I’m delighted to announce that Angie Junck will join the Heising-Simons Foundation as our new, and first ever, director of Human Rights. Angie comes to us with expertise in immigration and criminal law and policy, as well as deep nonprofit experience, most recently serving as the supervising attorney and director of immigrant defense programs at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC), one of our grantee partners and an organization she has been with for more than 13 years.

Angie’s experience addressing the plight of individuals and communities caught in the crosshairs of the immigration and criminal justice systems will be critical, as she joins our experienced human rights team of Peggy Chang, Justine Choy, and Chhandasi Pandya Patel in the program’s work toward achieving a more just world where people are equally valued regardless of gender, race, class, or citizenship.

At ILRC, Angie led the state and federal policy agenda and programs on crim-imm, immigration enforcement, and immigrant youth. She incubated and led multi-issue collaboratives and campaigns, engaging a variety of partners and resulting in state and local models and policies that address criminalization, incarceration, and deportation. Under her leadership, she strengthened the capacity of many organizations and grew the program’s budget tenfold. We look forward to her guiding the Human Rights program at the Foundation as it expands in the coming years.

A thoughtful and passionate leader in the field of human rights, she served on the American Bar Association’s Immigration Commission for six years, and currently serves as co-chair on the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section’s Immigration Committee, and as an advisory member for a number of organizations and networks, including the California Alliance for Youth and Community Justice, Center for Immigration and Child Welfare, and California Coalition for Women Prisoners.

Angie’s first day at the Foundation will be December 3, 2018. She looks forward to connecting and working with our many grantee partners. We could not be more pleased to have her join us at the Heising-Simons Foundation.