Date: Thursday, October 9
Time: 12:00 – 1:30 p.m. ET
Location: Latina/o Studies Program Conference Room, Rockefeller Hall – 4th Floor, Cornell University Main Campus
Zoom Option Available

Join CLAA for a timely and engaging conversation with Kety Esquivel ’97, CLAA President and Charles Kamasaki, author of Immigration Reform: The Corpse That Will Not Die. They will be discussing Kamasaki’s decades of professional experience in advocacy, policy analysis, and research which culminated in the publication of his book in 2020. He will share his personal insights on the origins of immigration reform and implications for the future of immigration policy and legislation. CLAA welcomes all interested alumni and current students to attend.

This will be a hybrid event. Guests are invited to attend in-person on the Cornell University Main Campus or via Zoom. Advanced registration required.

Special thanks to Kety Esquivel ’97, CLAA President, for organizing this event.

Questions? Contact Jess Cherry, Associate Director, Diversity Alumni Programs

About the Speakers

In the early 1980s, author Charles Kamasaki was thrust into the unlikely role as the point person on immigration policy for the National Council of La Raza (NCLR, now UnidosUS), a Latino civil rights organization. He joined a small group of advocates—The Group—that had first coalesced to oppose immigration legislation but then pivoted to shape and facilitate passage of the bill and follow-on legislation in 1990. His direct experience lobbying makes him uniquely qualified to tell the story of IRCA’s passage, and to divine its lessons for the next generation of would-be reformers.

Kamasaki currently is Senior Advisor of UnidosUS, the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization. Previously the Executive Vice President of NCLR, for two decades he managed the group’s research, policy analysis, and advocacy activity. He has authored, co-authored, and supervised the preparation of dozens of policy and research reports, journal articles, and editorials, testified frequently at Congressional and administrative hearings, coordinated pro bono litigation and legal analysis, and represented the organization at research and policy conferences and symposia. He is also a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Cornell Law School and is a Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, where he conducted the research that eventually produced Immigration Reform: The Corpse That Will Not Die.

Kety Esquivel ’97

is a senior executive with decades of experience working with clients in the US, Canada, Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe. Her work has taken her to China and Ethiopia with the UN Economic Commission for Africa. She’s coached executives in the US, Canada and Latin America. She has led the digital efforts for top tier agencies, companies and nonprofits for over ten years. Her diverse B2B and B2C background includes work with several companies, US government agencies, foreign governments, charitable foundations and nonprofits. Her clients have included American Express, Kraft, Marriot, Huggies, Kodak, Yahoo, Smartmatic, United Airlines, Nissan, the Public Broadcasting Service, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Harvard University, the California Endowment, the US Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institute of Health and the Center for Disease Control.

Kety has spoken at conferences worldwide including SXSW, the World Bank’s Entertainment Education Conference, Social Media Week and CampaignTech as well as conferences in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, El Salvador, Spain, Ireland and Canada. The Maynard Institute included her in their 31 Profiles of Women of Color in Digital Spaces. Her work in PR includes a PRSA-NCC Thoth Award Category Winner in Global Communications, a Global Gold Sabre Award and placement as a Cannes PR Lions finalist. Kety graduated from Cornell where she served on the Board of Trustees. She’s also studied at NYU and Harvard Business School’s Executive Education Program. Her commentary has been featured in the WSJ, HITN, PBS, CNN, NPR, Televisa and Univision.

Watch Kety’s TEDx AdamsMorgan 2025 presentation called Being Unstoppable, No Matter What, here.