Preserving California as an Immigrant Inclusive State

Amy Ramirez has dedicated her career to working with the most vulnerable in her community and advocating for social justice. Amy began her career in family shelter both in San Francisco and with Catholic Charities in Santa Rosa. She later transitioned into medical social work, working with socially complex patients at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. 

Amy moved up through the Providence Health System, managing outpatient case management departments and eventually moved into leading Providence's Community Health Investment team, overseeing vital public health programs and administering community-wide grants to non-profits and initiatives aimed at improving social determinants of heath needs. Amy is now the executive director of the Healthcare Foundation Northern Sonoma County. This small foundation is doing big work to increase access to healthcare and mental healthcare in Sonoma County. 

Amy has a bachelor’s degree in Child and Adolescent Development from San Francisco State University and a Masters in Social Work from California State University, East Bay. She lives in Santa Rosa with her partner and her two daughters.

As NDLON Campaign Director, Salvador G. oversees campaigns and legislative efforts for the network of 70 day labor centers and immigrant rights organizations. This includes over a decade of work to advance local and state policy that rejects the conflation of local law enforcement with federal immigration enforcement, from Santa Ana CA, to Boston MA, and dozens of cities in between, as well as California's own sanctuary state law. Before that, he served as Advocacy Officer for RFK Human Rights in Washington, DC. With over 20 years of policy and organizing experience, he is also a writer, musician, and member of the DC Bar. He is Chicano on his dad's side, Chilango on his mom's side, and a very proud Californian.

Josh Stehlik is CIPC’s Policy Director in Los Angeles. He advocates for state and local policies that advance immigrant rights and ensure equity of opportunities and a robust safety net for all. 

Josh has over 23 years of experience as an attorney working at the intersection of immigrant and workers’ rights, with a focus on the workplace rights of low-income immigrant workers. 

Prior to CIPC, Josh was a Deputy Legal Director at the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) where, for 13 years, he engaged in systemic litigation, policy advocacy, and community education to advance and defend the rights of low-income immigrants and their families. At NILC, Josh was part of the management team overseeing NILC’s litigation docket and worked on a range of complex federal litigation, including challenging the first Trump administration’s Muslim travel ban, contesting retaliatory immigration enforcement against immigrant rights movement leaders, and defending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. 

Before NILC, Josh spent a decade as an attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County, where he represented low-income workers in wage claims, unemployment insurance benefit appeals, and criminal record expungement. He also advocated for state and local policies to advance the rights of workers with low- income, including the passage of California’s first bill to protect the rights of car wash workers. 

Josh earned his law degree from Yale Law School in 2001. He has been a guest lecturer at UCLA School of Law and an adjunct professor at USC Law School.