Elisa C. Massimino

B.A., cum laude Trinity University; M.A., Johns Hopkins; J.D., University of Michigan Law School. Professor Massimino is Washington Director of Human Rights First and serves as the organization’s chief advocacy strategist. She is an expert on a range of international human rights issues and a national authority on refugee law and policy. She testifies frequently before Congress, writes extensively for legal and popular publications, and serves as one of the organization’s primary spokespeople with the media. She is Human Rights First’s point of contact with U.S. government leaders, international diplomats, and human rights opinion leaders and decision makers.

Professor Massimino taught philosophy at several universities in Michigan before embarking on a second career in law. As a litigation associate at Hogan & Hartson, she was pro bono counsel in many human rights cases. She joined the Human Rights First as a staff attorney in 1991 and directed the Washington, D.C. office since 1997.

She taught international human rights law at the University of Virginia School of Law, teaches refugee and asylum law at George Washington University School of Law, and Terrorism and Human Rights at the Human Rights Academy of American University’s Washington College of Law.