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Xavier
Cortada has been an attorney, a University of Miami faculty member, and a
creative community activist for the past ten years. Born
in Albany, New York, Cortada moved to Miami at age three, where he has
resided ever since. He is a graduate of Miami
High School, the University of Miami, its Law School and its Graduate School of Business. |
| Cortada is chairperson of
the Dade County Bar Association Juvenile Courts Committee, which he also chaired during
1994-1997.  He worked as director of Juvenile
Violence and Delinquency Prevention Programs at the University of Miami's Center for
Family Studies, where he also served as research assistant professor. He also served as the South Florida coordinator of
Floridians for Access to Justice, a project of The
Florida Bar, The Florida Bar Foundation and Florida Legal Services fighting to preserve
federal funding for the Legal Services Corporation. After
Hurricane Andrew, he served as program director for the Local Initiative Support
Corporation (LISC) South Dade Development Program to bring affordable housing to South
Dade. He also served as executive director
for Regis House, an adolescent substance abuse center.
 Cortada
has a longstanding commitment to juvenile delinquency and justice issues. He served on the executive committee of the Dade
County Juvenile Justice Council, and played leadership roles on federal and municipal
youth task forces, and gang activity committees. He is currently on the advisory board of
the University of Miami School of Law’s Children and Youth Law Clinic, where he is a
key participant in the Voice Project, a therapeutic jurisprudence program designed to
represent previously unrepresented children in the delinquency and dependency areas
 Cortada has also successfully
used his talents as a visual artist to create works that focus on important social and
legal issues such as juveniles tried as adults, drug abuse, drunk driving, immigration,
conflict resolution, and domestic violence. In
addition, Cortada has been a guest lecturer at US embassies and
consulates throughout the world.
Cortada is currently a
member of the Miami-Dade Community Relations Board Executive Committee and chairs its
Forums Committee. He also sits on the Board
of Directors of the Spanish American League Against Discrimination (SALAD), and the Board
of Trustees of the Historical Museum of Southern Florida.
Among his recent honors and awards are: the US State Department's "Millennium
International Volunteer Award," and the 1999 Outstanding Achievement Award of the
Florida Association of Volunteer Agencies for Caribbean Action (FAVA/CA).
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