Zoila Alvarez-Hernández

D-SIJS
Written By Kevin Hopper

Senior Attorney, Children's Program

Zoila Alvarez-Hernández is a Senior Attorney for the Children's Program at NMILC. In her current role, she represents released unaccompanied children in immigration removal proceedings. Zoila is a member of the State Bar of New Mexico. 

Zoila earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a minor in Spanish from the University of New Mexico (UNM). Zoila later earned a Masters in Language, Literacy, & Sociocultural Studies with a focus on Bilingual Education from the UNM College of Education, graduating with distinction. 

Zoila graduated from UNM School of Law, receiving the Immigration Advocacy Award and the Dean’s Award for Significant Contribution to the Law School. During law school, she worked as a Sr. Research Fellow at the UNM Center for Education Policy Research, served on university leadership as UNM GPSA Council Chair, helped co-found the Immigration Law Student Association, and served as a Marshall-Brennan Project Fellow. In 2018, Zoila worked as a student attorney for the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Law Clinic in Boston hosted at Greater Boston Legal Services, representing South American and Caribbean asylees. 

After law school, Zoila was awarded a Corinne Wolfe Fellowship to work at the ACLU of New Mexico, focusing on combating the entanglement of local, state, city and county resources going to increased immigration enforcement and its effect on immigrant children and families in New Mexico. 

Prior to joining NMILC, Zoila worked at the American Immigration Council as a Research Associate focused on Transparency. There, she worked on two key projects: the Family Separation FOIA project prompted by the Trump administration's Zero Tolerance policy; and the Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE) FOIA project examining the patterns of enforcement of Border Patrol in northern Ohio. In this work, Zoila had the opportunity to review thousands of pages of FOIA documents disclosed by the government on family separation and publish a web report on unconstitutional immigration enforcement activity in northern Ohio.

Zoila served as a Director on the Board of the State Bar of New Mexico's Immigration Law Section from 2021 to 2022. Zoila is committed to creating lasting impact in New Mexico and hopes to use her work to help improve the health and well-being of New Mexico’s immigrant children and families. 

Kevin Hopper

The power of words and pictures has always been immense. From cave paintings and stained glass to the advents of the printing press, photography, television and of course, the Internet.

Words and pictures are everywhere. Lucky for me, I have a talent for crafting and combining them into powerful and effective communication.

I grew up fascinated with photography, then fine art and graphic design. I also stumbled upon my writing talent when a college professor accused me of plagiarism (the highest form of flattery?). A career in advertising seemed the obvious track, so that was my initial route. However, my diverse skillset and ravenous appetite for learning new applications, tools and programs pushed me into journalism, art direction, digital publishing, UX/UI, AI, etc. This constant technological multiplicity keeps me both engaged, challenged, and admittedly, a bit overwhelmed.

Yet what remains constant? Words and pictures.

Regardless of industry, words and pictures are important. This is something that every successful company demands, and armed with the ability to craft both into effective communication, it is a thrill for me to perform.

My career path has been far from standard, but it has opened my creative mind to a multitude of applications and perspectives. Along the way, I have worked with and for some extraordinary people from all walks of life. I celebrate diversity in all forms and continue to seek and solve new communication problems via my design entity Hoppervision.

When time allows, I create artwork, take photos, cook impulsively, collect vintage furniture and snowboard when possible.

Let’s talk creativity in terms of solving your communications issues…

…over a taut espresso, of course!

https://hoppervision.com
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