The Conference will be held Saturday, October 17 from 10:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. in Harvard University's Pound Hall on 1557 Massachusetts Avenue.

Regarding the Participation of Mr. Jim Gilchrist at PI&L 2009

The mission of the PI&L Conference is to educate and provide a forum of productive discussion on how to use law and public service as tools for social justice. With this mission in mind, we encourage intellectual, honest and respectful discourse by individuals and the organizations that they represent. Unfortunately, Mr. Gilchrist's participation in the conference on the behalf of the Minutemen Project was not compatible with providing an environment for civil, educational, and productive discourse on immigration, and we cannot host him at this time. 

Sincerely,
The Harvard Undergraduate Legal Committee

Susan N. Herman was elected President of the American Civil Liberties Union in October 2008, after having served on the ACLU Board of Directors for 20 years, on its Executive Committee for 16 years, and as General Counsel for ten years.

Herman is Centennial Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School and a widely regarded expert on the Supreme Court, particularly in the area of criminal procedure. Professor Herman has written a number of amicus briefs for U.S. Supreme Court cases in the area of criminal procedure and constitutional law and is often quoted in the media on important Supreme Court cases.

She regularly speaks to judges and lawyers around the country on behalf of the Federal Judicial Center , bar associations, and CLE providers and appears in panel discussions on a range of issues at law schools and other venues. She has appeared on NPR, C-SPAN, the NBC Today in New York show, and many other radio and television programs, commenting on constitutional law and criminal procedure issues.

Herman's book, Terrorism, Government, and Law: National Authority and Local Autonomy in the War on Terror (co-written and edited with Paul Finkelman) was published by Praeger Security International in 2008. Another book, The Sixth Amendment Right to Speedy and Public Trial - part of the Praeger Press series on the Constitution - was published in 2006. Herman has also written sections of books on criminal law and procedure, law and film, prisoners' rights, and comparative constitutional law, and many articles and essays on civil rights and civil liberties for non-academic publications.

She is also the author of numerous law review articles, including recent articles in the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review (The USA Patriot Act and the Submajoritarian Fourth Amendment), in a Willamette symposium on federalism (Collapsing Spheres: Joint Terrorism Task Forces, Federalism and the War on Terror), and in numerous other law reviews, including those of Columbia, UCLA, and Iowa.

Professor Herman teaches Constitutional Law and Criminal Procedure. Her current seminar, Terrorism and Civil Liberties, is an outgrowth of her interest in post-9/11 constitutional issues, including both civil liberties and federalism issues. [See "Our New Federalism? National Authority and Local Autonomy in the War on Terror." 69 Bklyn. L. Rev. 1201 (2004) (symposium).]

Prior to joining the Brooklyn Law School faculty in 1980, Herman was a staff attorney and Associate Director of Prisoners' Legal Services of New York, and served as Pro Se Law Clerk to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She holds a B.A. from Barnard College and a J.D. from New York University Law School.

• Susan Herman's Brooklyn Law School Faculty Page
• ACLU: Susan Herman

Chike Aguh was born in New Jersey to immigrant parents from rural Nigeria. He attended Tufts University and graduated in 2005 with a degree in Political Science. While at Tufts, he served as student body president as well as a board member of various black student organizations.

Upon arrival in New York, he worked in the New York City Department of Education as a New York City Urban Fellow. He worked on alternative high school environments for underprivileged students. Since 2006, he has been teaching 2nd grade at Excellence Charter School of Bedford-Stuyvesant, the only all boys elementary charter school in New York City. Last year, Chike taught English As a Second Language to high school seniors in Thailand as a Fulbright scholar. Currently, Chike is a Master's degree student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in the Education Policy and Management Program. Next year, he will be a Master’s Degree candidate in the Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. His focus is on how to reimagine the education system in America so that all children, particularly the poorest, are prepared to be entrepreneurs and innovators in the new century.

Marcony Almeida is a Journalist born in Brazil and has been living in the United States for 10 years. He is currently the Director of Organizing and Advocacy at the Massachusetts Immigrants and Refugees Advocacy Coalition (MIRA) where he works primarily in the area of comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level, but also at the state level performing advocacy, outreach and lobbying on legislative efforts as well as immigration trainings for interested stakeholders. Mr. Almeida is also the co-editor of The Brazilian Journal Magazine, a statewide bilingual publication.

Prior to his work at MIRA, Mr. Almeida was an indispensable part of the Brazilian Immigration Center (BIC) in Allston, where he served as Outreach and Education Coordinator and ultimately became the Assistant Director. In his many roles at BIC, Mr. Almeida helped develop a program on civic participation for immigrant youth engaging themselves in political participation, creating a Students Council Group to serve as a support group to listen, analyze and act on issues regarding to immigrant youth and registered to vote and trained Brazilian-Americans on civic engagement to participate in Massachusetts politics.

In 2004, Mr. Almeida received an honorary award from the Cambridge Health Alliance HIV Prevention Program in the Make a Difference Night for outreach within the prevention program among Portuguese speakers. In 2003, the Mayor’s Office of New Bostonians presented him with the New Bostonian of the Year Award, given to those who made significant contributions to the city and its cultural communities. And in 2007, he receive the Jorge Fidalgo Community Service Award, from the Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers (MAPS), and in 2008 he receive the Latino United in Massachusetts Award for his outstanding support, extraordinary commitment and devotion to seeking the well-being of the immigrant community in Massachusetts.

Mr. Almeida received a Bachelor’s of Arts in Journalism at Universidade Católica de Pernambuco in Recife, Pernambuco and is a Master’s in International Business and Culture at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.

Kirsten Bermingham is Program Coordinator at the Bernard Koteen Office of Public Interest Advising at Harvard Law School.

Father Geoffrey Farrow was born in the city of Camaguey in the Republic of Cuba in 1957. His family moved to the United States in August of 1961. He grew up in Joliet Illinois and his family moved to California in 1977. He entered St. John’s College in the fall of 1978 and received a BA in Philosophy in 1981. He received a Master of Divinity degree from St. John’s Seminary in 1985 and was ordained a Catholic priest on June 1st of that same year. He served as parochial vicar (associate pastor) at Catholic Churches of Merced from 1985 through 1987. St. Francis Church, Bakersfield from 1987 through 1989 and St. Mary’s Church, Visalia 1989 through 1990. He served as pastor of St. Thomas Church in Arvin from 1990 through 1993. As pastor of Holy Family Church, Visalia and administrator of St. Thomas Church, Goshen from 1993 through April of 2008. As pastor of St. Paul Newman Center at California State University Fresno from April of 2008 through October of 2008. Fr. Geoff also served as a chaplain in the USAF reserve from 1989 though 1993 and was assigned to Edwards Air Force Base in California. On October 5th of 2008 Fr. Geoff delivered a statement at the end of the 11 AM Mass at the Newman Center at CSUF. In this statement, Fr. Geoff explained that he could not comply with a directive from his bishop to direct parishioners to vote “yes” on Proposition 8. This Proposition would remove the right of same sex couples to enter into civil marriage in the state of California. Later that week, Fr. Geoff was removed as pastor of  St. Paul’s by his bishop and suspended as a priest. He worked throughout the month of October with the “No on Prop. 8” campaign. Currently Fr. Geoff is engaged in public speaking to advance the cause of LGBT rights.  Fr. Geoff has received commendations both from the City of West Hollywood, California and the California State Assembly for his civil rights work on behalf of the LGBT community.

Commentaries by Fr. Geoff

Fr. Geoff in the Los Angeles Times, The Huffington Post, The Advocate, and in series of ABC News Programs: [1] [2] [3] [4].

Jon Feere is the Legal Policy Analyst at the Center for Immigration Studies, an independent, non-partisan, non-profit research organization in Washington, D.C. He received his B.A. from the University of California, Davis and his J.D. from American University's Washington College of Law. While in law school he worked in the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, specifically, the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims. He also interned as an Assistant Prosecutor for the Montgomery County Maryland Office of the State's Attorney. Mr. Feere has been with the Center since 2002 and is regularly cited by the media.