Deputy Executive Director Co-founder Dorothy Tegeler is Deputy Executive Director of the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP). ASAP is a membership-based organization comprised of more than 500,000 asylum seekers from 175+ countries now living in all 50 U.S. states. ASAP works alongside its members to build a more humane asylum system in the United States.
Prior to joining ASAP, Dorothy worked for five years as Editor and Assistant Director of the health education nonprofit Hesperian Health Guides, best known for its practical books such as Where There Is No Doctor. At Hesperian, Dorothy edited sixteen community health manuals in English and Spanish and helped to launch a “health wiki” that is now used by over 4 million people per year. She also has a background in organizing for domestic worker rights and disability justice with the group Hand in Hand.
Dorothy has a BA in International Relations from Brown University, a JD from Yale Law School, and has received numerous awards for her commitment to public interest work. As a student at Yale Law School, she represented clients in immigration, employment, housing, child custody, and post-conviction criminal cases through the New Haven Legal Assistance Association, Criminal Justice Clinic, and Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic. From 2016-17, she was a law clerk to Judge Michael P. Shea in the District Court of Connecticut. From 2017-19, she was a Skadden Fellow at ASAP.
Dorothy is originally from Connecticut and is the descendant of Jewish and German immigrants. She speaks English and Spanish.
