As Co-Deputy Director at the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC), Rosa Bay provides support to the organization’s programs, management team, and staff. Rosa first joined EBCLC as a summer law intern where she represented undocumented immigrants in applying for various forms of relief, including political asylum—one of the most formative experiences of her career. As a Latina from the Central Valley and the first in her family to go to law school, Rosa found a home at EBCLC.

In 2010, Rosa joined EBCLC as an attorney and started a school-based legal services program for Oakland students and their families. She went on to found EBCLC’s Education Advocacy Clinic and co-found EBCLC’s Education Defense and Justice for Youth (EDJY) Program, which provides holistic representation and social work support to system-impacted young people in special education, expulsion, and juvenile court proceedings. As Director of EBCLC’s EDJY Program, Rosa engaged in extensive program design work, supervised a team of fierce advocates for juvenile justice, collaborated with visionary community partners, and raised resources for this important work.

Rosa also brings deep experience teaching, training, and mentoring others, including the hundreds of law students she has supervised over the years both as a clinical supervisor and while serving as EBCLC’s Interim Clinical Director during the 2019-2020 academic year. Rosa has presented to law school clinical professors, disability justice advocates, education attorneys, and juvenile defense attorneys at local and national conferences, including the Pacific Juvenile Defender Roundtable, the National Juvenile Defender Leadership Summit, and the Association of American Law Schools’ (AALS) Conference on Clinical Legal Education. Her commitment to centering the experiences and voices of the most marginalized members of our communities informs Rosa’s approach to advocacy and work at EBCLC.