Our Special Programs Team

As an immigration law expert with over ten years in the field, Christie oversees KIND’s family separation work nationwide, in addition to other special initiatives and projects. Christie previously served as Deputy Director of Legal Services, helping manage KIND’s East Coast field offices. Christie also served as the Managing Attorney for KIND’s Washington, DC and Northern Virginia field offices. Prior to joining KIND, Christie was a Supervising Attorney at Catholic Charities’ Hogar Immigrant Services in Virginia, where her work included deportation defense and family-based immigration matters. A 2008 honors graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, Christie was a Fellow at the National Women’s Law Center and interned at several immigrant rights organizations, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Catholic Charities of Washington, DC, and American Gateways in Austin, Texas. In addition, Christie participated in the University of Texas School of Law Immigration Clinic and Transnational Worker Rights Clinic and served as a Human Rights Scholar with the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice. Prior to law school, Christie spent three years supporting consumer protection investigations and litigation at the Federal Trade Commission.

Kayleen Hartman is the Managing Attorney for Special Programs at KIND. She comes to the role having previously served as the Director of the Removal Defense Project at the Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic at Loyola Law School. Kayleen's previous roles at immigration non-profits include her work as the Pro Bono Coordinator for the Children’s Representation Project at Immigrant Defenders Law Center, and as a staff attorney at Ayuda, a Washington D.C. immigrants’ rights organization. In addition to immigration work, she has served as policy counsel for human trafficking issues at Shared Hope International, and been a fellow at Georgetown's Human Rights Institute, where she worked on school-to-prison pipeline issues. Kayleen earned her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center with a Certificate in Refugee and Humanitarian Emergencies. In 2011, she received Georgetown’s Bettina Prukmayer Award for Human Rights. Kayleen received her B.A. from Davidson College.

Hillary graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and Geography. Shortly thereafter, she pursued her law degree from Thurgood Marshall School of Law. During law school she interned with the Harris County Public Defender’s Office, Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, and the Northwest Justice Project. Hillary began her immigration legal career representing adults in family petitions, bonds, and removal defense. She was later hired by Catholic Charities of Galveston-Houston to represent unaccompanied immigrant children in removal proceedings. Hillary worked with children who feared return to their country due to violence, children that had suffered trauma, and child trafficking victims. She has experience representing clients before the immigration court, USCIS, consular officials, and law enforcement agencies. Hillary is licensed to practice law in Texas and is fluent in Spanish.

Rodolfo is a passionate about social justice and advancing the rights of the immigrant community, children, and other vulnerable populations. He joined KIND Baltimore in 2017 as a Gallogly Family Foundation Public Interest Fellow and transitioned to the Family Separation Team after completing his fellowship. He is a graduate of American University—Washington College of Law (JD) and Yale University (BA). While in law school, Rodolfo served as a student attorney for the Immigrant Justice Clinic and spent the majority of his time interning and volunteering at public interest organizations, including Whitman-Walker Health Legal Services, ABA Center on Children and the Law, CAIR Coalition, and South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (ProBAR). Prior to law school, Rodolfo worked for five years an elementary school teacher, primarily teaching at Title I schools in Houston and Miami. Rodolfo grew up in Brownsville, TX and currently resides in Austin, TX with his husband.

Prior to joining KIND, Gabriel volunteered his time as a pro bono attorney for the organization representing clients in immigration court and the Circuit Courts of Maryland, as well as helping other KIND pro bono attorneys communicate with their Spanish speaking clients. Gabriel primarily focused his practice of law, apart from immigration, in the areas of landlord-tenant, contracts, administrative, and personal injury law. Gabriel is a 2012 graduate of the Massachusetts School of Law. Born and raised in Texas, Gabriel graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy then from the University of Texas at El Paso with a Bachelor’s Degree in Organizational and Corporate Communication. At both universities, he was part of several organizations including Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity. As a son of immigrant parents and a native Spanish speaker, Gabriel has empathy and a moral duty to help children who face procedural and language barriers once here in the United States. Gabriel is barred in Massachusetts, Maryland and the U.S. District Court District of Maryland.

Rachel Bennion supports the Family Separation and Special Programs team at KIND. She joined KIND in April 2021. Prior to joining KIND, Rachel helped manage the immigration pro bono program and represented clients seeking immigration relief at Catholic Charities Immigration Legal Services in Washington, D.C. Rachel holds a Bachelor of Arts in English, a Master of Public Administration, and a J.D. from Brigham Young University. Her prior experiences include serving as a community organizer for a year as an AmeriCorps VISTA, completing clerkships with the National Immigration Law Center and Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto, and representing unaccompanied minors in Asylum and Special Immigrant Juvenile cases at Catholic Charities San Francisco. She is fluent in Spanish and is a member of the California Bar.

Bio coming soon.

Esther joined KIND in Washington, D.C. as a Skadden Fellow in September 2020. She is a graduate of Yale Law School and has over ten years of experience volunteering with immigrants, asylum-seekers, and refugees. During her time in law school, Esther completed internships with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She also represented clients in several clinics, including the Immigrant Rights Clinic, International Refugee Assistance Project, and Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project. As an avid linguaphile, Esther speaks Spanish, Russian, and Hungarian and is currently learning Amharic.

Kenia is passionate about human rights and social justice. Prior to joining KIND, Kenia graduated from Georgetown University with a Master's degree in Latin American Studies where she specialized in human rights, conflict resolution and gender. As a Bolivian-American, Kenia has always had an interest in advocating for the human rights of vulnerable populations in the Latin American region. She completed internships in Bolivia and Colombia where she focused on the rights of indigenous peoples and rural women. During her last semester at Georgetown University, she completed a capstone project regarding the issue of gender stipulations within the Colombian Peace Accords. Working alongside a Georgetown colleague, the Washington Office on Latin America, the Latin America Working Group, and Colombian civil-society organizations, she co-produced an advocacy report identifying priority issues and recommendations for the purpose of lobbying U.S. policymakers to support gender-inclusive conflict resolution and peace-building in Colombia. As a child of immigrant parents, Kenia is also particularly passionate about advocating for the rights of immigrant families and children, and is excited to support KIND's dedicated Special Programs team.

Coming soon.