Michelle Méndez

Prior to joining NIPNLG, Michelle N. Méndez served as the Director of the Defending Vulnerable Populations Program at the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC). At CLINIC, Michelle provided training and technical support to immigration practitioners nationwide, engaged in federal litigation, supervised remote response projects, and, from 2015 to 2017, oversaw CLINIC's role in the CARA Pro Bono Project in Dilley, Texas (now the Dilley Pro Bono Project). Before joining CLINIC, Michelle served as senior managing attorney at Catholic Charities D.C., where she began as an Equal Justice Works Fellow sponsored by DLA Piper. Michelle has taught the Immigration Litigation Clinic at Catholic University Columbus School of Law, was a Visiting Clinical Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School, assisted the Immigrant Rights Clinic at the University of Baltimore School of Law and serves as the Program Director for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy's Immigration Public Programs. Prior to law school, Michelle worked at the CAIR Coalition and AILA, and taught English to middle schoolers in France. Michelle holds a JD from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, a BA from the University of Richmond, a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Georgetown University, and a Professional Certificate in Peace and Conflict Resolution through the Rotary Peace Center at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. She is proud to be an immigrant, originally from MedellÍn, Colombia.