Elica formerly worked as the supervising attorney to establish the University of California Undocumented Legal Services Center providing free immigration legal services to U.C. students. She was the Project Director of the One Nation Initiative at the California Community Foundation in Los Angeles, where she managed the first philanthropic program in Southern California providing over $1 million in grants to Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian serving nonprofits. Elica received her B.A. from U.C. Irvine and Sciences Po, Paris and her J.D. from U.C. Davis School of Law, where she was active in the Immigration Law Clinic and a U.C. Human Rights Fellow. Elica is a 2015-2016 German Marshall Memorial Fellow and the current Northern California Chapter President of the Iranian American Bar Association.