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Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Arizona State University President Michael Crow Co-Chair New MPI Advisory Board
 
Press Release
Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Arizona State University President Michael Crow Co-Chair New MPI Advisory Board

WASHINGTON — The Migration Policy Institute’s newly constituted advisory board convened for the first time on June 29, assembling members with distinguished records in government, the corporate and philanthropic sectors, the legal and education fields, immigrant service and advocacy, research, diplomacy and academia in the United States, Europe and Latin America.

The advisory board is co-chaired by former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who is a partner at Paul, Weiss, as well as influential higher education innovator Dr. Michael M. Crow, who is president of Arizona State University. Dr. Crow is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and National Academy of Public Administration, and university vice chairman of the U.S. Council on Competitiveness. Prior to becoming secretary of homeland security, Johnson was general counsel of the Defense Department and general counsel of the Air Force.

The advisory board was created by the MPI Board of Trustees to offer advice to the trustees and staff leadership on U.S. immigration policy issues, as well as expand the institute’s networks. Advisory board members will serve a two-year term, meeting at least twice a year to offer advice on the policy and political environments affecting immigration.

“It has been a long-held goal for the MPI board of trustees to create an advisory board, and we are incredibly pleased that so many distinguished public figures have agreed to share their insights with us,” said James W. Ziglar, who chairs the board of trustees and is former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Said MPI President Andrew Selee: “As immigration issues move further to the fore of public debates in the United States, we are immensely pleased to have a group of important thinkers, policymakers and researchers on immigration issues, with an international perspective, who can inform our work and help us position MPI for the future. And we are deeply appreciative to Secretary Johnson and President Crow for taking the leadership of this advisory board.”

The advisory board members were joined during the meeting by Reps. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) and Will Hurd (R-TX) for a conversation about immigration policy.

Beyond Co-Chairs Jeh Johnson and Michael Crow, members of the advisory board are:

  • Stuart Anderson, executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy, a non-partisan public policy research organization focusing on trade, immigration and related issues. A former congressional staffer to Republican senators, Anderson served as executive associate commissioner for policy and planning at the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.
  • Julissa Arce, a former Wall Street executive and best-selling author of My (Underground) American Dream (Entre Las Sombras del Sueño Americano) and Someone Like Me (Alguien Como Yo), who now advocates for social justice, immigrant rights and education equality. She is the co-founder and chair of the board of the Ascend Educational Fund, a scholarship and mentorship program for immigrant college students.
  • Ron Barber, who represented Arizona's 2nd Congressional District in Congress from 2012 to 2015. The Arizona Democrat served on the House Homeland Security Committee, where he was ranking member on the Subcommittee on Oversight and Management Efficiency.
  • Jon Baselice, executive director of immigration policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and former advisor to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), including during key congressional debates over immigration reform.
  • Alan D. Bersin, a policy consultant at Covington & Burling LLP and former assistant secretary of homeland security, as well as former commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and former special representative for border affairs in the Department of Homeland Security.
  • Bo Cooper, a partner in Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy’s Washington, DC office, and former general counsel of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.
  • Russell C. Deyo, former acting deputy secretary of homeland security and former undersecretary for management at the Department of Homeland Security, which he joined after 27 years with Johnson & Johnson, where he served as general counsel among other high-ranking positions.
  • Lynda Gonzales-Chavez, senior vice president and chief diversity, inclusion and global officer at the YMCA of the USA.
  • Ximena Hartsock, co-founder and president of Phone2Action, a comprehensive digital engagement and communications platform for grassroots advocacy, public affairs, and government relations.
  • Antonia Hernández, president and chief executive officer of the California Community Foundation, one of Southern California’s largest and most active philanthropic organizations, serving Angelenos for over a century. She is former president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF).
  • James Loy, senior counselor at the Cohen Group and former deputy secretary of homeland security and former undersecretary of transportation. Admiral Loy retired from the U.S. Coast Guard in 2002, having served as its commandant since 1998.
  • Mary E. McClymont, adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center and former chair of MPI’s board of trustees, as well as former president and chief executive officer of the Public Welfare Foundation, a national private grantmaking foundation working to advance justice and opportunity for people in need.
  • Lynden Melmed, a partner with Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP and former chief counsel of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and former special counsel to Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas).
  • Trevor Phillips OBE, an award-winning writer, TV producer and businessman who was founding chair of both the Greater London Authority and the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
  • Gaspar Rivera-Salgado, project director for the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA) Labor and Education Center and director of the Institute for Transnational Social Change. Dr. Rivera-Salgado teaches on work, labor and social justice in the United States and on immigration issues.
  • Reihan Salam, the Manhattan Institute’s president and previously executive editor of National Review. He is a contributing editor at The Atlantic, National Affairs and National Review, and is the author of Melting Pot or Civil War?
  • Arturo Sarukhan, president of Sarukhan + Associates, LLC, and former Mexican ambassador to the United States.
  • Mariko Silver, president and CEO of the Henry Luce Foundation and former president of Bennington College. During the Obama administration, Dr. Silver served as acting assistant secretary of homeland security and deputy assistant secretary for international policy.
  • Madeleine Sumption MBE, director of the Migration Observatory at Oxford University and member of the Migration Advisory Committee, an independent panel that advises the UK government on migration issues. She is a former director of research for the international program at MPI and remains a nonresident fellow with MPI Europe.
  • Anna Terrón Cusí, director of the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies, and previously Spain’s state secretary for immigration and a former member of the European Parliament.
  • Julie Myers Wood, chief executive officer at Guidepost Solutions, an investigations, compliance and security firm and former high-ranking official with the U.S. departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Treasury and Commerce, as well as at the White House. She directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
  • Monette Zard, director of the Forced Migration and Health Program at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and former global human rights program officer at the Ford Foundation and research director at the International Council on Human Rights Policy in Geneva, a think tank focused on applied human-rights research. She is a former MPI policy analyst.

For more on the advisory board members, visit: www.migrationpolicy.org/about/advisory-board.

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The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) is an independent, non-partisan think tank in Washington, D.C. dedicated to analysis of the movement of people worldwide. MPI provides analysis, development and evaluation of migration and refugee policies at the local, national and international levels. For more on MPI, please visit www.migrationpolicy.org.