Sarah Ignatius, Executive Director
Rea Mae Gacad, Program Assistant
Anita Sharma, Asylum Attorney
Heather J. Friedman, Detention Attorney
Antonio Castro Aranda, Coordinator for Immigration Court Project
Elizabeth Badger, Robert J. Hildreth Fellow (New Bedford Raid Response)

Sarah Ignatius is the Executive Director of the PAIR Project. She received her J.D., cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center where she was Articles Editor for the Journal of Law and Policy in International Business; and her B.A., with Distinction & Honors, from Stanford University. She lectured on immigration law for ten years as an Adjunct at Boston College Law School. She co-authored the comprehensive book Immigration Law and the Family (Thomson West); and authored: “Restricting the Rights of Asylum-Seekers: The New Legislative and Administrative Proposals,” 7 Harvard Human Rights Journal 225 (1994); “Haitian Asylum-Seekers” 7 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 119 (1993); “Asylum: Country-Wide Persecution”; 21 Immigration Newsletter 1, National Immigration Project (1993) and numerous other articles. In 1993, Sarah was the principal researcher and author of An Assessment of the Asylum Process of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (1993), a nationwide study of the Asylum Officer program, conducted through Harvard Law School and funded by the Ford Foundation. Previously, she worked as Executive Director & Legal Director of Northwest Immigrants Rights Project in Seattle; associate at Wickwire, Goldmark & Schorr in Seattle; Staff Attorney at the Seattle-King County Public Defender; and Law Clerk for the Honorable William C. Pryor, District of Columbia Court of Appeals, Washington, D.C. She joined PAIR in 1993.

Contact: signatius@pairproject.org
(617) 742-9296 EXT. 5

Rea Mae Gacad is the Program Assistant at the PAIR Project. She received her B.A. in Sociology, with a minor in Hispanic Studies, from Boston College. She has also studied at the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. Rea Mae has volunteered with Gawad Kalinga in the Philippines; Iskwelehang Pilipino in Bedford, Massachusetts; the Center for International Programs and Partnerships at BC; and the Footprints Guild in California, where she worked with refugee and immigrant communities. She joined PAIR in 2006. Rea Mae speaks conversational Spanish.

Contact: rmgacad@pairproject.org
(617) 742-9296 EXT. 6

Anita P. Sharma is the Asylum Attorney at the PAIR Project. Anita received her LL.M. in International Legal Studies from American University Law School, concentrating in Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. She earned her J.D., cum laude, from Suffolk University Law School and graduated with distinction in the Intellectual Property and High Technology Law concentration. She received her B.A., summa cum laude, in English Literature from Suffolk University. Anita is currently an adjunct professor of English at Suffolk University. She serves as an advisory council member of Public International Law and Policy Group (PILPG) and is a member of South Asians Stepping in Solidarity (SASS) Boston. She is also co-chair of the Liaison Committee on Asylum for the New England Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). Anita received the Boston Bar Association's John G. Brooks Public Service Award in 2006 for her outstanding representation of asylum-seekers and for serving as a mentor to hundreds of pro bono lawyers who represent PAIR clients. She previously worked at WARLAW, a Delhi-based NGO that focuses on women’s rights in India. Anita joined PAIR in 2002.

Contact: asharma@pairproject.org
(617) 742-9296 EXT. 2

Heather J. Friedman is the Detention Attorney at the PAIR Project. Heather received her J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School where she focused on human rights, immigration, and environmental law. She received her A.B., magna cum laude, in Russian History and Literature from Harvard College. Prior to joining PAIR, Heather practiced immigration law at Graves & Doyle in Boston; volunteered with the asylum project at the International Institute in Boston; served as Associate Director of Yale Law School’s Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights; and was a Fellow at Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger, a San Francisco firm specializing in environmental and land use law. She joined PAIR in 2008. Heather speaks Spanish and French.

Contact: hfriedman@pairproject.org
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Antonio P. Castro Aranda coordinates the Immigration Court Program at the PAIR Project, in collaboration with the Boston Immigration Court and the New England Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). Antonio received his law degree from the UNED in Madrid, Law School. Previously, he was the Managing Paralegal at the International Institute of Boston for its Immigration Clinic and a volunteer with the asylum program at IIB. He has worked for a number of years as an immigration law paralegal at private law offices and as a volunteer mediator at the Brookline District Court, through the Harvard Mediation Program at Harvard Law School. He joined PAIR in 2007. Antonio is fluent in Spanish.

Contact: acaranda@pairproject.org
(617) 742-9296 EXT. 305

Elizabeth Badger is the Robert J. Hildreth Fellow at the PAIR Project, focusing on representing clients arrested in the factory raid in New Bedford and mentoring attorneys volunteering their time to represent New Bedford clients. Elizabeth received her J.D. from Boston University School of Law, where she co-authored a paper for the Palestine Center regarding human rights claims pending before the International Court of Justice. During law school, she received the Massachusetts Bar Foundation Fellowship for her work in political asylum and the Professional Responsibility Award from the Association of Corporate Counsel. Elizabeth earned her B.A. in International Relations, with a minor in French, from Dartmouth College. She served as an immigration law clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit before joining PAIR in 2007. Elizabeth speaks conversational French.

Contact: ebadger@pairproject.org
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