Virtual Event - Higher Education Pathways to Immigration: Why it Matters

Our country has the great opportunity to welcome students, scholars, and leaders from around the globe to our campuses. As the Biden Administration seeks to build on the strength of immigrant contributions to our knowledge-based economy, we know that colleges and universities serve as critically important pathways for immigration and for immigrant integration, mobility, and success. But we also know that these pathways are not as straightforward as they need to be if we are to maintain our global competitiveness, and our immigration laws and policies desperately need modernization if we are to allow all immigrants to reach their limitless potential.

This virtual half-day event will illuminate higher education’s role in facilitating immigration pathways, developing talent and potential, and reducing barriers to integration and naturalization.

Agenda:

• Panel One: “An American Story: Higher Ed and Immigration”
• Panel Two: “Overcoming Barriers to Citizenship and Immigrant Inclusion”

Featured Speakers Include:

• Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Chancellor, UMass-Boston
• Pam Eddinger, President, Bunker Hill Community College
• Javier Reyes, Incoming Chancellor, UMass-Amherst
• Carola Suárez-Orozco, Director, Harvard Immigration Initiative, and Professor in Residence, Harvard Graduate School of Education
• Mary Waters, PVK Professor of Arts and Sciences and the John L. Loeb Professor of Sociology, Harvard University
• Esther Benjamin, CEO and Executive Director of World Education Services
• Adam Hunter, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Border and Immigration, Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans, Department of Homeland Security
• Eva Millona, Chief, Office of Citizenship, Partnership, and Engagement (OCPE), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
• Patricia Sobalvarro, Executive Director, Agencia ALPHA
• Nancy Ramirez-Palencia, Graduate Student, Harvard Graduate School of Education

This event is being co-hosted by the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, the University of Massachusetts-Boston, the Immigration Initiative at Harvard, and the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration.