RIF Staff

  • Maria Blacque-Belair, Founder/Executive Director

    Maria has worked at several international humanitarian assistance non-profit organization around the world. In 2003, she founded RIF.

    Maria has a decade of experience in of humanitarian relief work such as: managing large relief programs for global NGOs such as Action Against Hunger (ACF) and IRC in large-scale humanitarian crisis-affected by war.

    Read More

  • Lilii Gilpin, Immigration and Asylum Specialist

    Lili has an M.A. in Refugee Protection and Forced Migration Studies from University of London, and has spent the past four years working in immigration and public defense.

  • Martha Rubin, Program Coordinator

    Martha is a first-year law student at Brooklyn Law school. She speaks Spanish.

  • Ashlyn Behrndt, Program Officer

    Ashlyn holds an M.A. in Urban Studies, Public Policy, and Administration from the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies.

RIF Team

  • Tanzilya Oren, Education Advisor and Legal Navigator

    Tanzilya is a NYS-licensed Master Social Worker. After a career in civil society development abroad, in Uzbekistan and South Africa, since 2010 she has worked in New York in the area of immigrant services.

    Read More

  • Madelyn Miller, RIF Mental Health Advisor

    Madelyn Miller, PhD, LCSW, works with adult survivors of trauma and loss in her psychotherapy practice and community work and teaches and trains on these issues.

    Read More

  • Fabienne Peyrat, Legal Navigator

    Fabienne has many years of experience working with RIF providing asylum orientation and reviewing asylum applications on a case-by-case basis. She speaks French and English.

  • Carol Skyrm, Legal Navigator and Board Member

    Carol speaks French and English. She reviews asylum applications on a case-by-case basis.

  • H. Esteban Figueroa-Brusi, Consulting Attorney

    Esteban is a consulting attorney with RIF’s legal team. A graduate of the NYU School of Law, Esteban has spent the entirety of their legal career advocating for immigrants’ rights in a variety of contexts, but they are proudest of the pro bono work they’ve done on behalf of Central American victims of gender violence.

  • Amir Rasoulpour, Consulting Attorney

    Amir graduated from CUNY School of Law where he was a Haywood Burns Fellow in Civil and Human Rights.

    Read More