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Panelists

More about Programming
Judge Denny Chin
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

Denny Chin is a United States Circuit Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.  He was sworn in on April 26, 2010.  Judge Chin graduated from Princeton University magna cum laude and received his law degree from Fordham Law School.  After clerking for the Honorable Henry F. Werker, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York, he was associated with the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell.  He then served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, and thereafter he and two of his colleagues from the U.S. Attorneys Office started a law firm, Campbell, Patrick & Chin.  In 1990, he joined Vladeck, Waldman, Elias & Engelhard, P.C., where he specialized in labor and employment law.  From September 13, 1994, through April 23, 2010, Judge Chin served as a United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York.  He presided over both civil and criminal cases, including cases involving Megan’s Law, the Million Youth March, Al Franken’s use of the phrase “Fair and Balanced” in the title of a book, the Naked Cowboy, the Google Books project, and the United Nations Oil for Food Program.  He also presided over the trial of an Afghan warlord charged with conspiring to import heroin and the guilty plea and sentencing of financier Bernard L. Madoff.  Judge Chin was born in Hong Kong.  He was the first Asian American appointed a United States District Judge outside the Ninth Circuit.   

Edward Lee
Independent Filmmaker
 
Suman Raghunathan
Executive Director
South Asian Americans Leading Together

Edward Lee is an independent filmmaker. Currently based in San Francisco, he spends most of his days partnering with his church, City Impact, to intervene for San Francisco’s inner-city poor. 

 

Passionate about using films to advocate for others, Edward co-founded a 501c3 nonprofit filmmaking company called Jubilee Project. They have since produced over 150 short films, documentaries and PSA's that empowers the community to take actions on issues related to youth leadership, political activism, minority empowerment, poverty alleviation, youth-at-risk, global development, education, and immigration policy.

 

Previously, Edward was the White House Office of Public Engagement’s Associate Director to the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. He also worked as the Youth Outreach Director on the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Prior to that, Edward was the New Media Director at the U.S. Department of Education and had worked as a State New Media Director on the Obama Presidential Campaign. He grew up in Overland Park, KS and is a die-hard Kansas City Chiefs fan."

Professor Catherine Kim
Assistant Professor of Law
University of North Carolina School of Law

Suman Raghunathan, SAALT’s Executive Director, joined the organization in February 2014. As Executive Director, Suman coordinates SAALT’s overall efforts to amplify diverse South Asian voices advocating for progressive change in the US. Suman is a passionate and seasoned immigrant rights advocate with extensive experience on the range of issues addressed by SAALT, deep connections to South Asian communities, and relationships with key partners in the racial justice and immigrant rights movements. She has experience in leading non-profit organizations, having first served as Interim Executive Director and then as a long-time member of the Board of Directors of Chhaya Community Development Corporation, one of SAALT’s close partners.

The daughter of Indian immigrants, Suman has a keen understanding of the issues affecting South Asian and other immigrants in the United States. She has deep experience conceptualizing and coordinating multifaceted and multi-issue campaigns that span numerous proposals and stakeholders, and assembling the coalitions critical to advancing them. Through her work at organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union, Progressive States Network, and the New York Immigration Coalition, Ms. Raghunathan has developed expertise on policy issues, directed immigrant leadership development programs, launched newcomer civic engagement campaigns, and implemented capacity-building and advocacy campaigns.

Suman received her undergraduate degree in international relations from Brown University and has a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management from the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy in New York City.

Catherine Kim is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina Law School, where she teaches Immigration & Citizenship Law, Civil Procedure, and Civil Rights Law.  Prior to joining the faculty in 2010, she litigated civil rights cases with the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, National Legal Department, focusing on racial justice and education cases.  She clerked for the Honorable Carlos F. Lucero on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Professor Kim earned her J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she served as an editor on the Columbia Law Review, and her B.A. from Cornell University. Her research interests include issues of executive power, institutional competence and design, administrative law, immigration, and civil rights enforcement.

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