won the Harvard Law School’s Dean’s Award for Excellence for their exceptional teaching and mentoring of students at Harvard Law School and for their leadership in developing child asylum and gender-based asylum law, as well as indigenous Guatemalan and gang-based asylum claims.

John and Nancy helped found HIRC 30 years ago and have worked tirelessly over the years to help immigrants and to train generations of immigration attorneys. In their nominations letters, John and Nancy’s colleagues described the dedication, compassion and skill they have brought to HIRC over the past 30 years:

“Their commitment to legal service and their dedication and ability to build ties between our law school and the legal services community has helped make us a true social justice clinic.”

HIRC staff members (from left): Liala Buoniconti, Sabi Ardalan, John Willshire Carrera, Nancy Kelly, Maggie Morgan, Phil Torrey, and Lucy Cummings

“They are the glue that holds the immigration unit of GBLS together… John and Nancy’s expertise in immigration is unrivaled and their dedication to both their clients and students is exceptional among attorneys and mentors.”

“They are tireless advocates for hundreds of noncitizens in the Boston area, supremely gifted supervisors and managing attorneys of HIRC at GBLS, and incredible mentors to many of us at HIRC.”

Congratulations John and Nancy for this extremely well deserved honor!