Reframing Refugee Project

 The DePaul Migration Collaborative (DMC) presents its Practitioner in Residence program as part of the Reframing Refugees Project. This initiative invites experts on migration, immigration, and human rights to collaborate, address migration challenges, and inform policies. Participants gain access to DePaul resources and have the opportunity to influence various migration-related discussions. The residency lasts 3-6 months and promotes practical solutions for contemporary migration issues. 

Meet Our PIRs

Ellen Miller is a humanitarian and a 2024-2025 DePaul Migration Collaborative (DMC) Practitioner in Residence. During her DMC residency, she will be conducting community-based research on Chicago's immigration legal services for recent arrivals and will be compiling her research into a report to shed light on lived experiences of benefiting populations and potential future programmatic decisions. Her work will also build on best practices and practical tools for participatory evaluations amongst legal service providers.  

In the past, Ellen worked with Chicago and national pro bono communities to connect immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers with counsel at the National Immigrant Justice Center and she has worked in Child and International Protection with UNHCR throughout Central and South America, and Northern Africa.  

She received her B.A. in International Studies from DePaul University; starting her career in immigration with an externship via DePaul at World Relief-Chicago. After years of being a DOJ Accredited Representative working with refugees and immigrants on Chicago's Northwest side, Ellen pursued community-based work in northern Africa. While pursuing a degree at the American University in Cairo, Ellen engaged in emergency management and humanitarian assistance during the onset and immediate aftermath of the Arab Spring. She earned an M.A. in International Human Rights Law and a post-graduate diploma in Psychosocial Interventions for Forced Migration from the American University in Cairo.  

Working most of her career in international protection, Ellen has worked with refugees, asylum-seekers and immigrants from around the world and in all stages of their journey, from flight to integration. Her passion lies in building responsible and agile systems, supporting humanitarian workers, border zones, and a good revolution (aka change management!). Ellen also loves warm weather, outdoor activities, and chocolate chip cookies. 

Ellen Miller Reports:

Josh Friedman is a 2025 DePaul Migration Collaborative (DMC) Practitioner-in-Residence and the Managing Director of Andilay Consultancy firm based in Vienna, Austria. Josh has 25 years of experience as a lawyer, development assistance implementer, and program director on four continents. After a decade practicing law in Boston – first as a prosecutor of gender violence crimes and then as a civil litigator – he jumped into development cooperation work with the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) pro bono program in Tajikistan managing a team of five national attorneys delivering legal aid to rural women. From there, Josh worked with NGOs and bilateral agencies in East and Southern Africa to manage multimillion dollar projects protecting the rights of refugees, IDPs, and other vulnerable migrants. He also managed humanitarian response programming in Ethiopia and Djibouti for Eritrean, South Sudanese, Somali, and Sudanese refugees. 

For the past four years, Josh has led an independent consultancy firm that primarily conducts evaluations of development assistance projects globally. He is a graduate of Cornell University and Cornell Law School, and a committed fan of the Red Sox, which wasn’t always easy while studying in New York in the 1990s. 

During his DMC residency, Josh will be conducting research that looks comparatively at refugee integration alongside the rights to adequate food and shelter in Chicago and Vienna. Combining legal and policy review with qualitative research on the experiences of refugees in both locations with food and housing, the research will highlight best practice examples and challenges faced in the US and Central Europe. His work will develop practical recommendations, especially as to programmatic approaches and legal tactics, to protect and improve the lives of refugees and other forced migrants.

Charlotte Long is a Housing Specialist for migrants and asylum seekers in Chicago, a professor of Gender Justice studies at Roosevelt University and a 2025 DePaul Migration Collaborative (DMC) Practitioner in Residence. During her residency, she will be collecting qualitative information on faith-based informal housing networks in the Chicagoland area that have worked to house recent migrant arrivals in the past three years. The research is based on existing literature on "Sanctuary" networking, but is also focused on understanding new tools and techniques that informal community groups and religious spaces use to assist houseless immigrants unable to benefit from city services. 

In the past, Charlotte has worked in direct services housing migrants and refugees in Chicago, most recently with Sanctuary Working Group. She has a special research interest in how religiously based institutions and values shape migrant justice programs. She has worked in social services for houses of hospitality, in interfaith organizing on immigration, and on a national immigrant housing database collection for the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America. A Master of Divinity graduate from the University of Chicago with a certificate in Gender Studies, Charlotte's work explores the intersection of religious women, marginalized communities and international migration. To advance this interest, she has worked with Religions for Peace, the Global Women's Narrative Project at Oxford University and in Tblisi, Georgia, and at the Harris School of Public Policy. She was the recipient of Divinity School funding for research on the experiences of religious female leadership in the United States for the Summer of 2022, as well as a collaborator on gender and religion in Igbo economic empowerment for on-going Harris School projects. 

In another life, Charlotte was a Program Director and curriculum designer for Youth and Social Outreach for eight years and has a long history working with Christian communities around social justice issues. She still serves as an interfaith Chaplain at Rush Hospital in Chicago. She had a decade-long performance career as a experimental performer, incorporating writing, puppetry and movement, having toured with Manual Cinema in Saudi Arabia, China, the Netherlands, Taiwan, Germany and Czechia. This part of her career leads her to think strategically about narrative and storytelling impact in diverse communities. She holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in New York with a concentration on Literature and Performance. 

Student Workers

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  Alondra Felipe
  

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  Golaleh Yazdani
  

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  Juliana Zanubi
  

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  Mursal Fahimi
  

Ways to Connect with Our PIRs

Guest Lecturer Request Form

If you are a faculty member at DePaul and would like to request our PIR’s to speak in your classroom, please fill out this form and someone from the DMC will reach out to you. If you have questions, contact: migration@depaul.edu