PRESS RELEASE
July 10, 2025
Contact: Michelle Mittelstadt
202-266-1910
[email protected]

MPI Board of Trustees Welcomes New Members with Distinguished Experience in Business, Law, Immigration Policy and Service Provision

WASHINGTON — Three new members joined the Migration Policy Institute’s Board of Trustees this month: Paul Dwyer, Charles Kamasaki and Elizabeth Espín Stern. The three, whose experiences add to the significant diversity of backgrounds on the Board of Trustees, have deep experience in the business, legal, policy and service provision realms.

The new trustees are:

• Paul Dwyer: CEO of Viamericas, a business that offers money transfer, bill payment, check processing and top-up services throughout Latin America, Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia.  Prior to founding Viamericas, Dwyer was a partner with the Latin American Practice Group of the Washington, DC-based law firm Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale). Earlier, he practiced law with Rogers & Wells (now part of Clifford Chance) and served as an internal counsel at the Inter-American Investment Corporation. He previously served on MPI’s Advisory Board.
   
• Charles Kamasaki: A distinguished immigration scholar at Cornell University Law School, Kamasaki is senior cabinet adviser for UnidosUS, the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization. Previously at UnidosUS (formerly the National Council of La Raza), he served as executive vice president, managing the organization’s research, policy analysis and advocacy activity on civil rights, education, economic mobility, housing and community development, immigration, health and other issues. He also testified frequently before Congress. He has served on numerous nonprofit boards of directors, advisory committees and task forces, and while an MPI visiting fellow wrote his award-winning book about the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, Immigration Reform: The Corpse That Will Not Die (Mandel Vilar Press, 2019).
   
• Elizabeth Espín Stern: The former managing partner of Mayer Brown's Washington DC office (2021-24) and founder and head of Mayer Brown’s Global Mobility & Migration practice (2014-24), she continues to advise both bodies. A seasoned veteran who has advised companies through every major immigration policy change since 1986, Ms. Stern has earned accolades in leading legal rankings, including Legal 500’s Hall of Fame for Immigration (2020-22), Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers. She is a recipient of the National Law Journal’s Immigration Trailblazer award (2018), Washingtonian’s Lawyer Lifetime Achievement for Immigration and was named as one of the Top 10 Most Innovative Legal Practitioners by the Financial Times in 2020.

“The wealth of experience that Liz, Paul and Charles bring from their distinguished work in the corporate, legal, policy, advocacy and service provision portfolios will be of great value to the Board of Trustees and MPI more broadly,” said MPI Board of Trustees Chair Roberta S. Jacobson. “My fellow trustees and I are delighted to welcome them and look forward to their insights and strategic vision as we work to deepen MPI’s standing as an essential voice in policy and research in the United States and globally.”

The other trustees are Cecilia Malmström (vice chair), Malcolm Brown (treasurer), Lynden Melmed (secretary), Juan José Gómez-Camacho, Emily Margarethe Haber, Gerald Jaynes, Elisa Massimino, Jose Luis Prado Becerra, Cristina Rodríguez, Andrew Selee (MPI president), Mariko Silver, C. Stewart Verdery, Jr. and Julie Myers Wood.

For more on the Board of Trustees, visit: www.migrationpolicy.org/about/trustees.

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The Migration Policy Institute is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank in Washington, D.C. dedicated to analysis of the movement of people worldwide. MPI provides analysis, development and evaluation of migration and refugee policies at the local, national and international levels. For more on MPI, please visit www.migrationpolicy.org.

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