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Attorney Biographies

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Laurie Ball Cooper, Skadden Fellow/Immigration Staff Attorney
Deepa Bijpuria, Immigration Staff Attorney
Anne Chandler, Houston Director
Samantha Del Bosque, Staff Attorney
Lindsay M. Harris, Akin Gump Equal Justice Works Fellow/Immigration Staff Attorney
Heather Heiman, Senior Public Policy Attorney
Jessica Howton, Staff Attorney and Notre Dame Fellow
Sherizaan Minwalla, Director of Legal Services
Natalie Nanasi, Senior Immigration Staff Attorney
Adrianne Ramos, Family Law Attorney
Jessica Salsbury, Senior Immigration Staff Attorney
Jeanne Smoot, Director of Public Policy
Morgan Weibel, Immigration Staff Attorney

Laurie Ball is a graduate of Yale Law School and Duke University, and obtained a Master’s degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs at Princeton University. As a Skadden Fellow and Immigration Staff Attorney at Tahirih’s Washington, DC area office, Laurie focuses on representing survivors of domestic violence and trafficking. Prior to working with Tahirih, Laurie clerked for the Honorable M. Margaret McKeown on the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In 2010, Laurie received the Charles S. Albom Prize for Excellence in Appellate Advocacy in Connection with a Clinic for her successful representation of a client in Yale Law School’s immigration clinic before the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. During law and graduate school, Laurie interned for the Tahirih Justice Center, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, and the Office of the State War Crimes Prosecutor for Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition, Laurie was active in both the immigration and domestic violence clinics at Yale Law School. Prior to law school, Laurie was the Research and Public Policy Manager for the Mozaik Community Development Foundation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. As an undergraduate, Laurie worked with survivors of torture through the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International and conducted community-based research in La Victoria, Chile, regarding community recovery from political violence. Laurie is a Massachusetts native and is fluent in Spanish and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian.

Deepa Bijpuria is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law and Northwestern University. Deepa joined the Tahirih Justice Center in January 2012 as a staff attorney for the Baltimore Office. Prior to joining Tahirih, Deepa was the Project Director for the Women’s Law Center of Maryland’s Multi-Ethnic Domestic Violence Project (MEDOVI) where she represented Maryland victims of sexual assault and domestic violence in immigration cases for over five years. As MEDOVI Project Director, Deepa engaged in community education in order to better educate immigrant victims of violence on their legal rights. Deepa also regularly trained domestic violence service providers and law enforcement throughout the state of Maryland to ensure that victims were able to better access services. Before focusing on immigration, Deepa began her career at The Women’s Law Center of Maryland as a staff attorney representing domestic violence victims in protective order proceedings in Maryland Circuit Courts. While in law school, Deepa served on the staff of The Business Lawyer and litigated cases involving political asylum and involuntary servitude as a student lawyer. Deepa is a former board member of the Maryland Immigrant Rights Coalition.

Anne Chandler, JD is the Director of Tahirih Justice Center’s Houston office. Anne serves on the Board of the American Immigration Council and the Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council. Prior to joining Tahirih in August of 2009, Anne served as a Clinical Professor for the University of Houston Law Center where she served as the Interim Director of the Immigration Law Clinic. Prior to joining the Law Center in 2003, she served was the Director of Immigration Legal Services for the YMCA International Services of Greater Houston. Anne is a cum laude graduate of the University of Houston Law Center where she served on the Houston Law Review, received a Distinguished Service Award, won the Joan Glantz Garfinkel Scholarship for civil liberties research, and served as President of the Public Interest Law Organization, focusing on provision of services to immigrant children detained in Harlingen, Texas. Anne is fluent in Spanish.

Bio coming soon

Lindsay M. Harris is a graduate of the University of California Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law and the University of California, San Diego. As an Equal Justice Works Fellow and Immigration Staff Attorney at Tahirih’s Baltimore, MD and Washington, DC area offices, Lindsay leads the Tahirih Justice Center’s African Women’s Empowerment Project. Prior to working with Tahirih, Lindsay clerked for the Honorable Harry Pregerson of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where she focused on immigration and asylum law. In 2009, Lindsay received the Sax Prize for Excellence in Clinical Advocacy for her participation in Berkeley Law’s International Human Rights Clinic and the East Bay Community Law Center’s Health and Immigration Unit. During her law school summers Lindsay worked with Lawyers for Human Rights and the Forced Migration Studies Program in South Africa, researching gender-based asylum claims, and with the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at UC Hastings. As a law student, Lindsay led the California Asylum Representation Clinic and the Boalt Hall Committee for Human Rights. She also served as the Symposium Editor and Senior Articles Editor for the Berkeley Journal of International Law. Lindsay has published on gender-based asylum claims in South Africa and on gang-related asylum claims here in the United States. Prior to law school, Lindsay worked as Managing Director of a fair trade non-profit organization working with artisans in seven African countries. Lindsay has lived, worked, and volunteered in several African countries, speaks French, and is originally from England.

Heather Heiman, Senior Public Policy Attorney

Heather Heiman is a graduate of DePaul University College of Law, where she received a JD and Certificate in International and Comparative Law. Heather joined the Tahirih Justice Center’s Washington, DC area office in 2009 and is the Senior Public Policy Attorney. Heather works in close collaboration with the Director of Public Policy on all aspects of Tahirih’s policy initiatives, and leads Tahirih’s Virginia-based advocacy efforts. She also provides direct legal services to select clients, acting as the liaison between Tahirih’s Policy and Legal Departments. Heather has authored or co-authored publications including Precarious Protection: How Unsettled Policy and Current Laws Harm Women and Girls Fleeing Persecution (PDF), a report on challenges facing women asylum-seekers in the United States; “USCIS Issues Vital Fact Sheet to Protect Foreign Brides From Abuse,” an article published in the February/March 2011 edition of the Civic Research Institute’s Domestic Violence Report; and Forced Marriage in Immigrant Communities in the United States (PDF), a report on the results of a groundbreaking national survey that Tahirih conducted in the summer of 2011. Prior to joining Tahirih, Heather was a professional volunteer with Life Span Center for Legal Services and Advocacy in Chicago, Illinois, where she provided legal assistance to immigrant survivors of domestic violence. As a law student, Heather represented clients at DePaul College of Law’s Immigration Clinic and was a research associate for Prof. N. Morrison Torrey, a leading advocate for women’s rights. Prior to law school, Heather worked with AmeriCorps Project YES!, where she created and led a Girls’ Empowerment Project, along with other educational and volunteer programs, for teenagers in Chicago’s Mexican and Puerto Rican communities.

Bio coming soon

Sherizaan Minwalla is a graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law, and obtained a Masters in Applied Sociology from Loyola University Chicago. Sherizaan joined the Tahirih Justice Center in May 2011 as the Director of Legal and Social Services. Prior to working with Tahirih, she worked with Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights, a Chicago-based non-profit organization. She spent four years running the National Immigrant Justice Center’s domestic violence immigration program where she represented several hundred immigrant survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Sherizaan spent four years in Iraq where she ran a number of human rights programs in Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon as Heartland’s Country Director and Middle East Regional Director. In Iraq she designed and implemented legal protection programs for victims of gender-based violence and human trafficking who faced criminal charges, filed claims against perpetrators, and required representation in the Personal Status Courts. While in Iraq, Sherizaan published several reports and articles on human trafficking and institutionalized violence against Iraqi women and girls and appeared as a recurring guest on public radio’s Worldview program. She has also published articles on U visa interim relief and the interim regulations. She is the 2004 recipient of the Kimball R. & Karen Gatsis Anderson Public Interest Fellowship through Chicago Bar Foundation, and the 2005 recipient of the Honorable Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Public Interest Award through Chicago-Kent College of Law in recognition of public interest leadership.

Natalie Nanasi is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center, where she received a JD and a Certificate in Refugees and Humanitarian Emergencies, and Brandeis University. She is the Senior Immigration Staff Attorney and Pro Bono Coordinator at the Tahirih Justice Center’s Washington, DC area office. Natalie has been with Tahirih since 2007, when she joined the organization as an Equal Justice Works (EJW) Fellow. Natalie’s work as an EJW Fellow focused on the U visa, a form of immigration relief for victims of certain serious crimes. As part of her fellowship, she regularly educated local, state and federal law enforcement entities about immigration options available to victims of crime and co-authored “The U Visa: An Effective Resource for Law Enforcement,” which was published in the October 2009 FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. Natalie currently serves on the Board of the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance; as a consultant for the Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime, Training and Technical Assistance Center; and as a mentor for Georgetown Law’s Public Interest Law Scholars Program. Prior to joining Tahirih, Natalie served as a law clerk to the Honorable Lynn Leibovitz of the District of Columbia Superior Court. As a law student, Natalie was a Senior Articles and Line Editor for the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal and interned at Whitman Walker Clinic Legal Services, where she assisted in representation of HIV-positive immigrants. She also received an Equal Justice Foundation Fellowship for her work at the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Center in New Delhi, India. Prior to law school, Natalie volunteered as a rape crisis counselor and assisted single teenage mothers at a transitional residence facility in Boston. Natalie is fluent in Spanish and Hungarian.

Adrianne Ramos is a graduate of New England Law Boston. Adrianne joined the Tahirih Justice Center’s Washington, DC area office in September 2009 and is the staff Family Law Attorney. Adrianne’s work at Tahirih focuses on direct representation of victims of domestic violence and sexual assault in all aspects of domestic relations, including protective orders and child custody. Her practice focuses on clients in Northern Virginia. Adrianne is a Member of the Fairfax County Domestic Violence Prevention, Policy and Coordinating Council. Prior to working at Tahirih, Adrianne worked at a small firm in Massachusetts where she litigated on behalf of incapacitated persons. Adrianne began her legal career as a judicial law clerk for the Massachusetts Probate and Family Court. Adrianne is licensed to practice law in Virginia, Washington, DC, and Massachusetts.

Jessica Salsbury is a graduate of the Washington College of Law at American University and Duke University. Jessica joined the Tahirih Justice Center’s Washington, DC area office in September 2009 and is a Senior Immigration Staff Attorney. Prior to working at Tahirih, Jessica spent four years with CASA de Maryland (CASA), an immigrant advocacy organization. During her time at CASA, Jessica developed strategic impact litigation on behalf of low-wage immigrant workers and provided immigration and civil legal representation to domestic workers and victims of human trafficking. Jessica also engaged in public policy advocacy to improve legal protections for low-wage and domestic workers and to increase access to higher education for undocumented youth. While in law school, Jessica represented gender-based asylum seekers through the International Human Rights Law Clinic, taught Constitutional Law to Washington, DC high school students, and served as a Note and Comment Editor on the American University Law Review. Jessica also interned at numerous immigrants’ rights organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), and the Virginia-based Legal Aid Justice Center. She has published on the subject of access to higher education for undocumented youth. Jessica is a native of Maryland and is fluent in Spanish.

Jeanne Smoot is a graduate of Harvard University Law School and Harvard-Radcliffe College, and obtained a Master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Jeanne is the Tahirih Justice Center’s Director of Public Policy. Since joining Tahirih in 2003, Jeanne has spearheaded Tahirih’s innovative initiatives and mobilized diverse bi-partisan coalitions to press for laws, policies and precedent that better protect immigrant women and girls from violence. Jeanne leads Tahirih’s efforts to secure stronger protections under US asylum laws, the Violence Against Women Act, and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and also advocates for greater US leadership in the fight to end global violence against women and girls. Jeanne presents on issues of violence against women to academic, advocate and policymaker audiences, and is a media spokesperson for Tahirih (quoted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Congressional Quarterly, and interviewed on Fox News, among other outlets). Jeanne has authored or co-authored publications on issues of critical concern to Tahirih’s clients, including How Local Enforcement of Federal Immigration Laws Threatens the Safety of Immigrant Survivors (PDF); Precarious Protection: How Unsettled Policy and Current Laws Harm Women and Girls Fleeing Persecution (PDF), a report on challenges facing women asylum-seekers in the United States; and Forced Marriage in Immigrant Communities in the United States, a report on the results of a groundbreaking national survey that Tahirih conducted in the summer of 2011. Jeanne is a 2011-12 Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow at Harvard Law School; in 2008, she was honored with the “Agent of Change” award by the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance. Prior to joining Tahirih, Jeanne managed the Harvard Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research and was a litigation associate at the law firm of Mintz, Levin. In the summer of 1998, Jeanne interned for the Honorable David J. Scheffer, then the US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, and assisted with US delegation preparations for the treaty conference that established the International Criminal Court.

Morgan Weibel is a graduate of the University of California Hastings College of the Law and the University of California, Berkeley. As an Immigration Staff Attorney, Morgan leads Tahirih’s Baltimore office. Prior to working at the Tahirih Justice Center, Morgan served as a Graduate Research Fellow at the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies (CGRS) in San Francisco, California where she drafted a protocol for the investigation of femicides (gender motivated killings of women) and assisted professor Karen Musalo in updating sections of her course book related to asylum based on membership in a particular social group. In 2008, Morgan received National Championship and First Place Speaker awards at the UC Davis Asylum Law Moot Court Competition. As a law student, Morgan interned in the Trial Chambers of the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in the Netherlands and Tanzania respectively and as a Judith Stronach Women’s Rights Fellow at CGRS. Morgan served as the Scholarly Publications Editor on the Hastings International and Comparative Law Review and has published on the Supreme Court’s Criminal Cases, war crimes and gang-related asylum claims in the United States. Prior to law school, Morgan worked for three years as a paralegal at the Law Offices of Robert B. Jobe, a prestigious practice focusing on asylum and deportation defense in San Francisco, California. She also interned with the Immigration and Refugee Services Department of the Spanish Red Cross in Granada, Spain, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in Washington DC, and at a Swiss Refugee Transit Center. Her undergraduate honors thesis compared the United States and Canadian applications of gender based guidelines in asylum law. Morgan speaks Spanish and is originally from California.