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Staff News
Comings and Goings
  Shannon
Mouillesseaux joined the LIRS staff July 1 as program assistant
in the reception and placement unit, where she ensures accurate
reporting and plans trainings and conferences. A native of Spencer,
N.Y., Shannon previously worked as a tutor and job counselor for
at-risk youth in Van Etten and Elmira, N.Y. Fluent in French, Shannon
has taught English and American culture at schools and businesses
in Rumilly, Annecy and Saint Nazaire, France. While pursuing her
1999 bachelor’s in anthropology from the College of William
and Mary, Williamsburg, Va., Shannon spent a semester in Nepal and
was a volunteer English tutor for a Bosnian family.
 Director
for RefugeeWorks’ California Youth Initiative since July 15,
Rebecca Armstrong served previously as a community
services administrator and children’s resources administrator
with Lutheran
Family Services of Colorado since 2000. In 1998 Rebecca received
a bachelor’s in chemistry and general science from Coe College,
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and education licensure through the Urban Education
Program of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, Chicago. She
then taught at schools in Colorado Springs, Chicago and Pueblo,
Co., from 1999 to 2000.
 Kerri
Sherlock, who began as LIRS’s staff attorney August
5, will serve as a resource to the LIRS network of affiliated immigration
legal service programs and develop LIRS as a national resource on
immigration-related legal issues. Kerri graduated this past spring
from Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Mass., where she focused on
immigration law as well as human rights and refugee law. She interned
at the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic, Boston, in 2000,
and with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Legal Counsel’s
Office, Washington, D.C., in 2001. In 1997 Kerri received her bachelor’s
in international relations from Tufts University, Medford, Mass.,
where she also worked as a project assistant at Tufts’ Institute
for Global Leadership, 1995-97. During 1997-2001, she worked with
Physicians for Human Rights, Boston, as a program assistant, asylum
network coordinator, and human rights investigator in Chiapas, Mexico.
She has conducted legal rights workshops with the Harvard Workers
Center and the Kitchen Table Project, both in Cambridge, and the
Legal Resources Centre, Nima, Ghana. Fluent in Spanish, Kerri also
has extensive volunteer leadership experience and has been published
in several journals.
  Two
Lutheran Volunteer Corp (LVC)
members have joined LIRS for the coming year. Beginning August 29
Erica Tangen is working as assistant to the director
for church relations and Jason Bense is serving
as special projects coordinator for the asylum and immigration concerns
unit. Erica, who is originally from Dickinson, N.D., attended Concordia
College, Moorhead, Minn., where she received a bachelor’s
in business this past May. Jason, a native of Columbus, Ind., got
his bachelor’s in theology and preseminary studies at Valparaiso
University, Valparaiso, Ind., in May 2001 and spent the next year
at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. He steps into the position previously
held by LVC volunteer Christiana Lundholm, who
has stretched her time with LIRS through September 27 to assist
with the upcoming Detention
Watch Network conference. Jason and Erica are among seven LVC
volunteers living at Casa Caritas, a community house set apart for
that purpose. They both express an eagerness for learning about
social justice work while living in community this year.
Recent departures from the agency include Senior
Intercountry Caseworker for International Social Service—USA
Branch Beth Jolly, July 12; Administrative Assistant
for RefugeeWorks Terri Kee, July 15; Director for
Capacity Building Chris Meléndez, July 18;
and Program Coordinator for the Forgotten Refugees Campaign Cheryl
Skafte, August 2. We wish these former colleagues all the
best in their future endeavors.
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