We partnered with the Human Rights program at the Heising-Simons Foundation on the search for a Program Officer. The Heising-Simons Foundation is a family foundation based in Los Altos and San Francisco, California that works with its many partners to advance sustainable solutions in climate and clean energy, enable groundbreaking research in science, enhance the education of young learners, and support human rights for all people.

Our work resulted in the recruitment of Rose Cahn to the role.

Previously, Cahn served as the Managing Attorney at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center where she oversaw the organization’s national work at the intersection of criminal and immigrant justice.

Cahn has worked closely with stakeholders from the immigrant and criminal justice sectors to pass local, state, and federal policies that protect the rights of all people, regardless of where they were born or contact with the criminal legal system.

She received the Emile Gumpert Award from the American College of Trial Lawyers and a Senior Soros Justice Fellowship in recognition of her innovative work launching the country’s first project to pass and implement new laws to erase unlawful convictions, allowing immigrants to avoid deportation and be reunited with their families.

Cahn serves on the board of directors of For The People, and on the advisory board of La Defensa.

She clerked for the Hon. Warren J. Ferguson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Cahn received her bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University, where she majored in Government and Latin American Studies and graduated with highest honors. She earned her Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law where she graduated cum laude and was the recipient of the Root Tilden Kern scholarship.