Who We Are
Sur Legal Collaborative is a women of color-founded immigrant and worker rights nonprofit legal organization created at the center of labor, immigration, and decarceration movements in the Deep South.
Staff
Christopher E. Williams, Executive Director
Christopher (any pronouns) is a community-rooted changemaker whose journey spans coastlines and causes. Raised with a foundation oriented towards service in a family of leaders within the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Christopher’s early commitment to service began as a teen volunteer with The DIVA Foundation. While earning a BA in English Literature at Morehouse College, Christopher organized against institutional policies targeting transgender and gender nonconforming students and joined mass mobilizations in response to the state-sanctioned execution of Troy Davis. These formative experiences cemented a dedication to justice, advocacy, and cultural transformation.
In 2016, Christopher co-founded BankBlackUSA in response to ongoing violence and economic injustice in Black communities. Powered by the COWRIE Initiative (Co-Operative Wealth, Re-Investment, & Empowerment), BankBlackUSA has grown into a nationally recognized resource hub featuring databases of 20+ Black-owned financial institutions and culturally responsive financial literacy tools. During this time, Christopher also worked as an Agile Project Manager in Financial Technologies employing systems and change management thinking to the needs of the private sector.
Christopher currently serves on the advisory board of Beyond Trenches, an abolitionist mutual-aid organization in Atlanta supporting those most impacted by carceral injustice as well as the Culture Keeper’s Circle advisory board preserving at-risk cultural communities within the United States. They previously advised TransTech Social Enterprises, which supports career development within Tech for transgender and gender nonconforming individuals.
As a thought leader, Christopher speaks on topics including community wealth, anti-Black policing, queer justice, and mental health, engaging audiences from grassroots collectives to corporate boardrooms. Outside of their professional work, they are a hobbyist genealogist researching Louisiana Creole families, a recurring guest on a London-based X-Men podcast, and the “tell it like it is” friend and family member everyone needs.
Elizabeth Zambrana, Legal Director
Elizabeth is the daughter of Nicaraguan and Mexican immigrants and a passionate and dedicated advocate for immigrant rights. Prior to her current role at Sur Legal, Elizabeth served as Community Counsel at the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, a community-based organization focused on developing grassroots leadership in the Latine immigrant community of Georgia. Elizabeth also served as a Staff Attorney with the Tahirih Justice Center and Attorney Advisor with the Executive Office of Immigration Review. She was the recipient of an Equal Justice Works-Emerson Collective Legal Fellowship and served her fellowship term with the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network. Elizabeth obtained her J.D. from Rutgers School of Law and her B.A. from Florida International University.
Outside of her legal work, Elizabeth loves to spend time with her husband and three rambunctious pups. She has a growing collection of rare houseplants and cacti and is an avid listener of nerdy legal podcasts.
Rachel Johnson, Operations Manager
Rachel Johnson comes from a background of HR Office Management. She has spent the last 10 years working for social justice organizations behind the scenes to strengthen internal controls and make the business run as a smooth, well-oiled machine.
Rachel enjoys building processes from the ground up. She is a big advocate for employee engagement and recognition along with building a culture of inclusiveness and combating burnout/mental health issues.
Rachel enjoys camping with her husband and three children and kickboxing with FightCamp. She is a graduate of Elizabeth City State University, born in NY and raised in VA/NC.
Iman Ali, Development & Growth Strategist
Iman is a Pakistani-American eldest daughter of immigrants, and the first “American” in her family. Born in upstate-New York in a pre-9/11 United States to students whose visas were nearing expiration, Iman and her family returned to Pakistan, where she lived with her younger sister and parents for the next few years. In 2006, they returned to the US, moving to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she spent the majority of her schooling. Iman’s passion for social justice is informed by her longing for community and belonging, which led her to the local organizing scene in Chattanooga. This involvement uplifted some pivotal opportunities that later guided and inspired her academic and organizing journey, like getting to hear bell hooks share her experience in social justice work in a conversation with Gloria Steinem at Spelman University during her junior year of high school.
During college, Iman majored in Women Gender Studies with a focus in African-American Studies where she studied hegemonic power, intersectional power, and theory and praxis of transformative justice. Following undergrad, she worked alongside fellow AAPI organizers as the Development and Events Coordinator at an AAPI nonprofit in Georgia. Building on her experience within the immigrant-justice space, Iman joined Sur Legal Collaborative in 2023 and is currently leading our Development Program within her role as our Development & Growth Strategist.
Stephanie Lopez-Burgos, Bilingual Legal Advocate
From the vibrant streets of Carolina, Puerto Rico, Stephanie Lopez-Burgos embarked on a life-changing journey to the mainland United States at just nine years old. For the past 20 years, she has proudly called Georgia her home, where she pours her heart into raising her two children as a devoted single mother. With an unwavering commitment to activism, Stephanie has emerged as a passionate advocate for change in the Deep South, championing the rights of immigrants and workers alike. Stephanie’s transformative journey took a pivotal turn on January 31, 2021, when she crossed paths with Sur Legal Co-Founder Shelly Anand during a heartfelt legal clinic following the devastating nitrogen leak at Foundation Food Group in Gainesville, Georgia. As the affected workers shared their stories of loss and resilience, Stephanie’s exceptional skills in translation and interpretation became a lifeline, offering hope and support to those in dire need.
Since joining Sur Legal, Stephanie has become a cornerstone of the organization, diligently assisting immigrants and workers in navigating the intricate labyrinth of labor complaints and immigration relief applications. Her rich background in organizing empowers her to craft impactful advocacy strategies that resonate deeply within immigrant communities. Stephanie embodies the spirit of empowerment by providing "Know Your Rights" training, ensuring that individuals are equipped with the legal tools they need to advocate for themselves.
Driven by a profound love for her community, Stephanie is currently pursuing her dream of attending law school, with the vision of expanding Sur Legal's capacity to serve workers and immigrants even more effectively. Her fervor for justice and unwavering dedication to uplifting others shine through in every aspect of her work, as she tirelessly strives to create meaningful change for those she advocates for.
Aimee Pacheco, Staff Attorney and Founding Advocacy & Communications Fellow
Born and raised in Georgia, Aimee Pacheco is the proud daughter of immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala and is also Maya K’iche’. As a first-generation student, she graduated from Dartmouth College in 2020 with a B.A. in Geography and Spanish modified with Latinx, Latin American, and Caribbean Studies. After graduating, Aimee became the Founding Advocacy and Communications Fellow for Sur Legal Collaborative and oversaw Sur Legal's communications while supporting their legal work. Aimee went on to attend law school at Columbia Law School where she joined the Immigrant’s Rights Clinic and interned for the Department of Labor New York Regional Solicitor’s office, building her knowledge on immigration law, labor law, and the intersections thereof. During law school, Aimee continued to support Sur Legal’s work by developing popular education materials and producing content on our TikTok page. After graduating from law school in 2024, Aimee joined our team full-time as a Law Clerk while awaiting her Bar results. Aimee successfully passed the Bar in April 2025, and transitioned into her role as Staff Attorney.
Alessandra Stevens, Staff Attorney
Alessandra Stevens is excited to be continuing her work at Sur Legal as a full-time Staff Attorney after two years as a Justice Catalyst Fellow and to continue working to combat the labor abuse to deportation pipeline. At Sur Legal, Alessandra provides information, tools and legal support to grassroots organizers and immigrant workers so they can safely assert their rights and combat unsafe working conditions without fear of deportation or criminalization.
Alessandra is a graduate of the Northeastern University School of Law, and a Dean Curran Scholar in Action at the Emory University School of Public Health. Prior to attending law school, she served as Associate Director of Policy and Governmental Affairs for Mujeres Latinas en Acción, a Chicago-based non-profit serving Latinx survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. In that role she had the privilege of working with grassroots coalition partners on state and local policies to advance the rights of immigrant women across Illinois. Alessandra is admitted to the Illinois Bar.
Lucia Gambino, Bilingual Workers’ Rights Organizer
Lucia is a passionate bilingual organizer, born in Miami and raised in Costa Rica and Argentina. Growing up in a mixed-status household—with parents who were formerly undocumented immigrants and later naturalized in the U.S.—instilled in her a lifelong commitment to justice and dignity for all. She studied Political Science at Georgia State University with a concentration in Pre-Law and a minor in Philosophy. Since the first Trump administration, she has been organizing with immigrant communities across Northeast Atlanta, focusing on those most impacted by systemic neglect and abuse.
Her organizing work began with tenants along the Buford Highway corridor, fighting against predatory landlords and hazardous living conditions. In 2023, she played a key role in mobilizing immigrants to join the Stop Cop City movement, contributing to a historic effort where activists submitted over 116,000 signatures in an attempt to bring the issue to a public vote.
She envisions a world grounded in empathy and compassion, where the prison-industrial complex is dismantled and all incarcerated immigrants are liberated. At Sur Legal Collaborative, she continues to build power with immigrant workers, guided by a vision of collective liberation and providing them with accessible legal tools.
Sebastián Muñoz, Bilingual Digital Communications Coordinator
Raised in Florida by Puerto Rican parents, Sebastián is highly invested in bridging his background in digital strategy and advocacy with his passion for worker justice, immigrants’ rights, and movement work.
He has primarily worked in the nonprofit space, with work spanning from peacebuilding and human rights policy to social media management and field organizing. Sebastián obtained his B.A. from Dartmouth College, and he is excited to play a role in democratizing legal knowledge and supporting workers across the South with Sur Legal. He speaks English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and is learning Portuguese. Outside of work, he enjoys biking, exploring nature, and learning languages.
Board of Directors
Aliya Naim, Board Chair
Aliya Naim is the Limited Legal Services Program Manager for Innovation Law Lab, where she works to develop capacity for legal service provision for non-represented immigrants. She has been working in the immigration field in Atlanta since 2016. She also spent several years at The Carter Center working on international election observation in North and West Africa. She obtained her B.A. in International Affairs and Arabic at the University of Georgia and her M.A. in Migration and Diaspora Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, where she did research on the Syrian refugee crisis and countering violent extremism legislation. She spends most of her non-working time hiking, camping, or knitting.
Roula AbiSamra, Secretary
Roula is the eldest daughter of Lebanese immigrants who settled in New Orleans, and she is passionate about the resilience and creativity of Southern people of color. Supporting people seeking abortion care changed her life and led her to reproductive justice organizing. Today she works with the Amplify Georgia Collaborative to build campaigns for community power and policy change in our state. She also maintains a facilitation and consulting practice, lovingly called Humane Resources, for mission-driven teams around the country. She is interested in cultivating ecosystems that embrace our full humanity and our individual stories.
She has worked at the Feminist Women's Health Center, the National Abortion Federation, Advancing New Standards In Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) at the University of California San Francisco, the Sea Change Program, and the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF), and served on the founding board of Access Reproductive Care-Southeast. She has a Bachelor’s in political science and a Master’s in Public Health from Emory University and was a CoreAlign Generative Fellow in 2015-2016. In public life, she has at various times been a public health researcher, a community organizer, an abortion care provider, a small-dollar fundraiser, a policy advocate, a storyteller, a facilitator, a mediator. In private life, she is a delighted aunty, nature seeker, and crossword-player. She is (slowly) writing a book of childhood and family stories.
Christina Iturralde Thomas
With Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) since November 2015, Christina Iturralde Thomas, JD, was named managing director of KIND’s Atlanta office in August 2017. As managing director, she oversees a field office and has overall responsibility for a current caseload of 464 cases, a third of which are represented by pro bono partners. Christina also serves as the senior representative of the KIND at the local level.
She began her legal career in 2006 as an associate counsel for LatinoJustice PRLDEF, where her impact litigation efforts focused on housing rights, discrimination against day laborers, and the equal protection of immigrants. In 2011, she moved to the Southern Poverty Law Center in Atlanta, where she was a staff attorney focused on advancing immigrants’ rights. In 2015, she took on the role of unaccompanied minor attorney for the Latin American Association.
Christina earned her B.A. from the University of North Florida, an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Florida, and her J.D. from UC Law San Francisco. A daughter of immigrant parents from Ecuador, she is fluent in Spanish.
Co-Founders
Shelly Anand, Co-Founder & Strategic Advisor
Since 2011, Shelly has fought alongside immigrants and workers in the Deep South as a bilingual staff attorney with Georgia Legal Services Program, a litigator with the US Department of Labor, and an immigrant rights attorney with Tahirih Justice Center. In October 2020, she co-founded Sur Legal Collaborative, an immigrant and worker rights nonprofit legal organization, in response to COVID-19 after seeing that many of her immigrant clients had been deemed essential workers and knew nothing about their labor rights, particularly in the safety and health context.
Shelly served as Executive Director of Sur Legal from 2020-2025 in addition to managing day-to-day operations of a start-up nonprofit, Shelly shared her legal expertise around the Occupational Safety and Health Act and other federal labor laws with grassroots groups, immigrants, and working-class communities and assisted with drafting and filing effective labor complaints with labor agencies like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). She also assisted immigrant workers with applications for immigration relief and engaged in national advocacy efforts that led to OSHA becoming a U and T Visa certifying agency. Shelly now serves as Co-Founder & Strategic Advisor to provide support with the executive transition as well as guidance on development, operational, and programmatic activities, with a focus on ensuring Sur Legal’s long term sustainability.
Shelly is also a children’s book author who writes books she wishes she had growing up as a Desi girl in the Deep South. She received her B.A. from Wellesley College and her J.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Law in Chapel Hill.
Lynn Damiano Pearson, Co-Founder
In October 2020, Lynn Damiano Pearson co-founded Sur Legal Collaborative and developed our Immigrant Rights and Mass Decarceration Programs, which included assisting with the release of the last three women detained at the notorious Irwin County Detention Center, as well as representing victims of labor abuse and human trafficking in gaining legal status. Lynn and Shelly collaborated on a rapid response and ongoing legal advocacy for workers impacted by a deadly nitrogen leak at a poultry facility that killed six workers, one of the worst workplace tragedies in Georgia history.
Prior to co-founding Sur Legal, Lynn served as a Senior Staff Attorney at Tahirih Justice Center where she led an appellate project defending survivors of gender-based violence. Earlier in her career, Lynn defended prisoners sentenced to death in Georgia in state and federal court, including in a victory in the Supreme Court in Tharpe v. Sellers. Lynn is now a Senior Attorney at the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), where she advances NILC’s worker rights and enforcement work, including its Deferred Action for Workers Campaign. She provides technical assistance and training, creates resources for advocates and impacted communities, and supports federal litigation against unjust enforcement policies.
Practicing Our Values within
At Sur Legal, we believe the right to happy and healthy workplaces should apply to all, including our own staff. Nonprofit culture has a reputation for over-working and underpaying their employees who are working against oppressive systems and who routinely bear witness to harms to their clients and the communities they serve. These workplaces lead to burnout, secondary trauma, and high turnover, earning the term the "Non-Profit Industrial Complex." Sur Legal seeks to disrupt these traditional non-profit models with fair pay, flexible work schedules, self-managed PTO, and a four day work week. As we grow, we plan to provide comprehensive benefits, including wellness and mental health stipends.