Search for the First FALDEF’s Defend Serve and Educate (DSE) Awardees

New York — The Filipino American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. (FALDEF) announces its search for its first Defend Serve and Educate (“DSE”) awardees which will be featured on FALDEF’s First Annual DSE Gala Night on Saturday, October 26, 2013 at the Double Tree by Hilton Hotel (formerly Sheraton) in Newark Airport.

The DSE Gala is an opportunity to encourage our members and community to live out FALDEF’s mission to defend, serve and educate for the greater good. It is also an opportunity to recognize individuals who have shown a deep commitment to these values in the spirit of public service.

The DSE awards will honor trailblazers in the legal profession, the arts, the business world and the civil rights community whose extraordinary work and achievements have contributed to advancing FALDEF’s mission to defend, serve and educate members of the community.

The event’s keynote speaker is Sherrilyn Ilfill. Ms. Ilfill, a long-time member of the Legal Defense and Education (LDF) family, and is the seventh President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP LDF. Ms. Ilfill is a graduate of Vassar College, and received her J.D. from New York University School of Law. After graduating law school, Ilfill served first as a fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union and then for five years as an assistant counsel in LDF’s New York office, where she litigated voting rights cases. Ilfill is a highly regarded national civil rights strategist and public intellectual whose writings, speeches and media appearances enrich public debate about a range of political and civil rights issues.

A critically acclaimed author, her book “On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the 21st Century,” reflects her lifelong engagement in and analysis of issues of race and American public life. Ilfill’s scholarly writing has focused on the importance of diversity on the bench, and she is currently writing a book about race and Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Ilfill is the immediate past Chair of the Board of U.S. Programs at the Open Society Institute, one of the largest philanthropic supporters of civil rights and social justice organizations in the country. (Source: http://www.naacpldf.org/sherrilyn-ifill )

FALDEF, is the only Filipino American legal defense group, of national scope, in the United States. Based in New York, it provides pro bono legal services to Filipinos and members of the Filipino-American community who are suffering from legal injustices, is equally committed to voter education and protection, and focused on fighting human trafficking through prosecution, training, education and victim support in the Philippines. For more information please visit www.faldef.org