Myraida Melendez

Myraida Melendez joined Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) in 2021. She spearheads LCR’s HealthJustice Project, an innovative medical-legal partnership with Massachusetts General Hospital focusing on addressing the social determinants of health to achieve equitable outcomes. Myraida works across a wide-range of legal areas, including housing, disability, and immigration, to eradicate health disparities in communities of color and immigrant communities.

Previously, Myraida worked in the private sector and represented clients in complex immigration matters, including asylum cases and removal proceedings.

Myraida earned her BA in Criminal Justice, magna cum laude, from the University of North Carolina. She is a graduate of the University of Puerto Rico School of Law, where she served as the president of Inclusión para la Comunidad de Educación Especial (INCED), a pro bono initiative providing free legal support to children with disabilities. Myraida played a key role in INCED’s landmark special education case, Vélez v. Departamento de Educación de Puerto Rico.

Myraida is admitted to practice law in Illinois and Massachusetts. She is fluent in Spanish.