Sophia Soberon is the current Immigrants’ Rights Center (IRC) Legal Resource Case Manager at CAIR-LA. Prior to joining CAIR-LA, she served for over nine years with The Cambodian Family (TCF), where she worked with Cambodian and Central American immigrant and refugee communities and provided case management and legal services to low-income clients. As the Program Manager for the Immigration Program and Plan Ahead Youth Program at TCF, Sophia managed program coordination and budgeting, monitored grant completion, worked on fund development, and advocated for policies advancing immigrants and educational access in Orange County, CA. Sophia also serves as a co-site leader for the New American Campaign Orange County collaborative, facilitating local legal service provider collaboration around naturalization, sharing best practices, and monitoring performance of collective goals. Sophia holds a Master of Arts degree in Applied Anthropology from California State University, Long Beach, and a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Southern Oregon University. She has over 12 years of program management experience in both university and non-profit programming and project coordination. Sophia is very familiar with the challenges a newcomer would encounter being a first-generation immigrant herself and is highly energized and passionate about promoting greater equity in education and immigrant justice for underserved and underrepresented communities using a trauma-informed approach. She is bilingual in English and Spanish. In her free time, Sophia serves as volunteer Child Advocate representing unaccompanied minors through the Young Center, enjoys classics films, read books, and explores.
