Lauren Anaya

Dr. Anaya has extensive experience in the area of immigration law and policy. She currently practices law in Champaign, with a particular focus on immigration matters. After graduating from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1991, Dr. Anaya was accepted into the Honors Program at the Department of Justice. While at the DOJ, she served for three years as an attorney-advisor in the Executive Office for Immigration Review, and later as assistant general counsel for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. In 1995, she accepted a position in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico in Las Cruces, where she handled criminal matters arising from immigration violations. In 1997, she accepted a position in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona in Tucson, where she remained until 2005. In 2005, Dr. Anaya left the U.S. Attorney’s Office and returned to school to study sociocultural anthropology.  She received her MA in this subject from the University of Iowa in 2007 and her PhD from the University of Illinois in 2014. In addition to her current practice, Dr. Anaya teaches anthropology part-time at Parkland College.

Department of Social Sciences

2400 W. Bradley Avenue

Champaign, IL 61821