DREXEL EVENT: A Decade of Advocacy: A Practical Lawyering Perspective on the 2001 Terrorist Attacks and Their Aftermath, Wed Sep 7 @ 5pm

9/11/2001-9/11/2011 — A Decade of Advocacy: A Practical Lawyering Perspective

Sponsored by the Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law, American Constitution Society – Drexel Chapter, Drexel International Law and Human Rights Society, Drexel Middle Eastern Law Students Association, National Lawyers Guild – Drexel Chapter, Drexel Philosophy Club

Panelists:

Deepa Iyer
Executive Director, South Asian Americans Leading Together

Deepa Iyer is the Executive Director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), a national, non-profit organization in the Washington DC area. Iyer has guided SAALT’s direction on policy advocacy, programs and partnerships since 2004. An attorney by training, Iyer has previously worked at Asian American legal organizations as well as the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where she addressed the post-September 11th backlash facing South Asian, Muslim, Sikh and Arab American communities. Regarded as an expert on the impact of September 11th on immigrants and minority communities, Iyer is the Executive Producer of a documentary on hate crimes, has written extensively on the post 9/11 backlash, and taught classes at Columbia University, Hunter College and the University of Maryland. Most recently, she is the guest editor of Race/Ethnicity, a journal on the 10-year anniversary of September 11th which is forthcoming from the Kirwan Institute for Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University in August 2011. For her work around 9/11 issues, Iyer has received community leadership awards from the Asian Pacific Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) and Chhaya CDC. Iyer serves as Vice Chair of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans and on the Board of Directors of the Applied Research Center.

Moein Khawaja
Executive Director, Council of American-Islamic Relations of Pennsylvania

Moein Khawaja was born and raised in Springfield, IL and has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Illinois. His extensive activism experience began during his undergraduate years at the University of Illinois. Along with substantial involvement with the Muslim Students Association at the University of Illinois, Moein developed the first CAIR chapter for a university and an extensive leadership training program. He also facilitated the logistics of the MSA-national Central Zone Conference and was an intern at the Environmental Protection Agency. For his work, he earned the Illinois Leadership Certificate. In addition to owning and managing a small contracting business, Moein devoted a considerable amount of time in 2008 to the Barack Obama Presidential campaign as a volunteer coordinator. Moein is currently a fellow at the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute, a program of the University of Southern California Center for Religion and Civic Culture. In September 2009, he was hired as CAIR-PA’s new Civil Rights Director, and began in his capacity as Executive Director in May 2010. Through CAIR, Moein is dedicated to protecting the rights of all Americans and to promote the understanding and integration of Islam into the American experience.

Mary Catherine Roper
Staff Attorney, American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania

Mary Catherine Roper is a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania’s Philadelphia Office, where she coordinates litigation on a broad range of civil liberties issues, including freedom of speech, religious liberty, racial and ethnic justice, equality for lesbians and gay men, student rights, privacy, prisoners’ rights and police misconduct. Prior to joining the ACLU, Mary Catherine was a partner in the firm of Drinker Biddle and Reath, where she was well known for her commitment to pro bono work. Mary Catherine is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Anita B. Brody of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and served a year with the Disabilities Law Project as the first recipient of the Philadelphia Bar Foundation Public Interest Fellowship.

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When: Wed, Sep 7, 2011, 5:00pm

Where: Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law, Rm 140
3320 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA

Reception to follow.