Donald Kerwin

Donald M. Kerwin, Jr. is the Executive Director for the Center for Migration Studies.

Prior to joining CMS, Mr. Kerwin served as Vice-President for Programs at the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), where he coordinated MPI’s national and international programs, and wrote on diverse U.S. immigration and refugee policy issues. Before joining MPI, Mr. Kerwin worked for 16 years at the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC), serving as that agency’s executive director for 15 years. CLINIC, a subsidiary of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), is a public interest legal corporation that supports a national network of 200 charitable legal programs for immigrants. Upon his arrival at CLINIC in 1992, Mr. Kerwin coordinated the agency’s political asylum project for Haitians.

CMS is a New York-based educational institute devoted to the study of migration, to the promotion of understanding between immigrants and receiving communities, and to public policies that safeguard the dignity and rights of migrants, refugees and newcomers. CMS was established in 1969 by the Congregation of the Missionaries of St. Charles, Scalabrinians. It is a member of the Scalabrini International Migration Network (SIMN), which consists of more than 270 organizations involved in different, migration-related activities and services throughout the world.

As Executive Director of CMS, Mr. Kerwin will remain a non-resident senior fellow at MPI. He also serves as an associate fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center, where he co-directs Woodstock’s Theology of Migration Project; on the American Bar Association’s Commission on Immigration; and on the board of directors for the Border Network for Human Rights. He previously served on the Council on Foreign Relations’ Immigration Task Force; on the board of directors of Jesuit Refugee Services-USA; and on the founding board of the Capital Area Immigrant Rights Coalition. Mr. Kerwin writes and speaks extensively on immigration policy issues. He is co-author of And You Welcomed Me: Migration and Catholic Social Teaching (Lexington Press, 2009), http://woodstock.georgetown.edu/resources/books/And-You-Welcomed-Me.html.

“We are delighted to have a person of Mr. Kerwin’s experience, commitment and integrity taking over CMS,” said Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, Chairman of CMS’s Board of Trustees. “Don’s appointment will significantly expand CMS’s expertise and reach, and will build on the Center’s long history of independent research and scholarship at a time of unprecedented need for public understanding of these issues.”

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