Our Baltimore Team

Elisabeth Centeno Lopez is a civil litigator with a long-standing commitment to advancing the rights of immigrants, refugees, and children. As an undergraduate at Stanford University, Elisabeth worked as a Spanish-language interpreter and research assistant with Stanford Law School’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic and interned with Public Counsel’s Children’s Rights Project and Adoption Project. Prior to law school, Elisabeth worked for Human Rights First (HRF) in New York City as a John Gardner Public Service Fellow, supporting HRF’s Asylum Representation Program and Never Torture campaign. While attending Yale Law School, Elisabeth served as a student director and intern with the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization’s Immigration Legal Services Clinic and Domestic Violence Clinic, representing clients in asylum, VAWA, and family law matters. After graduating, she continued serving the immigrant community as a firm-sponsored staff attorney/fellow with the Immigration Unit of Greater Boston Legal Services. Prior to becoming Managing Attorney of KIND’s Baltimore Office, Elisabeth was a litigation associate for several years at Ropes & Gray LLP and clerked for The Honorable Stephanie A. Gallagher of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. She is admitted to practice law in California and the District of Columbia.

Alejandra Morisi is the Senior Attorney with the KIND Baltimore office. Since 2014, she has been providing direct legal representation services to unaccompanied children and their families in the Maryland area. She has been actively involved in the advocacy and education regarding unaccompanied children and their immigration relief. Alejandra has been a panelist and guest speaker at the Judicial College of Maryland; our local radio station, WYPR; and University of Maryland-Baltimore County among others. Prior to her position with KIND, she was a solo practitioner and a staff attorney with Catholic Charities of Baltimore. She is a graduate of the University of Baltimore School of Law and holds an undergraduate degree in Exercise Science from Florida State University. Alejandra is a native Spanish speaker and a first generation immigrant from Chile.

Attorney Joseph Cardona earned his Juris Doctor (JD) degree with honors from the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico School of Law and started his legal practice in General Litigation. In 2017 Attorney Cardona moved with his family to Maryland in order to specialize in Immigration Law Litigation. Ever since then Attorney Cardona has been strongly engaged and committed in representing our immigrant brothers and sisters before the Immigration Courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), and USCIS's Administrative Appeals Office (AAO). Recently, Attorney Cardona also diversified his professional obligations by mentoring Pro Bono Attorneys in Asylum and SIJS cases at the state and federal administrative level.

Sarah Choi is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Illinois College of Law. She started her legal practice as in-house counsel at a Fortune 500 company in the Chicago area, providing legal counsel in the areas of ethics, compliance, and securities. Sarah returned to Maryland in 2015 and volunteered with KIND’s Baltimore office. Shortly after, she joined another nonprofit organization practicing immigration law, focusing on family and humanitarian work. Sarah is dedicated to advocating for the rights of immigrants, including volunteering with the Dulles Justice Coalition at Dulles Airport in the wake of the Muslim travel ban in early 2017. She joined KIND in 2018 and is fluent in Korean.

Prior to joining KIND, Lili worked in a variety of community-based organizations dedicated to social and economic justice throughout the Americas. As part of her B.A. in International Development Studies and Women’s Studies at McGill University (2009), Lili focused her Honors Thesis on the labor conditions of Mexican women migrant workers in Quebec, traveling to Mexico to obtain workers’ testimonies. Following graduation, Lili worked at a community soup kitchen in Montreal for two and a half years before relocating to Latin America, where she conducted human rights accompaniment in Colombia and then worked as a Project Officer for cooperative development NGO The Working World in Nicaragua. Over the past seven years, Lili has written articles and produced audio documentaries on a variety of social justice issues in Latin America (National Film Board of Canada, Alternatives International Journal, Free Speech Radio News). Lili is originally from Columbia, Maryland and is excited to be back in her home state, connecting immigrant and refugee children with legal representation as they navigate the U.S. immigration system.

Leslie Espino is the daughter of two Guatemalan immigrants. She has two older sisters, and was born and raised in Nebraska. Leslie is a first-generation college graduate and received her Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She is a Goodrich Scholar and a member of Lambda Theta Nu Sorority, Inc. Prior to attending law school, Leslie interned at the U.S. Committee of Refugee and Immigrants, where she called upon unaccompanied minors to share their stories in order to find them pro bono counsel. She also spent time as a Bilingual Paralegal at Legal Aid of Nebraska where she assisted callers, located throughout the state, with civil legal matters and screened immigrants calling the Nebraska Immigration Legal Assistance Hotline for legal assistance with their respective immigration matters. She obtained her Juris Doctorate from Creighton University School of Law where she was actively involved in the Latinx Law Student Association as the Vice President and Immigration Law Society as the President. While in law school, she interned at Ayuda in Washington, D.C., Justice for Our Neighbors, in Omaha, Nebraska, (now Immigrant Legal Center) and at the Immigration Court in Omaha, Nebraska. In her free time she likes to hang out with her two nephews and two nieces, travel, and read. Leslie is barred to practice law in Maryland.

Monica is a native of Watertown, South Dakota and a graduate of Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota where she studied Government, International Affairs, Spanish, and Anthropology. While at Augie, she was politically and civically active, getting involved in everything from a US Senate campaign to running a varieties show. Additionally, she spent part of her junior year working at the Children’s Defense Fund in Washington D.C. and Knoxville, Tennessee. After graduation, she immediately started working at the major South Dakota law firm Davenport, Evans, Hurwitz & Smith, where she assisted the attorneys in the Trusts & Estates division. She held this position until she decided to move to Baltimore and begin a new adventure with KIND. When she isn’t working, you can find her walking her mini goldendoodle Atticus or doing YOGA. Most recently, she has started training for a half marathon in the fall.

Victoria has been providing direct legal representation to immigrants in the Maryland area since 2013. Prior to her position with KIND, she was a staff attorney with Catholic Charities of Baltimore, where she gained extensive experience representing victims of domestic violence and the general immigrant population. She is a graduate of the University of Baltimore School of Law, where she was a Student Attorney with the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic. Victoria holds an undergraduate degree in Spanish from Georgetown University and Certificates of Translation in Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. She is grateful for the ability to serve Maryland’s immigrants.

Prior to coming to KIND, Michael worked as a family services coordinator for children and families at the Federal poverty level. Michael is a licensed social worker, and has extensive experience in working with immigrants in the area, including coordinating post-release services and home-based case management in-home case management for unaccompanied youth released from ORR detention. Michael has also worked as a home study social worker for an ORR national partner, and coordinated the safe release and family reunification of numerous unaccompanied Central American youth with their parents and guardians. Michael has over 8 years of experience in providing direct services and program coordination for immigrant families in and around the Baltimore region. Before moving to Baltimore, Michael spent 2 years living in Guatemala as a community development volunteer with the Peace Corps. Michael lives in Baltimore with his wife and 2 children. He is a die-hard Orioles fan.

Jorge was born in Ensenada, Mexico, and grew up along the United States-Mexico border. After six years at San Diego City College, he transferred to University of California San Diego, where he majored in Latin American Studies. Following graduation from UCSD, Jorge was a case manager at the Montgomery County Maryland Bar Foundation’s Pro Bono Program for five years. Jorge enjoys collecting vinyl records, playing soccer, and riding his bicycle.

Daniela is a Program Assistant for the Legal Services Team at KIND’s Baltimore office. As the daughter of a Colombian family and a first-generation college graduate, she feels a special connection to the immigrant and refugee community of the U.S., and is dedicated to being a sincere advocate for this community. Graduating from Shepherd University in 2018, Daniela earned her B.A. in Global Studies upon completing her undergraduate capstone on the topic of unaccompanied minors entering the U.S. She has experience working with local undocumented families and individuals in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia through her volunteer work with Catholic Charities during her college years, assisting local immigrants by directing them to the resources they required. She plans to further her education and obtain her Master’s degree in Latin American Studies in the future and is excited to serve immigrant children and child refugees through KIND.

Daniella has been zealously advocating for vulnerable immigrant populations for more than 10 years. Prior to joining KIND, Daniella was a Senior Attorney at Tahirih Justice Center, where she represented survivors of gender-based violence in immigration and family law matters. Daniella was a Staff Attorney at Farmworker Legal Services of Michigan where she advocated for indigent migrant workers in immigration and employment litigation cases and initiated a targeted advocacy project for workplace sexual assault survivors. She started her legal career as a Law Clerk to the Honorable Glenn T. Harrell on the Maryland Court of Appeals, the highest court in Maryland. While attending University of Baltimore School of Law, Daniella interned for the Executive Office of Immigration Review, clerked for a boutique immigration and family law firm, litigated cases involving wage and hour claims as a student attorney, and published a Law Review article on how to resolve legal bars to asylum. Daniella is a native Spanish speaker and a native of Ecuador.

Melina Quiroz is originally an Argentine native and has lived in Maryland for most of her life. She attended Goucher College, where she majored in International Relations and French, pursuing an internship in Brussels, Belgium during her fall semester of 2015. During her time at Goucher, Melina worked extensively with the immigrant community as ESL Coordinator and Instructor at the Futuro Latino Learning Center. After graduation, she continued her work with various firms, including Said & Associates, where she assisted Attorneys with various immigration filings, both affirmative and defensive and received exposure to the immigration law world. During her free time, Melina enjoys baking and walking her dog, Luna.

Diana Saavedra grew up in Juarez, Mexico and migrated to the United States at the age of 9. She is a first generation college graduate and received her Bachelor’s and Masters of Criminal Justice from New Mexico State University. While in graduate school she interned at the Southwest Asylum and Migration Institute, and Catholic Charities- Diocese of Las Cruces. She graduated from Howard University School of Law in May 2018. During law school, she was the president of the Latinx association La Alianza, Vice President of the Immigration Law Society, and an active member of the Hispanic Bar Association of D.C. As her role in the Immigration Law Society at Howard, she organized and lead an alternative spring break trip to Dilley, Texas to provide legal assistance to arriving immigrants. She was also the recipient of a scholarship from the Hispanic Bar Association of D.C. in 2017. As an immigrant herself, she has a personal commitment to public interest and more specifically to give back to the immigrant community. Ms. Saavedra now resides in Annapolis, Maryland with her husband and two step-daughters.

Victoria joined KIND in July 2020 as a Staff Attorney. Prior to joining KIND, Victoria worked as an immigration attorney at Foreign-Born Information and Referral Network (FIRN), a non-profit organization in Howard County, Maryland, where she focused her practice on representing individuals in applications for humanitarian relief, family-based petitions, and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. Victoria also previously worked in private practice in Silver Spring, Maryland, where she represented individuals in immigration and family law matters. Victoria spent her childhood in Russia and Israel, an experience that shaped her interest and commitment to advocating for immigrant children. Victoria is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law, and obtained her B.A. from the University of Maryland, College Park. Victoria is admitted to practice law in Maryland. She currently lives in Montgomery County with her husband and daughter.

Virginia Moraleda is a Social Services Coordinator at KIND’s Baltimore office. She is originally from Spain and also lived in Dublin, Ireland. She graduated from UNED with a B.A. in Social Work and also holds a M.A. in Applied Sociology: Social Problems from Complutense University of Madrid and a M.A. in Leadership and Management from Notre Dame of Maryland University. Ms. Moraleda has broad experience working with diverse populations, including sex workers, the LGBTQ community, immigrants, domestic abusers, and female prisoners. Prior to joining KIND, she worked as an Intercountry Case Manager with separated and unaccompanied minors at International Social Service-USA in Baltimore.