Fernando Chang-Muy

Fernando Chang-Muy is the Thomas O’Boyle Lecturer in Law at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, where he teaches Refugee Law and Policy. In addition, at the Graduate School of Social Policy and Practice, he lectures on Immigration and Social Work, and on Organizational Effectiveness, in the Executive Education Program, with a focus on strategic planning, board governance, staff communications, and resource development. He is former Assistant Dean and Equal Opportunity Officer at Swarthmore College, where he also taught International Human Rights.

Chang-Muy is the founding director of the Liberty Center for Survivors of Torture, a federally funded project. From 1988 to 1993, he served as Legal Officer with two United Nations agencies: the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) and the World Health Organization (WHO), serving as the human rights officer for its Global Program on AIDS. He has served as former Program Officer at The Philadelphia Foundation, and past coordinator of two funding collaboratives: the Emma Lazarus Collaborative, a funding collaborative that, through matching grants from the Open Society Institute, supported non-profit organizations providing service and advocacy for immigrants and refugees; and Funders Collaborative for Strong Latino Communities, awarding grants to Latino led organizations. Before joining the UN, he was a staff attorney at Community Legal Services in Philadelphia where he served as Director of the Southeast Asian Refugee Project, managing the provision of free legal aid to low-income people in Philadelphia.

Chang-Muy currently serves on the boards of The Wells Fargo Regional Foundation, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Local Funding Partnerships, The Philadelphia Awards, and PECO/Exelon’s Excellence Volunteerism Awards Committee. In July 2008, Mayor Michael Nutter appointed him to serve as a Commissioner of the Philadelphia Human Relations Commission.

He is a graduate of Loyola, B.A, Georgetown M.A., Antioch, J.D. and Harvard Law School’s Negotiation Program. He is the author of numerous articles dealing with immigration, refugee rights, and public health and is co-editor of the book: Social Work with Immigrants and Refugees: Legal issues, Clinical Skills and Advocacy (Springer, 2008).