IMHR – Institute for Migration and Human Rights

A dignified wooden conference table with a smooth, walnut surface is covered with neatly arranged open reports, policy briefs, and a single high-quality globe with finely printed borders and migration routes. Around it, empty leather chairs suggest ongoing deliberation without showing any people. Floor-to-ceiling windows reveal a distant, softly blurred city skyline. Late afternoon natural light pours in, casting long, gentle shadows across the papers and making highlighted passages subtly glow. Photographic realism with a clean, modern aesthetic, shot at eye level with a shallow depth of field focusing on the globe and central documents. The mood is thoughtful, analytical, and sophisticated, evoking serious work on migration and human rights policy.

Our Mission

Learn how IMHR links research, advocacy, and partnerships to advance just, rights-based migration systems.

About

Our Mission and Impact

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IMHR advances rigorous, independent research to protect the rights and dignity of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers worldwide. We connect scholars, affected communities, and decision-makers to confront the root causes of displacement and design humane, evidence-based policies. Our priorities span border governance, asylum systems, climate-driven migration, and the protection of children and families on the move.

IMHR Leadership

Luisana “Lissie” Albornoz

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

María Enith Díaz

Vice President

Luisana “Lissie” Albornoz is a Venezuelan-trained attorney, legal scholar, and migration and human rights researcher whose work bridges law, academic research, public policy, and lived experience.

She earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) and LL.M. in International Law from the University of Miami School of Law and is pursuing doctoral legal research focused on migration, human rights, constitutional protections, and the ways political and media narratives influence the treatment of displaced populations.

Her professional experience spans immigration law, civil litigation, human rights, and the judiciary. In the United States, she has worked in immigration law and immigrant advocacy, including experience with Americans for Immigrant Justice, and has contributed to human-rights research and documentation through work involving Human Rights Watch and the University of Miami Human Rights Clinic. She also gained appellate judicial experience through a clerkship with the Michigan Court of Appeals.

Before immigrating to the United States, Albornoz spent more than a decade working within the Venezuelan judicial system, particularly in family and juvenile matters, where her roles included service as a substitute judge. That experience gave her an institutional perspective on the administration of justice that continues to inform her scholarship and public-interest work.

Her research interests include forced migration, asylum, due process, constitutional protections, international human rights law, migration narratives, and the relationship between public discourse and legal decision-making. She is particularly interested in the role immigrants themselves can play in producing scholarship and shaping the legal and policy conversations that concern their communities.

Albornoz founded the Institute for Migration and Human Rights (IMHR) to create an institutional space where rigorous scholarship can connect with public education, emerging scholars, policy development, and meaningful community impact.

Her broader public-service work has included advocacy concerning Venezuelan migration and displacement, including efforts related to the Venezuelan Adjustment Act, as well as community and civic engagement. In 2024, she received Special Congressional Recognition for her contributions to the community.

Through IMHR, she seeks to help build an institution in which migration is studied not simply as a political or administrative issue, but as a field where law, human dignity, constitutional principles, evidence, narrative, and lived experience intersect.

María Enith Díaz is a Venezuelan-trained attorney with more than three decades of professional experience spanning legal practice, organizational management, human resources, dispute resolution, and client service. She earned her law degree from Universidad Santa María in Venezuela in 1985 and later completed a Master’s degree in Maritime Law, adding postgraduate specialization to an extensive legal career. Díaz founded Emporio Profesional, S.C., where she practiced law for more than three decades. Her legal practice encompassed a broad range of matters, including family law, labor law, criminal law, real estate, probate, and civil litigation. As both an attorney and founder of her own professional practice, Díaz developed extensive experience in client representation, case management, negotiation, dispute resolution, professional administration, and the practical operation of a legal services organization. Following her legal career in Venezuela, her professional experience expanded into human resources coordination and bilingual customer and claims support. Her work has included personnel-record management, employee relations, staff training and supervision, dispute resolution, administrative systems, and direct client support. As Vice President of the Institute for Migration and Human Rights, Díaz supports the development of an institution committed to rigorous research, education, human dignity, and meaningful engagement with immigrant and displaced communities. A native Spanish speaker with working knowledge of English, Díaz brings to IMHR a combination of legal experience, organizational knowledge, professional judgment, and decades of direct experience serving individuals and families through complex legal and administrative circumstances. Her experience provides an important complement to IMHR’s academic and research mission: a career grounded in the practical application of law, service to individuals and families, and the management of professional organizations.

A large frosted glass wall in a modern office corridor displays an etched world map with subtle lines indicating major migration routes and arrows pointing toward key regions. Along the base of the glass, minimalist icons representing justice scales, open doors, and protective shields are sandblasted into the surface. The polished concrete floor reflects the glass softly, while recessed ceiling lights cast an even, cool white glow, creating refined highlights on the etched details. Photographic realism, shot from a low, slightly off-center angle to emphasize scale and depth, with the far end of the corridor softly out of focus. The mood is forward-looking and analytical, communicating global perspective and human rights protection without depicting any people.
An elegant wall of minimalist bookshelves filled with well-worn legal volumes, human rights reports, and academic journals, each spine displaying muted tones of navy, burgundy, and cream. A single empty chair with a tailored dark fabric back sits in front of a wooden desk topped with a laptop in sleep mode, a closed folder labeled “Asylum Frameworks,” and a neatly stacked notepad. Soft, diffused overcast daylight filters through an unseen window, creating gentle, even lighting with subtle shadowing between the shelves. Captured in photographic realism from a slightly angled perspective using the rule of thirds, the depth of field keeps the entire scene in crisp focus. The mood is calm, studious, and authoritative, perfectly suited to a nonprofit research institute focused on migration policy and human rights.
A dignified wooden conference table with a smooth, walnut surface is covered with neatly arranged open reports, policy briefs, and a single high-quality globe with finely printed borders and migration routes. Around it, empty leather chairs suggest ongoing deliberation without showing any people. Floor-to-ceiling windows reveal a distant, softly blurred city skyline. Late afternoon natural light pours in, casting long, gentle shadows across the papers and making highlighted passages subtly glow. Photographic realism with a clean, modern aesthetic, shot at eye level with a shallow depth of field focusing on the globe and central documents. The mood is thoughtful, analytical, and sophisticated, evoking serious work on migration and human rights policy.
A large frosted glass wall in a modern office corridor displays an etched world map with subtle lines indicating major migration routes and arrows pointing toward key regions. Along the base of the glass, minimalist icons representing justice scales, open doors, and protective shields are sandblasted into the surface. The polished concrete floor reflects the glass softly, while recessed ceiling lights cast an even, cool white glow, creating refined highlights on the etched details. Photographic realism, shot from a low, slightly off-center angle to emphasize scale and depth, with the far end of the corridor softly out of focus. The mood is forward-looking and analytical, communicating global perspective and human rights protection without depicting any people.