Meet Our Staff
Immigration Services
- Linda Ehrenreich, Chief Operating Officer
- Jamie Englert, Accredited Representative
- Joyce Gallagher Ramirez, Immigration Attorney
- Svetlana Geguzina, Immigration Counselor and Accredited Representative
Linda Ehrenreich
Chief Operating Officer
Linda Ehrenreich began working at JF&CS in 1984 when the Career Development Center was "born" and served as the Director of CDC for 15 years. Since that time, she has taken the role of Chief Operating Officer. Linda oversees several divisions of JF&CS including CDC, Pittsburgh Refugee & Immigrant Assistance Center and Central Scholarship. She is also responsible for program/project development and grant-writing for JF&CS and all its divisions; and serves on the executive committee of the JF&CS board of directors.
Prior to coming to JF&CS, Linda was Director of Human Resources for the Vocational Rehabilitation Center. Previous to that she was the Director of Counseling and Job Placement Services for a Department of Labor program in Pittsburgh. Linda serves on several other non-profit boards in Pittsburgh.
Linda has received several community awards including the Rudolf Award for Excellence in Jewish Communal Service, the Claudia Fogel Award for Exceptional Service, and nationally for the International Association of Jewish Vocational Services. She has served as vice president of the Association of Jewish Vocational Service Professionals.
Linda earned her bachelor's degree at the University of Wisconsin, her master's in vocational counseling at Duquesne University and a Post Graduate certificate in human resources management at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Business.
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 and 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.
