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Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund hires new executive director

 Dina Paulson-McEwen
Dina Paulson-McEwen

Princeton resident Dina Paulson-McEwen has been named the new executive director of the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund (LALDEF), which is based in Trenton.

A Queens, New York native of Ecuadorean and Jewish descent, Paulson-McEwen previously organized and oversaw more than one thousand volunteers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, mentored high school students in expository writing at Write for the Future, and published monthly blog posts for Women’s Healthcare of Princeton. She is the founder of Aqua Editing LLC, and a former LGBTQ staff liaison at a Detroit early-education and daycare center. She currently serves as a member of the human services commission in Princeton. She earned her master’s degree in international educational development with a concentration in peace education from Columbia University.
 
Paulson-McEwen succeeds Adriana Abizadeh, who presided over a period of unprecedented growth at LALDEF over her three-year tenure. The organization now has 15 paid staff members and more than 40 volunteers, and serves 3,000 clients annually, providing English as a second language classes, legal representation in immigration matters, tax preparation assistance, support for victims of domestic violence, community identification cards, and educational programs for gifted youngsters transitioning to college.