Mony Ruiz-Velasco is the director of legal services for Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) in Chicago, where she oversees the organization’s Immigrant Legal Defense, Immigrant Children’s Protection, and gender-based protection projects. Mony played a key role in developing NIJC’s Asylum, Counter-trafficking and Immigrant Children’s Protection projects. Previously, Mony worked in private immigration law practice and also has served as an attorney advisor under the Attorney General’s Honors Program at the Executive Office for Immigration Review. Mony is a 1999 graduate of St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas and is licensed in Texas.