Meet Our Team
Staff
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Okan Sengun, Esq.
Executive Director and Co-Founder Okan Sengun is a passionate immigration attorney, and an immigrant himself, with a great understanding of each individual’s unique needs throughout their immigration journeys in the United States. Since 2012, Okan has been serving on the Advisory Council and as the LGBT Coordinator and San Francisco Asylum Office Liaison of American Immigration Lawyers Association, Northern California Chapter. Okan also serves as a panel attorney at AIDS Legal Referral Panel (ALRP). Okan is a mentor immigration attorney at Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. He is also a member of Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF). Okan worked at several non-profit organizations and law firms in California and Turkey prior to starting his own immigration law firm. Okan is admitted to New York Bar and U.S. Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit. |
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Brooke A. Westling, Esq.
Staff Attorney and Co-Founder Brooke Westling is a California-licensed attorney who is dedicated to fighting human rights abuses by challenging social and legal constraints on gender and sexuality. She first realized the crucial need for greater social awareness and legal advocacy in this realm after serving as a high-school peer group facilitator, addressing gender and sexuality biases among high school students, as an undergrad at The Ohio State University. After graduating with a BA in Psychology, Political Science, and Women's Studies, Brooke went on to obtain a JD from Capital University Law School in 2009 then relocated to the Bay Area. In 2015, she received her LL.M. in International Legal Studies from Golden Gate University School of Law, where she focused on human rights. Brooke began working on asylum cases with Okan Sengun in January of 2015. The two co-founded the Center for Immigrant Protection in order to alleviate the financial burden placed on their clients. Brooke currently serves as a Panel Attorney for the Aids Legal Referral Panel, is a member of BALIF (Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom) and of the Policy Subcommittee of Women Get It Done. She is also a member of the State Bar of California. |
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Kenan Arun
Director of Operations Kenan is an LGBT activist and has been working on LGBT issues for more than 10 years both in Turkey and in the United States. He was born and raised in Gaziantep, Turkey, and moved to the U.S. in 2013. He is an active member of The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, The Turkish-American Gezi Platform and Kaos GL (a Turkish-based LGBT nonprofit organization), and he is thrilled to be a part of The LGBT Asylum Project. He is also a resident makeup artist at Golden Thread Productions. |
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Alan Rafael Delamora
Immigration Case Manager Born and raised in California in a family of Mexican immigrants, Alan champions the uplifting of LGBTQ people, people of color, women, refugees, and migrants. He began volunteering with the Asylum Project in January 2017. He has a B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University and a J.D. from UC Hastings with a concentration in International and Comparative Law. A native Spanish speaker who also works professionally in Portuguese, Alan has lived in Chile, Mexico, and Spain, advocating for the rights of marginalized groups. He and Okan began their work together in 2010 at the Organization for Refuge, Asylum, and Migration (ORAM) reporting on the persecution of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) minorities in Iran, Turkey, and Uganda. Alan subsequently worked for the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies (CGRS) under the guidance of the incomparable Dr. Karen Musalo to support the asylum applications of women fleeing gender-based violence in Latin America. Alan’s other passions include singing as a baritone in the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, cycling from SF to LA in AIDS/LifeCycle, and gardening on Volunteer Days at the National AIDS Memorial Grove. Alan is the parent of two adorable chihuahuas, Momo and Zia, and a proud fairy godfather to two beautiful nephews, Lucas and Diego. |