Yannick Gill

Yannick Gill is Senior Counsel at Human Rights First where he advances congressional efforts to reinforce the U.S.’s commitment to human rights and refugee protection. Prior, Yannick honed his Congressional advocacy serving as Legislative Director to Representative Summer Lee and Legislative Counsel to Representative Madeleine Dean. In these roles, Yannick led a letter to Homeland Security successfully urging Temporary Protected Status for Ethiopians and coordinated the governmental advocacy to close the Berks Detention Center in Pennsylvania following reported violence against migrant detainees.

Before Capitol Hill, Yannick worked internationally in Latin America and the Caribbean, where he promoted human rights for refugees and migrants with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Organization of American States (OAS) and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.

His research on the intersection of migration, race, democracy, and law has been presented before the American Society for International Law, the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration, and platforms like SiriusXM, iHeart Radio, and Roland Martin Unfiltered. Yannick’s advocacy to human rights earned him recognition, including The Institute of Caribbean Studies’s 30 Under 30 Caribbean American Emerging Leaders Award, Lawyer of Color’s Top Capitol Hill Staffers Award, and most recently, the National Bar Association’s 40 Under 40 Best Advocates Award. Yannick earned a J.D. from Howard University School of Law and a B.A. with Honors in Latin American Literature and Culture from Valdosta State University. Yannick is fluent in Spanish and has a working knowledge of French. Yannick is also a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.