2013 Communications Institute
2013 Communications Institute
On June 9-12, 2013, The Opportunity Agenda conducted its fourth annual Communications Institute. Developed for social justice advocates, the Institute consists of four days of intensive, in-person training and skills-building with continuing support activities. The focus of the 2013 Institute was on immigration, with an emphasis on the roadmap to citizenship, due process, rights and racial profiling, DREAMers, and LGBT immigrants.
The sixteen 2013 Institute Fellows represent a diverse group of advocates, committed to learning and refining communications skills. Immediately after this year’s Institute, The Opportunity Agenda began placing our Fellows in the media as spokespeople and opinion leaders in the immigration debate.
The 2013 Communications Institute was made possible, in part, by the generous contributions of The Atlantic Philanthropies, Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Ford Foundation, Four Freedoms Fund of Public Interest Projects, JPB Foundation, Oak Foundation, Open Society Foundations, and Unbound Philanthropy.
Meet the Fellows
Keith Rushing
2013 Communications Fellow, The Opportunity AgendaKeith Rushing, a native of Queens, New York, is a graduate of Carleton College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He worked as a print journalist for newspapers in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Virginia, and California. He worked in a number of reporting beats including local government, education, and crime....
Get To know KeithAmeesha Sampat
Communications and Operations Coordinator, Immigration EqualityAmeesha Sampat is the Communications and Operations Coordinator at Immigration Equality, based in the Washington, DC office. Originally from New Jersey, she graduated from the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University after volunteering in social services in Washington, DC and studying human rights abuses abroad. Prior to...
Get To know AmeeshaMoises Serrano
Organizer, El CambioMoises Serrano is a proud Latino, undocumented, and gay man. Having lived in the United States his whole life, he is proud to call himself a Mexican-American. Moises Serrano is a proud Latino, undocumented, and gay man. Having lived in the United States his whole life, he is proud to...
Get To know MoisesSilky Shah
Communications Director, Detention Watch NetworkSilky Shah is the Communications Director of the Detention Watch Network (DWN), a national coalition of organizations and individuals working to reform the U.S. immigration detention and deportation system. Silky has been active in the immigrant rights, anti-war, prison reform and racial justice movements for nearly a decade as an...
Get To know SilkyIvy O. Suriyopas
Director, Anti-Trafficking Initiative, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF)Ivy O. Suriyopas is the Anti-Trafficking Initiative Director at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF). She provides legal representation, conducts community education, and engages in policy advocacy on human trafficking issues. This legal representation includes immigration assistance, criminal justice advocacy, and civil litigation for claims involving the...
Get To know Ivy O.Natalicia Tracy
Executive Director, Brazilian Immigrant CenterNatalicia Tracy has been Executive Director of the Brazilian Immigrant Center (BIC), the New England Region’s largest Portuguese-speaking workers center, for two years. Before becoming Executive Director, she was Secretary of the BIC board from 2006-2010. Natalicia has long experience as an organizer and leader within many sectors of the Brazilian...
Get To know Natalicia