Speaker series, Jennifer Rizzo-Choi

Jennifer Rizzo-Choi, Executive Director of the International Institute of Buffalo, will discuss the Erie Canal’s impact on immigration and refugee history in Buffalo.

Since September 2021, Executive Director Jennifer Rizzo-Choi has successfully led the International Institute of Buffalo (IIB) through significant changes in response to global events. First, humanitarian crises, including those in Ukraine and Afghanistan, drove more clients to the organization than ever before and regularly put IIB’s mission and services in the headlines. Now, the grounds shift daily with the arrival of a new presidential administration, altering the legal and policy landscape. Ms. Rizzo-Choi’s experiences as a refugee and asylum law expert, combined with her background as a former television journalist, have enabled her to navigate the changing terrain. Prior to joining IIB as its Executive Director, she served on IIB’s Board of Directors for 6 years. She previously served as the Executive Director at The Pro Bono Project in New Orleans, Louisiana’s largest pro bono legal services organization, and as National Pro Bono Counsel at Human Rights First in Washington D.C., which is a flagship organization that works at the forefront of international and national refugee law and policy. At the beginning of her legal career, Jennifer Rizzo-Choi served as Legal Director at Journey’s End Refugee Services, where she founded its immigration legal services program. A West Seneca native, Jennifer Rizzo-Choi earned her MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and her Juris Doctor from the University at Buffalo School of Law, where she now teaches Refugee and Asylum Law as an adjunct professor. Ms. Rizzo-Choi serves on the Board of Advisors of the NYS Institute on Immigrant Integration Research & Policy, which was launched by Governor Hochul in 2023.

The EC200 Speaker Series will take place in the Buffalo Naval Park’s Hangar Building on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month from 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM. This series is co-sponsored by the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park and The Buffalo History Museum.

Speakers will include subject matter experts regarding Buffalo’s Erie Canal heritage and those who were key in helping develop the Waterway of Change: Complex Legacies of the Erie Canal exhibit in the Longshed Building.