Staff

Meet our Board of Directors

Our Board works passionately and collaboratively with our staff to advance our mission.

Ulrike K Buchwald MD, Board Member

Scientific AVP, Vaccines Clinical Research, Global Clinical Development, Merck & Co

Salima Dembri, Board Member

Director, Global Market Access, Chronic Care, Merck & Co

Barbara Camacho, President

Director & Pro-Bono Counsel, Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP

Daniel Garcia, Secretary

Senior Director, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Valarie Williams, Treasurer

Partner, Alston & Bird

Jennifer de Haro, Vice President

Managing Attorney, Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (Raices)

Sheelu Verma, Board Member

Director of Data Governance and Operations, ADT LLC

Meet our Team

ASISTA is a national non-profit dedicated to helping attorneys and advocates assist immigrant survivors of crime with their immigration matters, ultimately enhancing their safety and security.

Kirsten Rambo, Executive Director Expand

Kirsten Rambo, Ph.D., (she/her) has worked to prevent and respond to domestic violence, sexual assault, and similar forms of violence for twenty-five years in local, state, national, and international arenas. Before moving to California, Kirsten lived in Atlanta, Georgia, where, at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), she led its national domestic violence prevention program and worked in Africa on special projects in Malawi and Sierra Leone. As the Executive Director of the GA Commission on Family Violence, she successfully led two major grassroots legislative campaigns to preserve domestic violence services statewide. Kirsten also served as Director of Policy and Programs at the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence and as Visiting Assistant Professor at Emory University. Her intersectional analysis of survivor rights and criminalization developed in partnership with other immigrant and culturally specific organizations. She has been featured in media such as CNN and has authored numerous publications about gender-based violence, including an award-winning book, “Trivial Complaints:” The Role of Privacy in Domestic Violence Law and Activism in the U.S., published by Columbia University Press. She received her Ph.D. in Women’s Studies from Emory University and an M.A. in English from the University of Georgia.Cristina Velez, Legal & Policy Director Expand

Cristina Velez (she/her) comes to ASISTA from the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild (NIPNLG), where she was a Supervising Attorney engaged in national advocacy, training, community defense, and litigation. She has represented immigrant survivors of trauma and gender based violence in many capacities throughout her career. Before joining NIPNLG, Cristina directed the immigration unit at Queens Legal Services of Legal Services NYC, specializing in removal defense and complex humanitarian relief for survivors of violence.Previously she spent several years leading the immigration practice at the HIV Law Project, where her practice encompassed humanitarian relief including VAWA, U and T visas, Battered Spouse Waivers, and asylum, as well as naturalization, removal defense, appellate, and amicus work. In between, Cristina worked at the NYU Immigrant Defense Initiative and the Community Development Project of the Urban Justice Center (now Takeroot Justice). She clerked for the Honorable Denny Chin in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and is a graduate of Cornell Law School and Oberlin College. In her spare time, Cristina enjoys cooking, yoga, and playing with her dear rescue dog Nugget.Rebecca Eissenova, Senior Staff Attorney Expand

Rebecca (she/her/ella) comes to ASISTA from Catholic Social Services of Fall River, Massachusetts. There, she served as Legal Director of the immigration law programs, which included a special unit dedicated to cases for survivors of crime, as well as general defensive, humanitarian, and family-based immigration units. Prior to that, Rebecca worked on survivor-based relief, general immigration, and removal defense at a private firm in Tucson, Arizona. Along the way, cases for survivors have always stayed with her the most, so it was a natural fit to join the ASISTA team and its community of devoted attorneys. In her free time, Rebecca likes to hike, paint, and spend time outdoors with her family and two rowdy dogs.Kelly Byrne, Staff Attorney Expand

Kelly Byrne (she/her) comes to ASISTA from Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. (“CLASI”) in Wilmington, Delaware, where she served as a Skadden Fellow and then Staff Attorney. At CLASI, Kelly represented immigrant survivors of violence on U-visas, T-visas, VAWA Self-Petitions, Battered Spouse Waivers, Adjustment of Status, and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. In addition to her immigration casework, Kelly represented criminalized survivors of gender-based violence in expungement and pardon cases and collaborated with stakeholders to advance progressive changes to Delaware’s expungement laws. These legislative changes benefit criminalized survivors of gender-based violence and other over-policed populations. Kelly’s experience representing survivors has given her deep substantive knowledge of survivor-based immigration relief and the effect of immigration policies, statutes, and regulations on immigrant survivors. Licensed in Delaware, Kelly is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University and Georgetown University Law Center. In her spare time, Kelly enjoys reading, pampering her cat, and watching rom-coms.Lia Ocasio, Staff Attorney Expand

Lia Ocasio (she/her/ella) comes to the ASISTA team from RISE Law Center, where she represented immigrant survivors of gender-based violence in their applications for humanitarian forms of immigration relief and in family court proceedings. Prior to that, at Legal Services NYC, Lia represented low-income immigrants in their asylum, naturalization, AOS, SIJS, U Visa, or VAWA applications. During this time, Lia also collaborated with community organizations to increase accessibility for Know Your Rights presentations and legal consultations. To better meet the growing need for legal representation, Lia also trained and provided technical assistance to pro bono attorneys on specific immigration law matters, such as naturalization, asylum, VAWA, and U Visa petitions. Focusing her career on working with immigrant survivors has made even more apparent the many intersecting forms of oppression that harm this community. In turn, this has informed Lia’s advocacy work and the need for creative and collaborative approaches to address these harms while keeping survivors and their goals at the forefront. Lia is licensed in New York and Wisconsin, and is a graduate of Binghamton University, University of Wisconsin, and University of Wisconsin Law School. In her spare time, Lia enjoys baking, keeping the Duolingo Owl happy, and watching shows that make her laugh.Maria Lazzarino, Program Associate Expand

Maria Lazzarino (she/her/ella) came to the United States in 2003, and soon joined the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence, where she served first as the M.U.N.A. (Mujeres Unidas por un Nuevo Amanecer) Legal Clinic Coordinator and later as a DOJ Partial Accredited Representative.

In 2007, Maria moved with her family to Malaysia where she lived for two years.

Back in the United States, Maria joined ASISTA and worked alongside the Law Office of Sonia Parras PLLC., for many years. Maria has been with ASISTA since 2009, doing financial, administrative, and programmatic work. Since 2015, Maria has been the Program Associate at ASISTA, supporting members and others representing immigrant survivors of gender-based violence in a variety of ways. She is primarily responsible for ensuring grant compliance and arranging logistics for ASISTA’s programs, membership, training, data, and evaluation. Maria has also produced Spanish and English language webinars for ASISTA as well as the drafting, editing, and translation of many of ASISTA’s resources into Spanish.

Maria is from Argentina, where she obtained her Architect degree from the Faculty of Architecture, Design, and Urbanism of the University of Morón, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

For more information on our mission, programs, and finances, here are ASISTA’s most recent year 990 and Audited Financial Statements.