The NALEO Edward R. Roybal Legacy Celebration features the presentation of the Edward R. Roybal Award for Outstanding Public Service that was established by NALEO in tribute to the organization’s founder on NALEO’s 20th Anniversary in 1996.  Each year, the celebration has paid homage to our founder’s legacy and is rooted in the opportunity to honor an individual who exemplifies the spirit of the Edward R. Roybal Award and ensures that a future generation is inspired by our community’s legacy and its exemplary leaders.

Julissa Reynoso is an Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to Dr. Jill Biden, and the Co-Chair of the Gender Policy Council at the White House.  A former U.S. Ambassador to Uruguay, Reynoso also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.  She is a former partner at the international law firms of Winston & Strawn LLP, and Chadbourne & Parke LLP, in New York, and served on the faculty of Columbia University School of Law and School of International and Public Affairs.  Reynoso is widely published in English and Spanish on an array of issues including comparative law, regulatory reform, community organizing, immigration policy, and Latin American politics for both popular press and academic journals.  She holds a B.A. in Government from Harvard University, a Masters in Philosophy from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law.  She clerked for the Honorable Federal Judge Laura Taylor Swain.