Evelyn Cruz

Evelyn H. Cruz is a Clinical Law Professor at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. She is the director of the immigration clinic, where she represents immigrant children in the foster care system. In addition to directing the clinic, Professor Cruz also teaches U.S. Immigration Law and Asylum. Her research interests include Legal Clinical Theory, U.S. Immigration Law, Transmigration, Mexican Immigration Law, Migrant Children, and Procedural Transparency.

She is currently a Ph.D. candidate (ABD) at ASU’s School of Transborder Studies. She is writing her dissertation on bilingual Latino lawyers’ attorney-client communication strategies and their role in immigrant populations’ access to justice.

Professor Cruz has been involved in legal clinic development projects in Pakistan, Mexico, and El Salvador. Through her international development work, she developed Voz de las Victimas, an innovative framework for establishing sustainable partnerships between in-country educational, governmental, and civil society institutions. These partner institutions collaborate on mutually beneficial legal services delivery programs, such as clinics and internships, focused on improving law graduate professionalism while increasing the accessibility and quality of legal assistance for vulnerable populations.

Before joining the ASU faculty, Professor Cruz was a Cover Fellow at Yale Law School’s Jerome Frank Law Clinic. She holds a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a J.D. from Santa Clara University College of Law.