Dan-El Padilla Peralta shares the story of his own American dream. Arriving in the US from the Dominican Republic at the age of four, he lived in a NYC homeless shelter as an undocumented immigrant before eventually graduating from an Ivy league school at the top of his class. Dan-el received his MPhil from the University of Oxford and his PhD in classics from Stanford University. In addition to his successful academic career, Padilla Peralta is an activist on immigration issues and will speak about the implications of the DACA decision not just for immigrants, but for all Americans. Photo credit: Citizens' Committee for Children of New York
Dan-el Padilla Peralta is the 2006 Latin salutatorian of Princeton University. An undocumented immigrant from the Dominican Republic, he rose from poverty and homelessness to show promise, according to one faculty member, as "one of the best classicists to emerge in his generation" (Jordan 2006). Photo credit: Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau
Emmanuel "Manny" Lusardi is a liaison for immigrant affairs to the office of vice mayor Marc McGovern.
Geeta Pradhan is Director of the New Economy Initiative at the Boston Foundation and co-developer of the Boston Indicators Project. She co-authored the 2000 and 2002 Boston Indicators reports, The Wisdom of Our Choices and Creativity and Innovation: A Bridge to the Future. At the Boston Foundation, Geeta also developed and launched The New Economy Initiative a special five year effort that uses networking, constituency building and grant making to reduce the digital divide and to empower young people, adults and nonprofit organizations to compete effectively in the 21st century.
Irene Freidel has over twenty-five years of experience as a high-level complex commercial litigator. She practiced law at K&L Gates LLP in Boston from 1991 through June 2017. While at K&L Gates, Irene represented clients in federal and state courts throughout the country, handled appeals in the First, Fourth, Seventh, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits, as well as in various state appellate courts, submitted briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court, and served as counsel in jury trials in state and federal court. Irene’s litigation practice focused initially on general commercial litigation and environmental law, and then turned to financial services litigation and class actions. Irene was the Practice Group Coordinator for the firm’s Financial Institutions and Services Practice from 2010 to 2014; she served on the firm’s Management Committee from 2014-2017, and was the co-practice area leader of the firm’s global litigation practice from 2014-2017. Irene also served on the firm-wide Women in the Professions Committee and acted as the committee liaison for women attorneys in K&L Gates’ Boston office. For the last three years, Irene has been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America for Commercial Litigation. Irene is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of California, Berkeley where she received her B.A. in anthropology in 1986. Irene received her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1991, where she was Chair of the Environmental Law Society.