Meet Our Staff
Immigration Services
- Sheila Vélez Martínez , Director, Immigration Law Clinic (Consulting Supervisor)
- Jamie Englert, Accredited Representative
- Joyce Gallagher Ramirez, Immigration Attorney
- Svetlana Geguzina, Immigration Counselor and Accredited Representative
- Benedict Killang, Refugee & Legal Services Aide
Sheila Vélez Martínez
Director, Immigration Law Clinic (Consulting Supervisor)
Sheila Vélez Martínez serves as a consulting supervisor of the Immigration and Legal Services department of JF&CS. She offers her support in the management of complex immigration cases. Sheila is a faculty member of Pitt Law School and Director of the law school’s new Immigration Law Clinic. She lectures on issues regarding immigrant women, domestic violence and human rights.
Sheila came to the University of Pittburgh from the faculty of Eugenio Maria de Hostos Law School in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, where she was the director of that school’s immigration clinic. She is the co-editor of the recently-published Judicial Bench Book on Domestic Violence published by the Puerto Rico Supreme Court Office of Court Administration and the author of two chapters.
Sheila received her JD from the University of Puerto Rico, School of Law.
Jamie Englert
Accredited Representative
Jamie Englert is an accredited representative in JF&CS's immigration department which provides immigration-related legal services and naturalization services to legal permanent residents. In this role, Jamie has been granted permission by the Board of Immigration Appeals and the Executive Office for Immigration Review to represent cases before the Immigration Court and the US Citizenship & Immigration Services. Jamie is responsible for accepting all incoming cases and assigning them to the appropriate caseworker, attorney or legal intern, managing her own caseload, assisting with grant proposals and coordinating and supervising the activities of the immigrant services program, including case management.
Previously, Jamie worked as a paralegal at several private law firms spanning a wide variety of practice areas including criminal defense, real estate, personal injury and business law.
Jamie attended the University of Pittsburgh where she studied administration of justice.
Joyce Gallagher Ramirez
Immigration Attorney
Joyce Ramirez is an immigration attorney with the Pittsburgh Refugee and Immigrant Assistance Center. She is particularly involved with VAWA (Violence Against Women Act) and removal cases. She also serves as coordinator of the Pro Bono VAWA Project, monitoring attorneys who were trained and will take such cases on a pro bono basis. Additionally, Joyce coordinates the Low Income Tax Clinic (LITC) which informs immigrants and internationals about the importance of filing taxes, provides direction on obtaining tax credits and Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers and offers referral to Volunteer Income Tax Assistance sites in Pittsburgh for free tax preparation.
Joyce began her career as an attorney with the law firm of Brennan, Robins and Daley, where she practiced real estate law. She then had the opportunity to clerk for the Honorable Carol Los Mansmann in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. From there, she began her career as an immigration attorney, working first at Cohen & Grigsby and then at Deasy & Whitehill.
Svetlana Geguzina
Immigration Counselor and Accredited Representative
Svetlana Geguzina works with JF&CS’s immigration department, helping legal permanent residents with status inquiries, applications for adjustment of status, travel documents, work authorization, naturalization, fee waiver requests, Affidavits of Relationship, Affidavits of Support, petitions for alien relatives and more, She prepares clients for the naturalization interview; and is also responsible for the Diversity Visa Lottery program, leading workshops and entering online applications and digital photos for clients.
Svetlana is fluent in Russian and Ukrainian and assists JF&CS clients with translation of various certificates and vital documents and interprets at CIS interviews for those clients who are allowed to take the naturalization test in their native Russian language.
Svetlana came to the United States as a refugee from Ukraine, where she had been a physicist. She holds a PhD degree in Physics. Realizing that she would not find work as a physicist in this country, she began to learn all she could about computers and came to work at JF&CS.
Benedict Killang
Refugee & Legal Services Aide
Benedict Killang will work for both the refugee unit as well as
legal services. Splitting his time between the two jobs and two
locations, Benedict will greet clients in the reception area of our
Hazelwood location while working on various refugee affairs. He
will also have an office at our Bartlett Street location to assist
the legal department with green card applications.
Benedict is a native of Sudan and came to the United States as a refugee. Prior to joining JF&CS, Benedict worked for PNC Bank an Operations Specialist in the department of the Receivables Management Operations (RMO) updating customers account information, data account entry using high speed scanners and managing the work station.
Benedict has a bachelor's degree from Nigeria and an MBA from Point Park University. He is president of a volunteer group assisting Africans living in Pittsburgh and is fluent in Arabic.
