Discussions
A Personal Story of Migration: Being Sheela Book Talk
Join us for an evening discussion of the book Being Sheela: The Life Journey of an Immigration Lawyer, with Sheela Murthy and Sandy Liotta, President of the Board of Trustees for Baltimore Center Stage.
A young mother separated from her children for eight long years; a man facing deportation after being mistaken for a terrorist; a woman forced to endure domestic violence so that she can retain her right to remain in her adopted country… These are just a few among the thousands of people whom Sheela Murthy-lawyer—entrepreneur and philanthropist—has helped to overcome injustice, dispossession and legal tangles, so they may live a life of dignity in an increasingly challenging world.
The book takes a close look at a few of the countless cases that Sheela and her dynamic legal team have handled over 25 years in the face of rapidly changing American attitudes towards immigrants. Being Sheela is about the human side of a successful professional, an immigrant and woman of color, who has made it her purpose to strive for a better world.
Free books will be given to the first 50 guests to register. Books will also be available for sale onsite.
Registration is encouraged. Seating is first-come, first-served.
Program Schedule
6 p.m. – Presentation begins
7 p.m. – Presentation ends
About
Sheela Murthy
Sheela Murthy is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, public speaker, and an internationally recognized U.S. immigration lawyer. She is the President/CEO of the Murthy Law Firm, the world’s pre-eminent U.S. immigration law firm. The firm has a satellite office in Seattle and affiliate offices in Chennai, Hyderabad, and Mumbai, India.
Ms. Murthy and her husband, Vasant Nayak, co-founded the MurthyNAYAK Foundation in 2001, a nonprofit organization dedicated to working on socially transformative projects designed to improve the lives of women, children, and immigrants, both in her birth country, India and in her adopted country, the U.S.
Sandy Liotta
Sandy Liotta is in her third year of serving as President of the Board of Trustees for Baltimore Center Stage, the state theater of Maryland. In her “day job,” she leads a team of nine advisors and support staff as a Managing Director and Wealth Management Advisor with Merrill Lynch based in Towson, MD.
Sandy credits her track record of bringing people together to achieve success and her ability to craft creative solutions to her years of varied professional experience and her unusual background. Born in Honduras and speaking Spanish as her first language, Sandy lived in seven countries as a child and worked as a newspaper journalist and TV producer before joining Merrill Lynch in 1985. An avid learner, she paired a BA in English literature from Swarthmore College with an MBA from University of Baltimore to offer “both sides of the brain” in service to her clients and her community.
Sandy counts her volunteer work and her philanthropic commitments as some of her most compelling interests. Internally, she participates in Merrill’s local LEAD for Women and Women‘s Exchange Groups, has hired and mentored many diverse advisors over the years and is a founding and current member of Merrill‘s Hispanic Latino Advisory Council. In the community, besides Baltimore Center Stage she also serves on the Advisory Board of Innovative Learning, Inc in Owings Mills, a K-12 private school for children with autism and other learning challenges.