Thursday, January 27, 2022
Jackson Convention Complex
Jackson, Mississippi

On-site registration: $100 (includes lunch)

Learn about current issues and how you can support them!

9:30am-10:30am  Speaker: Amelia Steadman McGowan (Mississippi Center for Justice)

10:30-10:45am      Break

10:45-11:45am      Speaker: L. Patricia Ice (Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance)

12:00-1:00pm        Box Lunch

Advocacy in Action

1:00-2:00pm          Speaker: Carlos E. Alemán (The Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama)

2:00-2:10pm          Break

2:10-3:00pm          Q & A with Guest Speakers

3:00-3:50pm          Workshop: Advocacy in TESOL: An Overview and Call to Action

3:50-4:00pm          Break

4:00-5:00pm          Lightning Rounds: Individual advocates from MS & AL sharing their work

Amelia Steadman McGowan serves as director of immigration law at the Mississippi Center for Justice, a home-grown public interest law firm committed to advancing racial and economic justice. Amelia is also an adjunct professor of Mississippi College School of Law, where she teaches immigration law and has directed the school's Immigration Clinic since its founding in 2016. Her work focuses on representing asylum seekers in appellate proceedings. Amelia is a Mississippi native and holds a B.A. in History and Spanish from the University of Southern Mississippi, an M.A. in Latin American Studies from Tulane University, and a J.D. from Tulane Law School. As a student, Amelia studied abroad in Vietnam and participated in a cultural exchange program in Panamá.

L. Patricia Ice is an attorney and Legal Project Director of the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance (MIRA). In that role, she provides legal services to immigrant families in selected cases.  She also advocates on behalf of immigrants in the community, at the state legislature and on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.  Patricia developed an interest in immigration law after serving as a United States Peace Corps volunteer English teacher in Porto Novo, Benin in the 1980s and after teaching English in the Philippines and in Haiti and Honduras, as a U.S. Information Agency English Teaching Fellow.  A native of Detroit, Patricia is a graduate of Spelman College (B.A.), Ohio University (M.A. Linguistics) and Wayne State University (J.D. and M.L.I.S.). Ice is admitted to practice law in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and the U.S. Supreme Court. In the fall of 2021 Patricia taught English to Guatemalan women at the Madison Countians Allied Against Poverty (MadCAAP) in Canton, MS. She is married to long time labor activist and MIRA co-founder and executive director, Bill Chandler.  She and Chandler live in Jackson with their two dogs and two cats.  

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Carlos E. Alemán is ¡HICA!'s Chief Operation Officer and will become its CEO in January 2022. Carlos is a first-generation immigrant from Nicaragua who grew up in San Francisco's Mission District. He and his family are deeply rooted in the Birmingham, Alabama community, exemplified by his civic commitments. In August 2020, Carlos was elected to Homewood's City Council, becoming the first Latino elected to public office in Alabama. Carlos is a board member of several organizations including the National Partnership of New Americans (NPNA), the Alabama Business Charitable Trust Fund, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Alabama Forward, Red Mountain Park and the Literacy Council of Central Alabama. Prior to joining ¡HICA!'s staff, Carlos was an assistant professor of history at Samford University. He earned a PhD in history, with fields in Latin America, immigration and race at Michigan State University. Carlos also has bachelor's degrees in history and Latin American and Latino studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

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