Directors
Professor Alina Das
Faculty Director
Alina Das is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Law and Supervising Attorney at New York University (NYU) School of Law. Alina co-teaches the Immigrant Rights Clinic, a leading institution in local and national struggles for immigrant rights. She and her students represent immigrants and community organizations in litigation at the agency, federal court, and Supreme Court level, and in immigrant rights campaigns at the local, state, and national level. In addition to her teaching, Alina engages in scholarship on deportation and detention issues, particularly at the intersection of immigration and criminal law. Prior to joining the Immigrant Rights Clinic, Alina was an attorney and a Soros Justice Fellow with the Immigrant Defense Project, where she engaged in strategic advocacy and litigation to address the immigration penalties associated with drug convictions and participation in alternatives to incarceration. Prior to her work at the Immigrant Defense Project, Alina clerked for Hon. Kermit V. Lipez of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Alina is a graduate of Harvard University (A.B. in Government), NYU Wagner School of Public Service (M.P.A.), and NYU School of Law (J.D.).
Denise Tomasini-Joshi, Assistant Dean for Public Service
Acting Executive Director
Denise is the Assistant Dean of the Public Interest Law Center and the director of the Root-Tilden-Kern Scholarship Program. Prior to leading PILC, she served as Legal Officer with the Open Society Justice Initiative, where she lead efforts to implement alternatives to pretrial detention. She helped implement the first pretrial services program in Latin America, located in Morelos, Mexico. Her role at Open Society Justice Initiative involved forging partnerships across a wide and complex range of justice professionals while developing and executing strategic plans, training programs, and collaboration protocols among multiple government agencies. She worked closely with NGOs and governments in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Kenya, Malawi, Mexico, Peru, Russia, and Ukraine. Denise also served as a senior policy analyst with the Council of State Governments’ Criminal Justice and Mental Health Consensus Project, where she developed and implemented protocols for collaboration among criminal justice and mental health agencies and presented at conferences nationwide. Denise has spoken and published widely on issues of mental health and criminal justice. Denise began her legal career as an attorney at the Columbia University/Goddard Riverside Tenant Assistance Project and at MFY Legal Services. Denise is a graduate of Purdue University, Columbia Law School and Columbia School of International and Public Affairs. She is originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico.