Eleni is ILD’s Founding Co-Executive Director, where she leads a growing team of over 30 attorneys and other staff providing legal services from DACA to complex detained removal defense, as well as policy and advocacy work to reimagine the U.S. immigration system. Since co-founding ILD, Eleni has supported the organization in launching groundbreaking partnerships with K-12 and higher education institutions to deliver equitable legal services to tens of thousands of students, staff, and family members. She has created innovative training programs to launch the next generation of immigration attorneys committed to immigrant justice. Eleni has extensive experience providing direct representation for detained and non-detained individuals in removal proceedings. She has supervised, mentored, and trained attorneys, paralegals, and law students throughout her career.

EXPERIENCE Prior to co-founding ILD, she grew the immigrant rights unit of Centro Legal de la Raza from 2 attorneys to a staff of 38. During her tenure as Centro’s Directing Attorney, she secured and managed over 50 annual public and private foundation grants and established novel partnerships with community groups, school districts, medical providers, and other stakeholders in order to increase access to counsel for noncitizens throughout the East Bay and the Central Valley. Prior to relocating to California from Chicago, Eleni worked at the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC)’s Detention Project in positions that demanded complex immigration litigation, multidisciplinary advocacy expertise, and management of creative, cutting-edge legal programs. Many of the legal services programs and collaboratives that Eleni has launched over the course of her career at ILD and other organizations are now considered model programs within the field for their work advancing the goal of universal representation to immigrants in remote areas, those facing deportation, and those who have had contact with the criminal justice system.

EDUCATION Eleni holds a B.A. in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University and a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law. She is a member of the Illinois bar and is fluent in Spanish and Greek.