Connie Choi, Esq., Senior Legislative Counsel, joined Public Advocates’ Education Equity Team in April 2023. She works remotely from Los Angeles, where she focuses on K–12 school funding and accountability to help eliminate disparities in opportunity for low-income students, English learners, and students of color. Connie works in collaboration with grassroots organizations in Sacramento and coalition partners statewide to ensure that all students have equitable access to a quality education.
Connie is an immigration attorney and advocate with almost 20 years of experience in the legal, nonprofit, and government sectors, working to defend the human and civil rights of stigmatized and under-represented communities. Most recently, she was Managing Policy Director at the California Immigrant Policy Center, where she shaped and executed an agenda at the intersections of immigrant rights and economic justice, health and public benefits, criminal justice, and democracy reform. CIPC’s integrated campaigns led to several recent victories, including health care coverage and access to food (ages 55 and older) for undocumented Californians, immigrant health and safety enforcement at private detention centers, and immigrant inclusion within workforce development programs and the CalEITC.
Connie previously co-led the award-winning Protecting Immigrant Families campaign, as their field manager and strategist at the National Immigration Law Center. This multi-faceted campaign leveraged advocacy, communications, research, litigation, and community engagement strategies to safeguard the immigrant community against changes to the federal public charge rule. She has also worked for the Asian American Justice Center, the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington Legislative Office, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project, and as an aide to U.S. Representative Barbara Lee.
Education
Connie graduated from the Boston University School of Law and the University of California, Berkeley with a double major in political science and mass communications. She is licensed to practice law in California.
