Root Tilden Kern Scholars
Class of 2027
Jude al-Ghazal Stone
Having spent most of his life in Arizona and Oregon, Jude is excited to return to the East Coast for law school. Jude first became passionate about equal rights advocacy when he experienced and challenged his high school’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies. While attending the University of Oregon as an undergraduate, he gained experience with many different advocacy roles, from legal investigation and policy development to community support and nonprofit administration. However, he was most involved in grassroots organizing as a campaign manager and Vice Chair of Oregon Students Public Interest Research Group (OSPIRG). Jude became the full-time staff organizer of OSPIRG’s flagship campus after he graduated, training over 500 interns and volunteers to win statewide grassroots campaigns for food and housing security, renewable energy, Indigenous water rights, and more. During his time with OSPIRG, he ran successful campaigns to double the organization’s annual income and to help 20,000 students vote in the 2020 election. After, he worked at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Oregon, where he managed the organization’s Portland policy work, led various community engagement projects, served as a copyeditor for public communications across all departments, and analyzed hundreds of statewide legislative proposals. His policy advocacy focused on establishing transparent democracy and accountability for police surveillance technology.
Ivy Bernstein
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship for Women and Children's Rights
Ivy Bernstein (they/them) graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in History in 2021. Ivy then worked for three years as a Civil Legal Advocate at The Bronx Defenders, where they provided holistic defense services for clients. Specifically, Ivy helped clients obtain public benefits and shelter, report police misconduct through filing Notice of Claims, and retrieve property and vehicles seized in arrest. Ivy also served as a non-attorney Union representative. While at NYU Law, Ivy has represented parents experiencing ACS surveillance and intervention through NYU's Family Defense Clinic. Ivy spent their 1L summer as a legal intern at the Family Justice Law Center and their 2L summer as a legal intern in The Legal Aid Society's Special Litigation Unit. Ivy will spend their 3L participating in NYU's Crimmigration Clinic and Civil Rights and Community Equity Lab. Ivy also loves camping, live music, and spending time with their cat.
Djibril Branche
Coben Scholar
Djibril is from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and graduated from Kenyon College in 2023 with a degree in International Studies and minors in History and Arabic. During his time in college, he worked with his fellow students and alumni to set up a mutual aid fund to cover student needs created by the pandemic, as well as with the Kenyon Student Worker Organizing Committee (K-SWOC) to build support and momentum for the first wall-to-wall undergraduate student union.
During his junior year, he studied abroad in Jordan volunteering with The Arab Group for the Protection of Nature(APN). There, he worked on creating a database of people/organizations open to partnering with the APN in their campaign of planting three million trees in Palestine. It was through this campaign that he was exposed to the complex legal landscape that governs Palestinian agriculture. This work is what initially sparked his interest in the intersections of environmental and international law.
At NYU Djibril aims to further understand the role the law can play in the broader movement for environmental justice as well as how lawyers can best support community centered mobilizations.
Thalia Charles
Jacobson Public Service Scholar for Women, Children, and Families
Born in Brooklyn and raised in Pennsylvania, Thalia Charles (she/her) is the daughter of Grenadian immigrants. Thalia graduated summa cum laude from Lafayette College with degrees in Government & Law and Psychology in 2022. In college, Thalia founded and was president of a reproductive and sexual health club, spearheaded a menstrual equity project as Student Body Vice President, and interned with the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project. Thalia was also involved in anti-gender violence student organizing through Know Your IX.
After graduation, Thalia worked as a family defense paralegal at Brooklyn Defenders, defending parents accused of child neglect and abuse. Thalia also freelanced as a reproductive justice writer covering an array of topics including threats to contraceptive access, the intersection of family policing and abortion rights, and birth justice.
Thalia hopes to use her law degree to expand access to reproductive healthcare and protect people’s reproductive rights from state intervention and control. In her free time, Thalia enjoys reading, listening to podcasts, exploring cafes in Brooklyn, and cuddling with her cat, Pauli.
Huailing Chen
Sinsheimer Service Scholar
Huailing Chen (they/them) grew up in Dallas, Texas and graduated from the Dual B.A. Program with Trinity College Dublin and Columbia University. Huailing is interested in work that supports the solidarity economy, sustainable land stewardship, and creative mechanisms for collective power to resist racial capitalism. After moving to New York City, Huailing became involved with tenant organizing in Chinatown and their own neighborhoods, and has since been a part of abolitionist and anti-imperialist organizing throughout the city. In their free time, Huailing enjoys making music and being in the ocean.
Jo Cohen
Starr Foundation Scholar
Jo was born and raised in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University with a BA cum laude in Physics, as well as a concentration in History. She spent three years working at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, using data science techniques to address racial bias in machine learning/AI underwriting algorithms and strengthen lawsuits against predatory financial services and products. Previously, she worked in political campaigns as an organizer and policy director and interned at the New York Legal Assistance Group in the SDNY federal pro se clinic. During and after law school she hopes to work at the intersection of technology law/policy and racial and economic justice. Outside of school, she loves reading, painting, ceramics, swimming, and hiking.
Nastaran Far
Andrew W. Mellon Scholar
Nastaran Far (she/they) was born in Kashan, Iran and raised in Irvine, California. Nastaran graduated from the University of Southern California with a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Law, History, and Culture. On campus, they conducted in-depth research on truth commissions and transitional justice. Off campus, they worked as an immigration casework intern at a congressional office and as an intern at the ACLU’s National Security Project. Post grad, Nastaran worked as a Policy and Advocacy Fellow at Win Without War and as a Policy Assistant at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) where they were an active organizer in IRAP’s union. Nastaran is committed to immigrant justice and civil liberties work and is particularly concerned by the weaponization of national security narratives against minoritized communities. She is interested in varied areas that intersect here - from racial justice to anti-militarism to climate justice to reproductive justice to queer rights to worker rights. She hopes that her legal degree will be useful in working alongside and within communities to combat the harm inherent to our current legal and policy systems. On her off time, she reads a lot of poetry.
Sherell Farmer
Lindemann Family Public Service Scholar
Sherell was born and raised in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. In 2022, she graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations, with minors in Law & Society, History, and Inequality Studies. While at Cornell, Sherell was heavily engaged in organizing for Black students and communities through Cornell Students 4 Black Lives & Do Better Cornell. Outside of school, she explored the power of direct legal services work through internships with Cornell Law School, the Legal Assistance of Western New York, and the Cornell Defenders Program. Following graduation, Sherell worked as a paralegal & pre-law DEI scholar at a law firm in D.C. where she worked extensively on immigration, housing, and criminal legal pro bono matters.
Following law school, Sherell hopes to pursue a career in public defense and impact litigation to bolster a more equitable future for Black and Brown communities.
Michelle Howard
Michelle (she/her) is from Tucson, AZ, and graduated from Stanford University in 2020 with a degree in bioengineering and a minor in religious studies. Since then, she has worked for a telehealth startup providing free health monitoring services to elderly folks with chronic conditions across California, lived in Mexico City as a Fulbright Scholar, and worked as an Operations Manager for an innovative legal aid nonprofit in San Francisco called Open Door Legal.
Michelle is committed to stopping the exploitation of local communities and natural resources by private companies. A proud Mexican citizen, she hopes to use her law degree to strengthen corporate accountability across Latin America. Michelle’s interests include reggaeton dance, Harry Potter, the outdoors, making and consuming desserts, and spending time with her friends, partner and family.
Kelis Johnson
Coben Scholar
Kelis was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia and graduated from Duke University with a B.A. in Psychology and Philosophy. In college, she researched the intersections between behavioral science and criminal justice in eyewitness reliability, jury instructions, and police procedure. After graduation, Kelis spent two years working as a paralegal at Relman Colfax PLLC, a civil rights firm based in Washington, D.C. specializing in civil rights litigation and counseling in housing, fair lending, education, and police accountability.
At NYU, Kelis volunteers with the Parole Advocacy Project, supporting incarcerated clients as they prepare for parole hearings. She serves as an Editor-in-Chief of the NYU Review of Law and Social Change, a law journal committed to elevating the voices of marginalized communities and publishing legal scholarship with discrete recommendations for social change.
After law school, Kelis hopes to pursue a career as a public defender and continue to fight for the rights and dignity of indigent individuals accused of crimes. "
Cat La Roche
Dr. Milton and Fradie Kramer Scholarship
Cat was born and raised near Asbury Park, New Jersey. In 2021, she graduated summa cum laude from Middlebury College with a degree in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies. After college, Cat worked for two years as the Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA) paralegal at The Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Appeals Bureau, plus one year as a supervising paralegal. At NYU, Cat is a member of the Latinx Law Students association, the Review of Law and Social Change, and the Taxi Worker Defense Collective. During the ‘26-‘27 school year, she was a student attorney in the Criminal Defense and Re-Entry Clinic, representing indigent clients at the trial level in the Bronx. Her 2L summer, she interned in the direct appeals practice at Appellate Advocates, and this fall, she will be a member of the Crimmigration Clinic. For more than three years, Cat has volunteered with the Parole Preparation Project, and she recently helped a New Yorker secure parole after 33 years of incarceration. After law school, Cat plans to continue working on behalf of indigent people accused and convicted of crimes.
Gabriella Limón
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship in Civil Rights, Civil Liberties and/or Criminal Justice
Gabriella grew up in Carpinteria, California. She graduated in 2020 from Yale University with a B.A. in Political Science. At Yale, she studied the tactics of social movements in the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy and founded the Acorn, the university’s first student-run café. As a student, she worked in two local restaurants, interned at the California State Senate and Momofuku Restaurant Group, and conducted independent research on local resistance to tech company headquarters in New York and Berlin.
After graduation, Gabriella worked at the Brennan Center for Justice, where she assisted with research and advocacy around the 2020 redistricting cycle and served as a member of its inaugural union bargaining committee. After Brennan, Gabriella joined Planned Parenthood Federation of America, where she supported litigation advancing the right to an abortion under state constitutions in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. Most recently, Gabriella was a Deputy Legislative Director in the New York State Senate, where she wrote legislation to defend workers from surveillance and artificial intelligence in the workplace and coordinated a campaign to direct more funding to legal representation for people in Family Court. Her writing has appeared in Ms. and Univisión.
At NYU, Gabriella hopes to use the law to assist and advance movements for racial, gender, and economic justice in state courts and legislatures.
Vienna O'Brien
WilmerHale Scholar
Vienna was raised outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 2024, she graduated with honors from Cornell University majoring in Industrial and Labor Relations and minoring in Inequality Studies and Crime, Prisons, Education, and Justice. Vienna has long dedicated herself to the rights of incarcerated individuals, aiming to work toward a more just system. While at Cornell, Vienna served as President of the Cornell University Parole Initiative (CUPI), an organization dedicated to helping incarcerated individuals prepare for their upcoming parole hearings. She also drafted and advocated for a bill to require adequate pre- and postnatal care for pregnant people in New York State prisons. Vienna hopes to continue this line of work post-graduation and fight for more humane prison conditions.
Virginia Ryan
William and Mary Sterling Scholar
Virginia grew up in Concord, MA and graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College in 2022 with a degree in Law, Jurisprudence, & Social Thought and Environmental Studies. At Amherst, Virginia was captain of the softball and mock trial teams, led a club centered around volunteering, and supported a campaign to raise money to bail out an indigenous environmental defender in the Philippines. She also worked to increase the youth vote in 2020 and interned with the Maryland Office of the Public Defender in 2021. After graduating, Virginia worked in Boston as a paralegal for Conservation Law Foundation’s Strategic Litigation team and supported litigation against Big Oil companies under a novel climate change theory. She was also a consistent volunteer at a local soup kitchen, Haley House, and was recently awarded the Myra Kraft Community MVP Award for her service. Virginia intends to use her legal education to combat climate injustice and mass incarceration.
Priya Sethi
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship in Civil Rights, Civil Liberties and/or Criminal Justice
Priya Sethi (she/her) grew up in Princeton, New Jersey. She graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Southern California in 2022, majoring in Law, History, and Culture with a minor in Psychology and Law. While at USC, Priya worked with the Orleans Public Defenders as an investigative intern. She also worked with the Jails Project of the ACLU of Southern California, the court-ordered monitor of conditions of confinement in Los Angeles County jails. There, she operated hotlines for incarcerated people and their loved ones, filing grievances to facilitate access to food, healthcare, and humane living conditions. She also drafted and lobbied for changes to the Title 15 Minimum Standards for Local Detention Facilities. After graduating, Priya was a Litigation Paralegal with the Criminal Appeals Bureau of the Legal Aid Society in New York, working closely with incarcerated clients and their attorneys to support various post-conviction proceedings. While at Legal Aid, Priya visited clients at prisons throughout the state, helped people prepare for their parole hearings, and worked to overturn several decades-old prosecutions in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Priya intends to use her law degree to work with and on behalf of those exploited by the criminal legal system.
Anjali Singapur
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship for Women and Children's Rights
Anjali grew up in Bangalore, India and graduated from Swarthmore College in 2021 with a degree in Sociology & Anthropology and Political Science. During her time in college, she interned at several nonprofits advocating for economic and gender justice, including The Legal Aid Society, where she worked on resentencing motions for incarcerated survivors under the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act. After graduating, she joined the litigation team at Planned Parenthood Federation of America as a paralegal, defending abortion access in state and federal courts across the country leading up to and in the aftermath of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. Following her time at Planned Parenthood, Anjali worked as a Research Analyst tracking right-wing attacks on K-12 education equity across the country. Anjali hopes to use her law degree in service of an expansive vision of reproductive justice. Outside of school, she enjoys watching reality television and making misshapen ceramics.
Matty Templeton
Matty (he/him) grew up in Chappaqua, New York and graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2022, where he majored in Communication Studies and minored in Jazz Guitar Performance and Computer Science. While at Vanderbilt, Matty volunteered with Workers’ Dignity, an immigrant worker center in Nashville, where he assisted workers experiencing wage theft and filing for workers’ compensation and designed a language justice curriculum for new volunteers and interpreters. After graduation, Matty joined the Eviction Right to Counsel program at the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands. In his role as a Legal Navigator, Matty led the program’s community outreach and education campaign and assisted tenants in appealing rental assistance denials and preparing pro se lawsuits against their landlords.
At NYU, Matty has served as a Supervisory Production Editor for the Review of Law & Social Change, a student advocate in the Critical Race Lawyering Civil Rights Clinic, and an extern with Make the Road through the Law & Organizing Lab. He has also been a co-chair of the Coalition for Labor Action by Workers and Students and a board member of Law Students for Economic Justice and Southern Justice Advocates, as well as a member of the Black Law Students Association and NYU Law Jews for Palestine. He spent his 1L summer at the ACLU Racial Justice Program and his 2L summer as a Peggy Browning Fellow with TakeRoot Justice’s Workers’ Rights Practice. After graduation, he hopes to practice workers’ rights law with a focus on racial justice and community lawyering. In his free time, he enjoys playing music, reading speculative fiction, and practicing Brazilian jiu jitsu.
Marina Tian
Sullivan & Cromwell Scholar
Originally from Chandler, Arizona, Marina comes to NYU after two years at the Community Service Society of New York. During that time, she helped New Yorkers access life-saving medical care and clear hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical debt by representing clients in insurance appeals, regulatory complaints, hospital billing disputes, and public benefits hearings. Previously, Marina worked in health policy in D.C., with a focus on Medicaid policy and health coverage and access for low-income people. In her work, Marina has seen firsthand how our health is shaped by the social and political conditions around us. At NYU, she hopes to sharpen her advocacy skills and continue fighting for health justice, recognizing that protecting the wellbeing of vulnerable people means challenging structural inequities of all kinds.
Marina received a B.S. in Health Policy from Georgetown University in 2019. While at Georgetown, she conducted research on pandemic preparedness policy, infectious disease history, and the relationships between colonization and global health. She also holds an M.P.H. in Sociomedical Sciences with a certificate in History, Law, and Ethics from Columbia University, where she was a recipient of the Huo Public Service Scholarship.
Ximena Valdarrago
Doris C. and Alan J. Freedman Scholar
Ximena Valdarrago (she/her) was born in Lima, Peru, and grew up in Los Angeles. She graduated from UC Berkeley in 2020 with degrees in English and Political Science. At Berkeley, she was involved in organizing for resources for immigrant and undocumented students throughout the University of California system. She also interned with several legal services organizations, including the ACLU of Northern California and Pangea Legal Services. Ximena returned to Pangea as a co-director and paralegal after graduation. Over four years, she worked with both detained and non-detained immigrants in removal proceedings. She connected clients with community empowerment and policy advocacy opportunities that furthered the goals of the larger immigrant rights movement. She also served on Pangea’s Finance and Operations Hubs as part of the organization’s non-hierarchical, democratically run structure. Ximena hopes to use her legal education to continue advocating for a future where immigrants’ rights are not defined by documentation. She is especially excited to explore how the law and community organizing can join to work toward collective liberation, and how community non-profit organizations can transition toward more equitable and sustainable work practices.
Mina Yakubu
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship in Civil Rights, Civil Liberties and/or Criminal Justice
Mina (she/her) is a proud Ghanaian-American immigrant who primarily grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina. Her interests lie in international law and human rights advocacy, particularly concerning African and African Diasporic communities. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2021 with Highest Distinction and majors in Political Science and African, African American, and Diaspora Studies (AAAD) along with a minor in Social and Economic Justice. Mina is a Jack Kent Cooke, Truman, and Morehead-Cain Scholar. While at UNC, she worked at the Legal Aid Scheme Ghana, the Tahirih Justice Center, and Innocence Project London. She is an Associate Editor for Linkages, the AAAD Department newsletter. Prior to NYU Law, Mina served as the Legal and Governance Coordinator at the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank and advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. In her free time, Mina enjoys reading (especially books by African authors), listening to music, and exploring the outdoors!
Bilen Zerie
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship for Women and Children's Rights
Bilen Zerie (she/her) is a rising 3L at NYU Law, where she is involved with the Black Law Students Association, the International Refugee Assistance Project, Parole Advocacy, and the Review of Law and Social Change. During her 1L summer, Bilen worked for the Legal Aid Society in their Criminal Defense Special Litigation Unit. She has externed with the Legal Defense Fund and will participate in NYU’s Immigrant Rights Clinic throughout her 3L year. During her 2L summer, Bilen interned with the Center for Appellate Litigation doing criminal appellate defense and post-conviction relief. Bilen graduated from William & Mary in 2022 and later worked in DC for a think tank focused on tech harms targeting various marginalized groups. In her free time, Bilen enjoys trips to the movie theater, tennis, watching reality competition shows, singing, and taking long walks through new neighborhoods.
Class of 2028
Mia Bailey
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship in Civil Rights, Civil Liberties and/or Criminal Justice
Mia was raised in Reston, VA and attended the University of Virginia as a University Achievement Award Scholar, graduating in 2022. At UVA, she majored in Public Policy in the Batten School and minored in African American Studies and Sociology. She held a research role with the Public Engagement in Governance Looking, Listening, and Learning Lab, assisting the Richmond Mayor’s Office and VA Department of Criminal Justice with their police-community relations projects. She also worked as an Education Policy Associate, assisting researchers with their mission to create more equitable early childhood education systems in Virginia. She wrote her sociology thesis on racial disparities in traffic stop outcomes in New Orleans, earning her the sociology department’s Commonwealth Award.
During her gap years, she worked as a pre-law paralegal at Kostelanetz LLP and the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado. As the sole paralegal at the ACLU of CO, she supported the legal department’s federal and state impact litigation, combatting constitutional and civil liberties violations. Specifically, she assisted with several habeas cases for clients serving unconstitutional sentences in a municipal jail and a class action lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans to the CECOT prison in El Salvador.
Mia intends to use her law degree to fight for those exploited by the criminal legal system and combat injustices against Black and Brown communities. In her free time, she enjoys dancing, yoga, and listening to music.
Kaela Braxton
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship for Women and Children's Rights
Raised in Orlando, Florida, Kaela graduated summa cum laude from Florida State University with a B.S. in Criminology and went on to earn her M.S. in Criminology from FSU as well. While at FSU, she served as the program assistant for Leon County Teen Court, a diversion program that rehabilitates young people through peer-led trials. She supported teen attorneys during weekly court sessions and reviewed juvenile case files to help determine appropriate, restorative sanctions for young people referred to the program. Kaela later interned with the Juvenile Division of the Leon County Public Defender’s Office, where she conducted intake interviews at the local juvenile detention center and worked closely with attorneys during trial prep and court proceedings.
In 2024, Kaela relocated to New Jersey and joined the Youth Justice Network, where she worked as a law librarian at the Brooklyn and Bronx juvenile detention centers. There, she facilitated legal education and discovery review, answered legal information questions, and provided youth with access to critical resources related to their cases. Her time at the Youth Justice Network was transformative—solidifying her unwavering commitment to advocacy, defense, and structural change for youth impacted by the criminal legal system. With firsthand experience across both Florida and New York, Kaela is deeply committed to pursuing a legal career rooted in justice, empowerment, and systemic reform for young people.
Outside of her work in youth justice, Kaela is the co-founder of Avenue for Anything, a community-driven collective dedicated to creativity, self-discovery, and fostering social discourse through art. Avenue A curates monthly events that offer immersive experiences, highlight local small businesses, and create intentional spaces for connection, expression, and collaboration.
Esul Burton
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship in Civil Rights, Civil Liberties and/or Criminal Justice
Born in Seoul, Esul grew up in Singapore, Korea, and the U.S. They graduated with a B.A. in Political Science from Yale University in 2020—where they were a fellow at the Connecticut Bail Fund—and a M.Phil. in Political Thought and Intellectual History from the University of Cambridge in 2021. Most recently, as Chief of Staff at Zealous, a national advocacy, education, and media organization, Esul partnered with national and local experts on narrative strategies to challenge mass criminalization and incarceration. They led several award-winning projects, including efforts to counter bail reform misinformation in New York, examine the criminalization of poverty in Tennessee, support storytelling for a national campaign to abolish prison slavery, and uplift investigative journalism on felony murder laws. At NYU Law, Esul is interested in exploring the intersections between law, political economy, and mass criminalization, with a particular interest in challenging corporate exploitation and monopolization in a carceral context.
Sara Campbell
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship for Women and Children's Rights
Sara Campbell (she/her) was raised in Valley Stream, NY. Her earliest experiences with legal advocacy came in high school as a volunteer for her county’s peer diversion program. Her time as a youth advocate for teenagers accused of criminal offenses highlighted the issues that people of color, especially those who are socioeconomically vulnerable, disabled, or part of immigrant communities, face in the criminal legal system. She graduated with distinction from Yale College in 2022 with a B.A. in Ethics, Politics, and Economics with a concentration in Restorative Justice Practices and Theories of the Law. Outside of her coursework, she was involved in student organizing as Social Justice Chair of Black Student Alliance at Yale and led Yale Mock Trial as its External President. Throughout college, Sara contributed to several research, litigation, and advocacy projects related to criminal law reform, voter accessibility, and COVID decarceration with the Criminal Justice Advocacy Clinic at Yale Law School, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the Legal Aid Society of Nassau County.
After graduation, Sara volunteered coaching her high school’s mock trial and moot court teams before joining the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program in 2023. As a legal assistant and paralegal, she supported litigation focused on challenging algorithmic bias, fighting disability discrimination, and enhancing educational equity for communities of color. Building on the foundation she began in high school, Sara hopes to use her legal degree to fight against racial inequity, disability discrimination, and economic inequality, especially as experienced by young people in the criminal legal system. In her free time, Sara enjoys embroidery, collecting records, and playing soccer.
Cíara Carlyle
Lindemann Family Public Service Scholar
Cíara grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from Brown University in 2022 with a degree in Environmental Studies (Environment and Inequality) and Latin American and Caribbean Studies. During her time in college, Cíara was dedicated to improving food access in the Greater Providence community, working in food security nonprofits, volunteering on local farms, and working for a program that brought SNAP benefits to local farmers markets.
For the past two years, Cíara has worked at the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office as a Client Advocate with Partners for Justice. In this role, she provided holistic support for individuals facing criminal cases, including housing support, connection to mental health resources, release planning, and more. Cíara is dedicated to client-centered practice and challenging the extant system the dehumanizes and silences the people impacted by it. After NYU, Cíara plans to pursue public defense.
Gabrielle Crooks
Starr Foundation Scholar
Gabrielle grew up in Montgomery County, Maryland, and graduated from Stanford University in 2023 with a B.A. in International Relations, a minor in Human Rights, and honors in Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. While in undergrad, she served in student government and worked at the Haas Center for Public Service and the Black Community Services Center. She worked extensively in the realm of human rights and migration, with internships at Accountability Counsel, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and volunteer experience with Freedom for Immigrants and the Center for Workers’ Rights. Prior to law school, Gabrielle worked at the United Nations Foundation on their Girls and Women Strategy team, where she conducted research on funding for gender equality advocacy, tracked elections around the world, and organized events alongside her team. She also graduated with her master’s degree in Sustainability Science and Practice at Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability in 2025.
Gabrielle has a deep passion for mobilizing the law to advocate for marginalized communities, particularly those impacted by migration. At NYU, she is excited to explore ways to improve the experiences of forcibly displaced populations worldwide, particularly those impacted by the climate crisis, whether through direct service, institutional change, or something in between. Outside of class, Gabrielle can be found at the movies, reading a cheesy romance novel, or playing Sudoku!
Meron Kassa
Sullivan & Cromwell Scholar
Born in California and raised in Tennessee, Meron (she/her) is a graduate of Vanderbilt University with a double major in Law, History, & Society and Public Policy Studies. She also received a minor in Art. While in college, Meron divided her time between various leadership positions, among them the Vanderbilt Chapter of the NAACP and the Student Basic Needs Coalition. She was also a researcher for Vanderbilt’s inaugural Racial Justice Lab and an advocate-journalist for a human rights newspaper.
After graduation, Meron became a Paralegal at Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), where she previously interned as a college student. In her two years at TIRRC, Meron completed hundreds of immigration applications, ranging from green card applications to naturalization. She later became a Reentry Paralegal at Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands. Here, she provided legal support for expungement, citizenship rights restoration, driver’s license reinstatement, and court cost waivers. From drafting motions and petitions to completing affidavits of indigency, Meron gained significant experience in reentry advocacy. She spent her 1L Summer at Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem in their Criminal Defense Practice.
At NYU Law, Meron hopes to learn more about holistic representation as she prepares for a career in public defense. In her free time, she enjoys drawing, oil painting, plane-watching, and reading.
Frankie Konner
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship in Civil Rights, Civil Liberties and/or Criminal Justice
Frankie (she/her) grew up in New York City. She graduated from Pitzer College with degrees in History and Spanish in 2021. As a student, Frankie was an investigative intern for Brooklyn Defender Services. After college, Frankie joined the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem as an investigator in the criminal practice, where she gathered evidence on behalf of indigent clients facing criminal charges and worked with attorneys to develop defense theories. In 2023, Frankie moved to Austin, Texas to work as a Mitigation Specialist at the Office of Capital and Forensic Writs, a public defender office that represents individuals on Texas’ death row in their post-conviction proceedings. In this role, she traveled throughout the state to uncover mitigating evidence, interviewed witnesses including clients’ relatives, friends, and teachers, obtained and analyzed numerous records, and wrote persuasive social history narratives about her clients' lives to present to the court. Frankie is eager to continue working with and on behalf of those entangled in the criminal legal system. She hopes to pursue a career in public defense, and is particularly interested in exploring the role public defenders can play in the abolitionist movement.
Shannon Mich
Andrew W. Mellon Scholar
Shannon (she/her) grew up in New Jersey and studied Comparative Literature at NYU, where she wrote her senior thesis on the politics of self-translation with a focus on queer bilingual poets from Quebec. After graduating from NYU, Shannon studied Arabic in Oman through the Critical Language Scholarship and interned at the US Embassy in Morocco and the United Nations in Amman, Jordan. She spent the next eight years working as part of humanitarian relief efforts in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen with international non-profit organizations. After returning to Brooklyn, Shannon worked at The Legal Aid Society’s Civil Practice for four years as Deputy Director of Grants and Contracts, where she developed competitive grant proposals to support LAS’s nearly two dozen civil legal units including housing, immigration, law reform, government benefits, and consumer law. She spent her 1L summer working at Orleans Public Defenders in New Orleans. At NYU Law, she is involved with the Solitary Confinement Project, the Parole Advocacy Project, and Moot Court. She is also a proud NYC Trash Academy graduate, Coney Island Polar Bear Plunge participant, and Great Saunter finisher. Shannon plans to work as a public defender after law school.
Jack Popovich
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship for Women and Children's Rights
Jack grew up in Illinois and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Illinois with a BA in philosophy. He graduated from University of Chicago Divinity School with an MA and became interested in public interest lawyering when he interned at the Metropolitan Tenants Organization. Jack then served as an Illinois JusticeCorps Fellow, staffing a pro se litigant help desk and working with local organizations to provide legal information to legally underserved communities. Jack spent his 1L summer at NYLAG’s Consumer Protection Unit representing defendants in debt collection suits and researching claims related to deceptive lending and collection practices. At NYU Law he is an advocate at the Student Representation Project, a staff editor of the NYU Journal of Legislation and Public Policy, and a student advocate at the Technology Law & Policy clinic. Jack intends to return to Chicago after graduation to pursue a career in public interest law.
Laila Salaam
Jacobson Public Service Scholar for Women, Children, and Families
Laila Salaam is a Root-Tilden-Kern Jacobson Scholar and J.D. candidate at New York University School of Law. She earned her B.A. in International Affairs from George Washington University, where she concentrated on the Middle East and Africa. During her 1L summer, Laila interned with the Family Defense Practice at Brooklyn Defender Services, representing parents navigating the family policing system. At NYU, she is involved with the Parole Advocacy Project, the Black Law Students Association, and If/When/How and looks forward to participating in the Family Defense Clinic this year. Prior to law school, Laila worked as a reproductive justice organizer and advocate at Reproaction, where she led campaigns focused on abortion access, bodily autonomy, and community-based care. Outside of her professional work, she served as an abortion doula, co-founded EC4DC, an organization that distributes free emergency contraception through businesses in Washington, D.C, and worked as a sex educator in Muslim communities with Advocates for Youth. Laila's legal and advocacy work is grounded in a commitment to supporting families, challenging systems of criminalization and family separation, and advancing community-centered approaches to reproductive justice.
Anna Senft
William and Mary Sterling Scholar
Anna (she/her) grew up in Los Angeles and studied psychology at Westmont College. Anna was led to public defense after seeing the repeated criminalization of trauma and poverty in her community. Internships with public defenders in Santa Barbara, San Francisco, and the Bronx taught her about holistic, client-centered advocacy and sparked her love for public defense.
After college, Anna spent four years as a capital mitigation specialist and investigator at the Tennessee Office of the Post-Conviction Defender where she had the privilege of building relationships with her clients on death row and their communities across the South. During this time, Anna was a Scharlette Holdman Mitigation Mentorship Fellow through the ACLU Capital Punishment Project and was also trained as a Defense-Victim Outreach specialist.
At NYU, she is involved in Parole Advocacy, the Solitary Confinement Project, and the Criminal Defense and Reentry Clinic. During her 1L summer, she worked at the California state public defender’s office doing appellate capital defense. Outside of school, she is involved in national advocacy efforts to abolish the death penalty and combat excessive sentencing. Anna hopes to use her law degree to continue fighting for a legal system that treats people with care instead of punishment. In her spare time, she loves to run, visit independent coffee shops, and enjoy time with friends and family!
Kritika Singh
Dr. Milton and Fradie Kramer Scholarship
Kritika Singh (she/her) is from California’s Central Valley. She graduated from UC Berkeley in 2024 with a BA in Political Science and minors in Ethnic Studies and Interdisciplinary Human Rights. In college, Kritika led a student legal clinic that provided free legal research and tax-filing services to students and community members. During her senior year, Kritika also began tutoring incarcerated students at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, which is where she cemented her desire to pursue a career dedicated to serving those impacted by the criminal legal system. After college, Kritika began working at Impact Justice, a criminal justice nonprofit based in Oakland, California. Specifically, she supported The Homecoming Project, an innovative reentry housing program that addresses the incarceration-to-homelessness pipeline by matching people recently released from prison with community members who have an extra room in their home. As a case manager, Kritika supported participants in meeting their reentry goals, from finding full-time employment to securing long-term housing. She spent her 1L summer at the Contra Costa Public Defender's Office in the Bay Area. In her free time, Kritika enjoys trying new recipes, exploring NYC, and going to concerts.
Stella Xu
Doris C. and Alan J. Freedman Scholar
Stella Xu was born and raised near San Jose, California. She hopes to use her future law degree to support community grassroots movements and provide representation to those who cannot afford legal services. At NYU, she is a student advocate with the Immigrant Rights Clinic, a staff editor on the Review of Law and Social Change, and a member of Parole Advocacy Project and Law Students for Economic Justice. She spent her 1L summer interning with the ACLU of Southern California’s Criminal Justice and Police Practices Project. Before law school, she spent two years working as a Paralegal Casehandler at The Legal Aid Society’s Employment Law Unit, where she represented clients in unemployment insurance hearings and collaborated with attorneys to litigate on behalf of low-wage workers and survivors of labor trafficking. In her free time, Stella enjoys birdwatching, cycling, going to the beach, making pottery, ping pong, and stone fruit. Stella graduated from Yale College in 2022 with a B.A. and M.A. in East Asian Studies.
Alisha Zhao
Sinsheimer Service Scholar
Alisha (she/her) grew up in Portland, Oregon and graduated from Stanford University in 2022 with a B.A. in Political Science, minor in Human Rights, and an M.A. in Sociology. While in college, she led Stanford Students for Housing Justice, where she helped engage students in advocacy across the Bay Area. She also deepened her interest in housing justice issues through research and internships, including conducting ethnographic research in eviction court, interviewing Oakland tenants on residential displacement, and helping lead the development of Senator Merkley’s housing bill during the pandemic. After graduation, she worked as the Policy and Organizing Manager at Compass Family Services, San Francisco’s largest family service provider. In this role, she used local budget advocacy to help secure increased public funding for family programs and launched Compass’ Family Advisory Committee to center family voices in the policymaking process. Alisha plans to use her law degree to support communities impacted by housing injustice. In her free time, she enjoys reading memoirs, making pottery, and hosting community events with friends.
Class of 2029
Brooke Cordoba
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship in Civil Rights, Civil Liberties and/or Criminal Justice
Brooke was born and raised in South Florida and graduated from the University of Florida with dual degrees in Political Science and Neuroscience. During college, Brooke was deeply involved in Students Taking Action Against Racism (STAAR), where she developed programming focused on racial justice and community engagement. She also worked as a researcher in UF’s Legal Eyewitness and Applied Decision Making Laboratory, studying race and ethnicity as predictors of prosecutorial misconduct. Brooke’s interest in law and advocacy was cultivated through internships with the Broward County Public Defender’s Office and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law’s Criminal Justice Project.
After graduation, Brooke worked as a Legal Assistant at Penn Carey Law School’s Gittis Legal Clinics, supporting students and faculty across the Transnational Legal Clinic, Advocacy for Racial and Civil Justice Clinic, and Legislative Clinic. She supported clients navigating immigration matters, including asylum cases, VAWA petitions, and U visas, while also contributing to civil rights advocacy projects and impact litigation. At NYU Law, Brooke hopes to build the skills necessary for a future career in crimmigration, exploring ways to integrate immigration advocacy within public defender offices and advance holistic representation models. In her free time, she enjoys reading fantasy novels, trying new coffee shops, and taking Pilates classes.
Maeve Foley
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship for Women and Children's Rights
Maeve is from Brooklyn, New York, and graduated cum laude from Georgetown University in 2024 with a B.A. in Government and minors in History and Religion, Ethics, and World Affairs. As a tutor and board member with Georgetown University Prison Outreach, she oversaw educational programs for incarcerated individuals and expanded the organization’s volunteer branch to provide courses for incarcerated women. She also explored innocence work and media-based advocacy while campaigning to overturn a wrongful conviction with the Georgetown University Prisons and Justice Initiative’s “Making an Exoneree” Program. This diverse prison justice involvement established her drive to build a foundation across the many approaches necessary for holistic and effective carceral reform, from organizational leadership to face-to-face client services. Following graduation, Maeve joined The Legal Aid Society as a Litigation Assistant in the Brooklyn Criminal Defense Practice. Her experience supporting defense strategy against violent felony accusations—primarily by organizing discovery, conducting legal research, preparing exhibits, and providing standby trial support—and empowering clients to make informed legal decisions fueled her dedication to public defense as a career that combines exciting intellectual rigor with deeply personal impact. Harboring a particular commitment to helping divert young clients from entering the carceral cycle, Maeve looks forward to pursuing youth defense and advocacy at NYU Law. In her free time, Maeve enjoys exploring teahouses, learning to flamework, and attending Mets games with her friends.
Leslie Gonzalez
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship in Civil Rights, Civil Liberties and/or Criminal Justice
Leslie is a curious person who pushes herself and those around her to resist the status quo and question the limits of the joy, justice, and connection we consider possible. She was born to a Mexican immigrant working-class family in Los Angeles – roots which have shaped her lifelong desire to understand systemic injustice and thus fight with community movements in eradicating it. As a young adult, Leslie worked with immigration law firms and community liberation movements in New Haven, where she also attended Yale and achieved a B.A. with distinction in History under the specialized track of Race, Gender, and Sexuality.
Throughout her career, Leslie has also applied her passion for the earth and human relationships to land through public policy work, climate change research, and environmental justice organizing in California and Native lands. Most recently, Leslie has fought for intersectional civil rights in San Francisco as an employment law paralegal in an age of crumbling DEI promises, technofascism, and ongoing extractivism. She’s looking forward to pursuing crimmigration at NYU Law and building a legal career that can advance abolition, sovereignty, and civil liberties to organize for social, political, and economic change.
Luisana Guerrero
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship in Civil Rights, Civil Liberties and/or Criminal Justice
Luisana was born in Lima, Peru and raised in New York. They graduated from Brown University in 2022 with a B.A. in Ethnic Studies. While in college, Luisana worked as an undergraduate research assistant with Brown’s Seminar for Transformation Around Anti-Racist Teaching to design courses focused on advancing anti-racist, diverse curricula. Additionally, as a member of the Student Clinic for Immigrant Justice, they provided legal support to immigration attorneys on pro bono asylum cases and engaged in local community organizing efforts. Following graduation, Luisana worked as the sole removal defense paralegal at a Providence-based immigration law firm, helping undocumented folks in pending removal proceedings obtain various forms of humanitarian relief. During this time, they also returned to Brown University as a trainer with the Student Clinic for Immigrant Justice where they taught a yearly asylum law and immigration advocacy course that prepares college students to support their local immigrant communities. Throughout their professional career, Luisana has wrestled with the tension between the now and the then. How do we help folks navigate our systems the way they are currently built while still proactively working toward long-term, radical change both through and outside the legal field? At NYU, Luisana hopes to explore this question further and foster imaginations of a better future.
Shantal Hernandez
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship for Women and Children's Rights
Shantal Hernandez Guerrero (she/hers) grew up in the north of Mexico before moving to Iowa at 12 years old. Her multicultural upbringing inspired her to study International & Public Affairs and Latin American & Caribbean Studies at Brown University.
As an undergraduate intern for the Loyola Immigration Justice Clinic, Shantal served the Los Angeles community by providing interpretation and immigration benefit application assistance. Her semester studying geopolitics and history at the Sorbonne University during a turbulent French presidential election informed her honors thesis, “Student Protests as a Form of Political Power: 1968 in Paris and in México.”
After graduating in 2023, Shantal continued to explore academic research as a career avenue while fulfilling her Fulbright fellowship in San José, Costa Rica. While working alongside the Nicaraguan migrant community in La Carpio, an underresourced district in San José, Shantal learned that one of the community’s most trusted allies was the local immigration attorney who provided his services pro-bono. Inspired by this experience, Shantal returned to the U.S. to work as a paralegal for immigrants seeking affirmative and defensive humanitarian forms of relief at McHaffey & Nice, LLC, in Boston.
Shantal continues to be involved in student organizing and legal advocacy for immigrants as a board member of the Student Clinic for Immigrant Justice organization. At NYU, Shantal hopes to learn how to use the law as a tool to uplift marginalized communities domestically and internationally.
Cassidy Kristal-Cohen
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship for Women and Children's Rights
Cassidy (she/her/hers) is a proud CUNY Hunter College alum and a New York City tenant. Cassidy began her legal career in 2020 at the Center for Appellate Litigation where she administered a Conditions of Confinement Project and advocated directly on behalf of imprisoned New Yorkers for access to medical care and bodily safety. Cassidy continued her advocacy work at the Urban Justice Center strategizing alongside tenants and organizers to protect and preserve affordable housing in New York City.
In 2023, Cassidy transitioned to investigative work at Civil Rights Corps (CRC) investigating civil rights violations and supporting complex nationwide litigation related to police abuse and pre-trial detention. At CRC, Cassidy served in union leadership and as a bargaining unit member. After CRC, Cassidy became Lead Investigator at Peoples’ Counsel. There, she built out the organization’s investigative wing and challenged police impunity through litigation, direct advocacy, and public education. Cassidy is an abolitionist and hopes to continue de-carceral work in law school and as an attorney.
Logan Gary Ledman
Sinsheimer Service Scholar
Logan is from rural southern Minnesota. He graduated from Yale College in 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in history. In college, Logan interned at the National Labor Relations Board and helped run progressive campaigns for local office in Rice County, Minnesota. He also co-managed a student cafe, studied political organizing in Reconstruction-era Mississippi, broadcasted a radio comedy show, and produced short documentary films about Minnesota history. After graduation, he moved to Queens and worked at a plaintiffs-side employment law boutique. Logan worked on cases fighting race and gender discrimination at mega-corporations and global law firms, and he helped represent survivors of gender-based violence who stood up to powerful abusers. He hopes to use his law degree to win material improvements in the lives of poor and working class people. In his free time Logan enjoys running, hiking, rating sandwiches, and playing banjo.
Paul Luniewski
Paul Luniewski was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and attended Brown University where he focused his philosophy and political science studies on the ethics of work and economic justice. While at Brown, Paul was active in political organizing, spearheading a number of large scale actions with the Sunrise Movement. After graduation, Paul returned to Pittsburgh and began working as a Paralegal Researcher for the Hickton & Stein Law Group, working directly with experienced trial attorneys on criminal defense, family defense, and custody cases. During this time, Paul also co-founded Our Streets Collective, a mutual aid network providing direct support for incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, and unhoused community members with a focus on police and prison abolition. In 2025, Paul left his paralegal job to organize full time with Our Streets. Beyond his work, Paul is passionate about housing cooperatives, having lived in community housing for the past 5 years. Paul also loves to read, ride the Amtrak, and explore the outdoors.
Maria Alejandra Mora
RTK Adelante Scholar
Maria Alejandra Mora was born in Cali, Colombia and raised in Miami, Florida. She graduated from Rice University in 2023 with bachelor's degrees in Social Policy Analysis and Anthropology, along with a Certificate in Civic Leadership and a minor in Environmental Studies. Throughout her undergraduate career, Maria Alejandra pursued her passion for advancing Latin American rights and working alongside communities to advance equity through a range of policy, organizing, and advocacy projects. Earning fellowships at home and abroad, she also worked as an organizer at Mi Familia Vota in Houston, an archivist and organizer at Soweto Organização Negra in São Paulo, Brazil, and a research fellow at La Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. Following graduation, Maria Alejandra joined the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice as their Florida Field Organizer, where she began by organizing for the passage of Amendment 4 – co-creating the organization's first Spanish-language canvassing campaign. For over two years, she organized bilingual political education workshops, legislative advocacy, canvassing efforts, and leadership development programs to expand the grassroots reproductive justice movement in Florida. At NYU Law, Maria Alejandra hopes to continue exploring how community organizing and legal advocacy can work together to challenge systemic inequality, particularly as it relates to immigrant rights. Outside of school, she loves salsa music and dancing, going to the beach, and hanging out with her dog – Jake from State Farm.
Sarida Morejon
Jacobson Public Service Scholar for Women, Children, and Families
Sarida Morejon (she/her) grew up in Austin, Texas and graduated from Harvard University with an A.B. in History and a secondary in Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights. Throughout college, she combined her interest in public service with mentorship and community building, serving as an Eagle Peer Advising Fellow, a peer counselor with Room 13, and President of the Harvard Candela Latin Dance Troupe. After graduation, Sarida joined the Asylum Defense Project at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid as a paralegal, where she worked closely with detained asylum seekers. She met with clients and their families to document their experiences, drafted declarations for submission in immigration proceedings, researched country conditions, assisted pro se asylum applicants, and observed immigration hearings. These experiences deepened her dedication to providing compassionate, client-centered advocacy for immigrants navigating the legal system. At NYU Law, Sarida is honored to be a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar and looks forward to continuing her commitment to public service while building the skills to advocate alongside immigrant communities. Outside of law school, she is a salsa dancer, roller skater, older sister, world traveler, and nature lover.
Daisy Okoye
Daisy Okoye (she/her) was born in Newburgh, NY and grew up nearby in Fishkill and Beacon. She attended the University of Chicago as a Merit Scholar and graduated in 2024 with a B.A. in Economics and a B.A. in Law, Letters, and Society, specializing in Labor and Work. Raised by enduring Nigerian immigrants, she was imbued with a desire to serve others as a way to extend the privileges afforded to her by their hardships. In college, while fulfilling various service roles and internships across campus, Daisy was drawn to labor studies, an ever-changing field that offered insights on how to transform work for the benefit of our most vulnerable groups. For over two years she researched municipal ‘fair work’ policy implementation under Dr. Susan Lambert at the Crown School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, ultimately co-authoring a manuscript about COVID-19 and Great Resignation-era managerial practices. She also interned at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, working with lawyers and an administrative law judge to investigate and fight employment discrimination. Upon graduating, Daisy spent two years at the Legal Aid Society (LAS)’s Criminal Defense Practice in its inaugural cohort of Litigation Assistants. Here, she analyzed evidence to build defenses for indigent clients, directly improving outcomes on misdemeanor and felony cases. Daisy also did research and investigative tasks for the Worker Justice Project, a unit of LAS dedicated to combatting criminal record discrimination in employment settings. Additionally, Daisy served as a letter-writing volunteer with 13th Forward (f.k.a. LaborIsLabor), a coalition determined to end exploitation and brutality within New York State’s prison labor system. Daisy was also an active member of 1199 SEIU, the union that protects LAS’s paralegals and social workers. Daisy is pursuing a law degree to merge her interests in labor, civil rights, and legal analysis for the benefit of historically marginalized communities. Outside of work, Daisy enjoys playing volleyball, dancing with friends, reading, Formula 1 Racing, and a good hike.
Mari Rosado
Lindemann Family Public Service Scholar
Mari is from The Bronx, New York, and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 2023 with a concentration in Urban Studies. After graduation, she joined Bronx Legal Services (BxLS) as a paralegal in the Public Benefits Unit. At BxLS, Mari advocated to prevent non-payment evictions, preserve long-term tenancies, and strengthen access to affordable housing through applications for rental assistance. She challenged reductions of Cash Assistance benefits, SNAP, and Medicaid home care by representing clients in administrative hearings. To address the state-wide crisis of electronic SNAP theft (skimming), she co-drafted impact litigation against the NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance for their failure to secure EBT cards with industry-standard EMV chip technology. While working in direct services, Mari learned firsthand that there is a significant shortage of lawyers from the Bronx fighting for Bronx residents. At NYU Law, she hopes to hone her advocacy skills so she can continue to serve her community through anti-poverty work.
Alfred Taylor
Alfred (he/him) was raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and graduated summa cum laude from The George Washington University, where he majored in Political Science and minored in Philosophy. While in college, he served as president of the Black Law Student Association, facilitating relationships with several D.C. nonprofits that championed trauma-informed approaches to criminal justice reform. He also interned with the Public Defender's Office of the Chatham County Government in Savannah, Georgia, the Cambridge Community Foundation, and Clark Lau LLC. Upon graduating in 2023, Alfred worked as a civil rights paralegal at Neufeld Scheck Brustin Hoffmann & Freudenberger, LLP (“NSBHF”), a nationwide litigation boutique focused on complex lawsuits representing exonerees whose wrongful convictions were due to extreme police and/or prosecutorial misconduct. His time at NSBHF illuminated the importance of offensive positioning as a vehicle for seeking accountability and facilitating just outcomes for system-impacted people. At NYU Law, Alfred is interested in exploring affirmative civil rights litigation, post-conviction and trial-level criminal defense work as a means of bringing about criminal legal reform. In his free time, he enjoys oil painting, tennis, and surrealist fiction.
Kari Traylor
Kari Traylor (she/her) was born and raised in Texas. She graduated from Harvard University in 2024 with a degree in Social Studies, focusing on race and environment in the United States, and a secondary in Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights. During her time at Harvard, she served as the co-executive director of the Small Claims Advisory Service to provide free legal information to Massachusetts residents, mentored Allston-Brighton youth through the Harvard Ed Portal, and organized for her university’s 2021 divestment from fossil fuels as a member of Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard. She also worked with the Environmental Defense Fund’s Moms Clean Air Force, where she conducted research and facilitated community-led efforts related to pressing environmental justice issues.
After graduating, she received an MPhil in World History from the University of Cambridge as the Lionel de Jersey Harvard Scholar at Emmanuel College. Her dissertation investigated the environmental and social history of enslaved and apprenticed people in 19th-century Barbados. Immediately following her time at Cambridge, Kari worked as a Plant Humanities Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks, where she explored the intersection of environmental justice, law, food, and transnational history through regular articles published via JSTOR Daily. This work informs a multifaceted understanding of modern environmental issues and potential solutions to problems of environmental injustice that she hopes to study further at NYU.
Ariel Troy
Ariel (she/her) was raised in Washington, D.C. In high school, Ariel participated in Seeds of Peace, a summer camp that brings together Palestinians, Israelis, and Americans. Inspired by that experience, Ariel majored in conflict resolution and minored in Arabic and fashion design at Washington University in St. Louis. While at WashU, Ariel interned in investigations at the Public Defender Service for DC and at ArchCity Defenders. After graduating in 2021, Ariel worked as an Investigator and Investigator Team Leader at Brooklyn Defender Services. While living in Brooklyn, Ariel also volunteered with the Crime Victims Treatment Center, advocating for survivors of sexual assault and domestic abuse. Ariel also began working as a free-lance Mitigation Specialist. Eager to contextualize these field experiences and study abroad, Ariel received an MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Oxford. She spent the last two years working in London as a Mentor at Switchback, advocating for young men approaching release from prison, and supporting them with employment, housing, mental health, and more.
As an abolitionist, Ariel is eager to continue investigating alternatives to incarceration and, after law school, Ariel is excited to become a public defender.