Board Members

Rev. Laurie Anderson holds a Masters of Divinity from Saint Paul School of Theology and her Bachelor of Science in Journalism, Mass Communications from Kansas State. Currently in Dallas, Texas as senior minister of Midway Hills Christian Church. She was previously the Minister of Church Life at Rolling Hills Church in Overland Park, Kansas. She has also been Minister at First Christian Church in Girard, Kansas, an Associate Pastor in Raymore, Missouri.  She was also the  Interfaith Associate at Presbyterian Mission Agency in Louisville, Kentucky; and Immigration Coordinator for the office General Board of Church & Society (UMC). She was the  Executive Director (and Founder) of Immigrant Justice Advocacy Movement (from 2008-2023). 

The motivation for her work is not only the beloved community but because of her own young adult children Ben and Bonnie.

Mark Logan is the Founder and Chief Collaborator at idealect. Prior to launching idealect in 2018, Mark founded and led Moonshot, the innovation lab at Barkley.  At Moonshot, he led the innovation practice for Barkley blending human-centered design methods and emerging technologies to create distinctive brand experiences and innovation culture programming for partners and clients. Mark helped Barkley earn AdWeek’s Inaugural Project Isaac award for Best Practices in Innovation Management as well as favorable recognition from industry analysts such as Forrester. Before joining Barkley in 2005, Mark founded internationally acclaimed digital agency, lookandfeel new media in 1996. He has twice been named among Kansas City’s Top 50 Technology Leaders by the Kansas City Star. Mark is active in the Kansas City equity community, serving on the Community Advisory Board for the KC Racial Equity Initiative. He has earned certifications in Data Science from UC Berkeley and a certificate in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from the University of Wisconsin in Green Bay.

Tracie L. Morgan is the founder of Hope Immigration, LLC, a small firm located in Atlanta, GA that focuses on family and humanitarian immigration. She has a passion for working with immigrant survivors of violence or trafficking and enjoys unraveling complicated cases before USCIS.

Tracie has served in a variety of positions with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), both at the national and local level. She served as Chapter Chair for the Georgia-Alabama Chapter in 2017. In 2018, she won the Advocacy Award for her work against SB 452 in Georgia. She is a frequent speaker on working on VAWA, T and U applications, naturalization, waivers and practice management.

Tracie has dedicated her time to serving on several boards including the Clinic at SCAL, The immigration Coalition, Karibu Community Legacy, and the Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network (GAIN). She has previously served as chair of the board for both the Georgia Immigration Collaborative and Caminar Latino. She is a 2009 graduate of the Georgia State University College of Law, which recognized her in their 2019 Forty Under Forty Class. In addition to being a member of the State Bar of Georgia, she is sworn-in with the 11th District Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.

When not focused on work, Tracie and her husband, Bill, travel the world, play trivia, and are the parents of two rescue dogs. The couple also works together, believing that working with immigrants is a mission and that we are all called to “welcome the stranger.”

Co-Founder of The Clinic at SCAL, Michael is a partner at Sharma-Crawford Attorneys at Law. He has been defending non-citizens in removal proceedings for more than 20 years. An accomplished and well recognized litigator and compassionate advocate of fairness in immigration law. As a former law enforcement officer, Michael has a deeper understanding of the challenges of immigration law enforcement, detainment issues and litigation. Michael frequently handles complex immigration proceedings where current statutes require greater experience and understanding. Michael frequently lectures at the AILA national and mid-year conferences. He has also lectured about immigration law to the Kansas and Missouri Bar Associations, and Kansas and Missouri Public Defenders. Michael was one of the attorneys who was counsel on the successful Supreme Court Appeal, Mellouli v. Lynch, 135 S. Ct. 1980 (2015). He has successfully argued other cases before the Circuit Courts of Appeal and has handled many successful matters before the Board of Immigration Appeals. He is admitted to the District Courts of Kansas and Missouri and the Federal Appeals Court for the Second, Seventh, Eighth and Tenth Circuits. He is also a member of the American Immigration Lawyer’s Association, Kansas Bar Association, Missouri Bar Association, Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association. Michael serves as ICE Liaison for the local AILA Chapter. His former service includes the Board of Directors for Kansas Legal Services, the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Foundation, the Advisory Committee for the ABA Commission on Immigration and as a member of the USCIS Field Operations Liaison Committee for AILA.

Co-Founder of The Clinic at SCAL, Rekha is is an expert in the field of immigration law. She has taken on many complex, high-profile cases and focuses on removal defense issues, trial advocacy and federal litigation. In 2023, Rekha was elected the first South Asian American Secretary for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA); she is currently serves as Treasurer for the 2024-2025 term. In 2023, Rekha was a member of the AILA Amicus Committee when the committee was awarded AILA’s Jack Wasserman Memorial Award. In 2021, Rekha had previously been nationally recognized by AILA by being awarded the Edith Lowenstein Memorial Award for excellence in advancing the practice of immigration law. In 2018, the Kansas Bar Association honored her with the Courageous Attorney Award for having displayed exceptional courage in the face of adversity. She is also the author of two children’s books, Aaliyah the Brave, Empowering Children Coping with Immigration Enforcement, released in 2022 and her new book, Finding Freedom, Empowering Young Survivors of Human Trafficking, released in 2023.

Tish Sjuts is the Development and Strategic Communications Manager at the Midwest Innocence Project (MIP), where she specializes in events, grant writing, and campaign strategy. Since beginning her career in development, she has helped raise over $3 million through grants and events and played a key role in a capital campaign that secured more than $1 million to build a multigenerational family literacy center in Kansas City.

Since joining MIP in 2019, Tish has been instrumental in securing major grants, including partnership grants with MU, UMKC, and John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Her passion for engaging communities in innocence work shines through in MIP’s Faces of Innocence event and other key fundraising initiatives.

A first-generation Chicanx college graduate, Tish holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Rhetoric from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Outside of work, she enjoys spontaneous road trips, RPGs, and all things sci-fi.

With 25 years of experience in one-on-one sales coaching and group training, including 15 years in car sales, Calos brings a proven track record of success. During his automotive sales career, he consistently achieved recognition as the #1 top sales producer and set multiple production records. His expertise spans teaching advanced sales techniques, refining communication skills, and delivering results-driven strategies. Additionally, Carlos offers specialized training in life insurance sales, equipping people with the tools to excel in this competitive field.