Jamshid Damooei is a Professor and Director of the Economics Program and Executive Director of the Center for Economics of Social Issues at California Lutheran University. He worked as a Senior Economist for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Senior Consultant for the UN.

In 2017, he was recognized by Huffington Post as an Iranian American for seminal contributions to his field of study. He has conducted more than 100 studies and written reports in various forms ranging from peer-reviewed to research projects commissioned by many for and non-profit organizations and foundations. In the last 25 years, his research has been focused on the economics of social issues, what he calls economic studies with a human face.  

Sabith Khan serves as the Program Director of the Masters of Public Policy and Administration program at Cal Lutheran University. He has a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech and an MPA and MA in International Relations from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, the country’s oldest and among the most prestigious Public Admin programs.

He is the author of an award-winning book on nonprofit management and also more recently, a book on remittances and international development, through Routledge, which looks at remittances across four countries: India, Saudi Arabia, the USA, and Mexico.

Dr. Thai V. Le (he/him) is a Research Scientist at the Equity Research Institute where he leads research projects on immigrant inclusion and racial justice. As a mixed-methods researcher, Dr. Le utilizes statistical models, ethnographic practices, and spatial tools to study a range of issues, including naturalization outcomes, regressive and discriminatory local financing practices, the digital divide, emotional justice, and burnout among public sector workers. In uplifting social equity and intersectionality, his research also disaggregates data to elevate the narratives of marginalized and minoritized communities.

His previous work examines the diverging pathways to citizenship and immigrant inclusion in the United States and extrapolates the multiplicative effects of racialized and gendered barriers within immigrant communities, earning him the Henry Reining Jr. Best Dissertation in Public Policy and Management Award. Dr. Le’s postdoctoral work takes a mixed-methods approach in exploring the immigrant integration landscape in California to identify strategies in mobilizing and organizing hard-to-reach immigrant populations. He has published in leading peer reviewed journals, including the International Migration Review Journal, Public Integrity Journal, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Government Information Quarterly, Academy of Management Proceedings, Urban Studies, Journal of Health Policy and Technology, and Public Personnel Management.

In addition to producing research that contributes to positive social change, Dr. Le’s primary goal as an activist and scholar is to teach students foundational skills that will prepare them to advocate for a just society centering equity. Dr. Le earned his Ph.D. in Public Policy and Management from the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy.

Apolonio “Polo” Morales is CIPC’s Deputy Director of Programs and Campaigns. In this position, he supervises the organization’s policy, government affairs and organizing programs. Polo has more than a decade of experience in the immigrants’ rights movement.

Before joining CIPC, Polo was the Director of External Affairs at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). He was previously a labor organizer for the California Nurses Association/United Steelworkers’ Healthcare Workers Alliance and a community organizer for Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organization. Polo also served as interim director of the Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action and was national immigration organizer for Faith in Action’s Campaign for Citizenship. 

A child of undocumented immigrants, Polo has dedicated his life to advancing pro-immigrant policies and changing the anti-immigrant narrative in the United States. He grew up in El Monte, Calif., where attended Mountain View High School. He graduated from U.C. Berkeley with an English degree and a minor in education.

In his spare time, he writes short stories and has been published in the online publications KCET Departures and Tropics of Meta. Most recently, he was published in East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte, a collection of 31 essays that trace the experience of a California community over three centuries, published by Rutgers University Press.