Raj Sharma
MANAGING PARTNER
Raj spent 23 years as a Senior Immigration Specialist at Ogletree Deakins in New York. He has led Pazega as Managing Partner since 2013 and oversees its immigration and graduate admissions services.
About us
We exist so extraordinary people don't get overlooked.
Our mission is to make the extraordinary-ability path transparent and achievable, combining legal rigor, adjudication insight and honest career strategy.
Our team
The people behind your case.
Claire Robinson
COMMUNICATIONS LEAD
Claire started her career as a law clerk at Fragomen and went on to spend 13 years as a paralegal at Ogletree Deakins. At Pazega, where she has worked since 2020, she is the main point of contact for clients throughout their case.
Brian Higgins
CASE STRATEGY ADVISOR
Brian spent 10 years at USCIS first as an Immigration Services Officer and later as a Supervisory Immigration Services Officer. At Pazega, he reviews petitions and supporting evidence before filing and identifies issues likely to draw a Request for Evidence (RFE).
Branden Park
IMMIGRATION STRATEGY ADVISOR
Branden spent eight years working on business immigration cases at Fragomen in Atlanta, starting as a law clerk. He advises Pazega clients on work visas and green card pathways, including EB-1A and O-1A, and helps plan the evidence for each case.
Isabel Ramírez, PhD
SENIOR GRADUATE ADMISSIONS ADVISOR
Isabel is an Associate Professor in the Hubert Department of Global Health at Emory University, where she has served on the PhD admissions committee. Before Emory, she was a Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. At Pazega, she manages Masters and PhD applications in public health and the life sciences, with a focus on research fit and statements of purpose.
Adewale Akinyemi, MSc
SENIOR ADMISSIONS ADVISOR
Adewale spent over a decade in graduate admissions, most recently as Associate Director of Admissions at Northwestern University's Graduate School. He began his career evaluating international applications at the University of Edinburgh. At Pazega, he handles program selection, SOP reviews and scholarship applications for students applying to the US and UK.
Minh Nguyen, PhD
SENIOR GRADUATE ADMISSIONS ADVISOR
Minh is an Associate Professor in Purdue University's School of Mechanical Engineering and has served on its graduate admissions committee. She completed her postdoctoral research at ETH Zurich. Her work at Pazega focuses on engineering applicants, from shortlisting universities and contacting faculty to applying for funded PhD positions.
Leila Haddad, MBA
SENIOR ADMISSIONS ADVISOR, BUSINESS PROGRAMS
Before joining Pazega, Leila was Associate Director of Admissions for the Daytime MBA at Duke's Fuqua School of Business and an Admissions Manager at London Business School. She started her career as a consultant at Deloitte in Dubai. At Pazega, she manages MBA and business masters applications, including school selection, essays and interview preparation.
Anjali Lokhande, MBBS, MPH, PhD
SENIOR GRADUATE ADMISSIONS ADVISOR
Anjali trained as a physician in Mumbai and worked at KEM Hospital and at St. John's Medical College Hospital in Bengaluru before moving into public health research. She was on the Global Health faculty at the University of Washington and now teaches part-time at Manipal Academy of Higher Education. At Pazega, she advises doctors and other health professionals applying to MPH and PhD programs.
A letter from our Managing Partner
On quiet excellence.
Raj Sharma
Managing Partner, Pazega
Early in my career I worked beside engineers and scientists whose work moved entire industries, yet when asked about it, they shrugged. They had been taught that good work speaks for itself.
Immigration law disagrees. An officer reviewing an extraordinary-ability case can only weigh what's written down. Impact that isn't documented, cited, or recognized simply doesn't count.
Pazega started as a promise to close that gap: to help people contribute beyond their day jobs (reviewing, mentoring, publishing, speaking) and to present that record with clarity and honesty.
We don't sell shortcuts. We build careers that deserve the recognition they receive.