Officers
Austin T. Fragomen, Jr., Chair
Partner, Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP Mr. Fragomen served as Staff Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship and International Law from 1968 to 1970. Mr. Fragomen is Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Center for Migration Studies; on the Editorial Board of the International Migration Review; Chairman of the Practising Law Institute’s Annual Immigration Institute; and Member, University Council, Case Western Reserve University. Mr. Fragomen is Chairman of the Board for the firm’s executive committee. He received a B.S. from Georgetown University in 1965 and a J.D. from Case Western Reserve University in 1968.
Claire Sala Ayer, Vice Chair
Director for International Staff, Scholars and Students, Partners HealthCare
At Partners, Ms. Ayer provides nonimmigrant services to international researchers, clinicians and allied health personnel at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, McLean Hospital, Northshore Medical Center, Faulkner Hospital and Newton-Wellesley Hospital – all members of the Partners HealthCare network in greater Boston. Ms. Ayer has been a member of the Board of Directors of ACIP for many years and is on the regional Government Regulations committee for NAFSA. Prior to establishing the International Office at MGH in 1992, Ms. Ayer was the Regional Certifying Officer responsible for the Department of Labor’s (DOL) immigration programs throughout New England. Ms. Ayer was part of DOL’s Task Force implementing IMMACT ’90 and is a participant and organizer of a number of conferences, regionally and nationally.
Margie Jones, Secretary
American Immigration Manager, Intel Corporation
Ms. Jones has worked for Intel Corporation for the last 21 years, 18 of which have been in immigration. Her current responsibilities include managing the U.S. immigration function, working closely with outside counsel on outsourcing and working on special projects with the international sites. She earned a B.S. in Business in 1984 from San Jose State University.
Cynthia (Cindy) A. Chiarella, Treasurer
Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP
Ms. Chiarella is an International Assignment Services (IAS) Partner specializing in expatriate tax compliance. She has over 25 years of experience consulting on tax compliance and planning, and on the policy and process aspects of international assignment programs.
Members
Thomas M. Barnett, J.D.
Director, International Office, The Scripps Research Institute
The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) ranks fifth in terms of the largest number of foreign scientists/visa holders in the country. The International Office processes between two and four thousand visa transactions per year. Foreign nationals account for 75% of the TSRI postdoctoral community from 56 countries.
Ayesha C. Blackwell
Sr. Manager, Immigration, Amazon.com, Inc.
Ms. Blackwell is experienced in all aspects of employer-sponsored immigration law. Prior to joining Amazon.com, Inc., Ms. Blackwell was Counsel for Bristol-Myers Squibb where she headed the Immigration Department. She began her career in immigration as an Associate for Epstein, Becker and Green PC in New York. She holds a J.D. Degree from Rutgers School of Law, Camden, NJ and a B.A. from Rutgers College/Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ.
Steven L. Brown
Senior Director of International Mobility, Tax and Immigration, Accenture
Mr. Brown works for Accenture where he is the Senior Director of International Mobility, Tax and Immigration. Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing company. Steve’s team manages over 20,000 expatriate assignments annually and also participates in the design and implementation of the company's compensation and equity plans. Steve has over 20 years experience in expatriate management, immigration services, individual and corporate tax matters, auditing and accounting. Before joining Accenture in 1997, Steve spent 2 years at Novell as manager of their expatriate assignment program and 6 years at Ernst & Young. Steve holds an undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of California and Masters degrees in Business Administration and Accounting from Northeastern University, Boston.
Nicole Hedrick
Director - Global Immigration, Talent Deployment & Mobility, Human Resources IBM Corporation
Ms. Hedrick is the HR Manager of Global Immigration Services in IBM's Talent Deployment and Mobility organization. In this capacity Ms. Hedrick is responsible for shaping the role of immigration as part of IBM's strategic transformation from a traditionally structured multi-national organization to a “globally integrated enterprise.” In this capacity she consults with global leadership on immigration strategy and manages or oversees the various teams providing immigration support for IBM employees working in over 170 countries.
Jessica R. Nacheman
Counsel, ExxonMobil Corporation
Ms. Nacheman is Counsel for Exxon Mobil Corporation primarily counseling the ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company (EMRE) and ExxonMobil Biomedical Sciences, Inc. (EMBSI) affiliates. Ms. Nacheman serves as the attorney responsible for all general law legal issues including immigration, export controls, environmental, safety and health issues, and antitrust matters for EMRE and EMBSI. Ms. Nacheman is the Designated Responsible Officer of EMRE’s J-visa program and serves as Assistant Secretary to EMRE. Ms. Nacheman has a scientific background, including a Masters of Public Health degree in Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, which she uses in her administrative and regulatory legal practice to communicate effectively her Corporation's technical bases for its legal comment and defense.
Leslie Nicolett
Immigration Policy and Government Relations, Hewlett-Packard Company
Ms. Nicolett has been with Hewlett-Packard (HP) for 18 years, the last 14 of which have been in the immigration function. Ms. Nicolett’s present activities are focused on Merger, Acquisition, Divestiture/Spin-off and Outsourcing activities and on immigration policy development for the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada and the Latin America/Caribbean countries. She also provides U.S. Immigration content knowledge to HP’s Government Affairs and Public Relations Departments. She is a past President of the Western Immigration Networking Group (WINGS) and an active participant in the Compete America coalition.
Laura C. Prince
Senior Immigration Specialist in the office of Faculty & Staff Immigration Services, University of Iowa
Ms. Prince has worked extensively within the field of employment-based immigration for over a decade. She began her immigration career during the Dot Com/High Tech years as an Immigration Specialist and Expatriate Manager with Engineering Animation, Inc. (EAI), which was later acquired by Unigraphics Solutions (UGS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Electronic Data Systems (EDS), now owned by Hewlett-Packard. Ms. Prince is the 1-9 compliance officer (training) at the University and manages several hundred employment-based immigration cases. She additionally works as a consultant for a local immigration law firm based in Iowa City, Iowa. She received a B.S. from the Pennsylvania State University.
Denise Rahmani
Director, U.S. Immigration, Oracle
Ms. Rahmani currently manages the immigration program for Oracle. She joined the ACIP Board of Directors in 2007. Prior to her position with Oracle, Ms. Rahmani was employed as an Immigration Specialist at several of the Silicon Valley’s largest tech companies, including Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Agilent and SAP.
Michael Rosenfeld
Corporate Vice President and Counsel, The Walt Disney Company
Mr. Rosenfeld specializes in immigration, labor and employment law. He serves on several boards of directors, including ACIP, The Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plans and Contract Services Administration Trust fund. He earned a B.A. from Princeton University and a J.D. from Whittier Law School.
Tracy Schauff, Esq.
Assistant Director of the International Center, University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Ms. Schauff serves as Assistant Director of the International Center of the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. Tracy manages the Faculty and Staff Immigration Services and supervises the preparation of nonimmigrant and immigrant petitions for university faculty and staff. She also serves as advisor to the International Center and the campus at large on compliance and immigration matters. Prior to her position in academia, Tracy was in private practice where she provided business immigration services to large and small corporations. She regularly presents on immigration topics at a variety of conferences at the state and national level for organizations including NAFSA, the American Society of Employers, ACIP, the College and University Personnel Association, and the League of Women Voters.
