Level: Intermediate
Presenters
Peggy Gleason, Senior Staff Attorney - ILRC
Peggy Gleason, who has dedicated her career to immigrant rights, joined ILRC in 2019 as a senior staff attorney in Washington, D.C.She worked most recently in the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the Department of Homeland Security, dealing with civil rights complaints concerning U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Earlier, she worked on family and humanitarian immigration policy and legal issues for the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman and on legal access issues for the Department of Justice Executive Office of Immigration Review.Before her time with the federal government, she was a senior attorney for Catholic Legal Immigration Network’s training and technical support section for 23 years, providing technical assistance and training to CLINIC’s affiliated programs and other nonprofits nationwide. She also represented immigrant clients of Catholic Charities Immigration Legal Services for the Archdiocese of Washington. She began fulltime practice of immigration law while working for the Colorado Rural Legal Services Farmworker Program.She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.A. in Ibero-American Studies and earned her J.D. at Antioch School of Law in Washington, D.C. She is a member of the Colorado Bar.Peggy is a frequent speaker on immigration law topics and contributor to publications. She speaks Spanish.
Brett Snider, Director, Legal Services Department - Jewish Family and Children's Services
Brett Snider graduated from UC College of the Law San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings) in 2011 and became a member of the California Bar in Dec 2011. Brett started in immigration law as a pro bono volunteer with Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) Legal Services department in 2014, helping with individual cases and citizenship workshops. He has been the Director of the Department of Legal Services since 2016. Through his work JFCS, Brett has been able to advocate on behalf of many seniors and those with disabilities who have needed accommodations and waivers as part of their immigration or naturalization cases. Brett is a Texas native, but he’s been a Bay Area resident since 2008. He currently lives with his partner in Oakland.