Yannick Gill

Senior Counsel, Refugee Advocacy

As Senior Counsel of Refugee Advocacy, Yannick supports Human Rights First’s congressional and administrative advocacy to protect the rights of refugees and ensure the United States commits to refugee protection, including access to asylum protections and resettlement, in the United States and abroad.

Most recently, Yannick worked in Congress where he served as Legislative Director to Representative Summer Lee and as Legislative Counsel to Representative Madeleine Dean. Prior to this, he lived, researched, and promoted human rights issues across Latin America and the Caribbean with the Organization of American States, The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the United States Agency for International Development. Yannick was also a Donald M. and Susan N. Wilson Fellow with Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights where he focused on human rights advocacy in Latin America and the Caribbean. Yannick’s work, which focuses on the intersection of migration, race, democracy, and law, has been presented before the American Society for International Law and the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration.

Yannick has received The Institute of Caribbean Studies 30 Under 30 Caribbean American Emerging Leaders/Change Makers Award and the Lawyer of Color’s Top Capitol Hill Staffers Award Yannick earned a J.D. from Howard University School of Law and a B.A. with Honors in Latin American Literature and Culture from Valdosta State University. Yannick is fluent in Spanish.