Public Interest/Public Service Scholars Program
Meet Our Current Scholars
Class of 2012
Ian Augarten
B.S. Human Development Studies, Cornell University, 2005; Certification in Bilingual Education, University of St. Thomas, 2006
Ian became interested in the juvenile justice system as an undergraduate at Cornell University, where he volunteered as a math tutor for adolescents incarcerated at the nearby MacCormick Secure Center. Motivated by this experience, he focused his studies on adolescent development and juvenile justice policy and practice, with an emphasis on exploring alternatives to incarceration for court-involved youth. Ian’s first experience as an advocate for youth involved in the juvenile justice system came during a summer internship with the Center for Community Alternatives, a program providing community-based services in his hometown of New York City.
After graduating in 2005 Ian moved to Houston, Texas and joined Teach for America, fulfilling his two-year commitment as a bilingual elementary school teacher teaching in both English and Spanish. When he completed his commitment in 2007, Ian pursued the opportunity to work full-time in the juvenile justice field, soon moving to Washington D.C. to join the Campaign for Youth Justice. The Campaign is a not-for-profit advocacy organization working to end the practice of trying, sentencing, and incarcerating youth in the adult criminal justice system in America. During his time at the Campaign Ian has worked to change federal and state juvenile justice policy by building support for reform amongst key policymakers and elevating the voices of parents and youth affected by the system. He oversaw the design and launch of a database which is now being used by juvenile justice-reform organizations nationwide, and co-authored two policy briefs investigating the disproportionate contact of African-American and Latino youth with the adult criminal justice system. Ian is looking forward to continuing his involvement in juvenile justice issues as a PIPS scholar and expects to find many allies in the WCL community.
Tracey Begley
B.A. Social Anthropology, Bates College, 2006
Born and raised in New York City, Tracey graduated from Bates College with a degree in Anthropology. During her time at Bates, Tracey studied in Chile for six months and volunteered for a British demining organization, the HALO Trust. She traveled to Afghanistan with HALO, where she wrote her thesis on humanitarian landmine removal. After graduation, Tracey began working at Survivor Corps (formerly Landmine Survivors Network) in Washington, DC. During her 2 ½ years at Survivor Corps, Tracey worked in the Rights and Advocacy Department, focusing on anti-landmine and cluster bombs campaigns. She was heavily involved in the fight for survivors’ rights in the recently negotiated Convention on Cluster Munitions, the international treaty banning the use of cluster bombs.
Most recently, Tracey spent six months in Guatemala with the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA). Tracey worked with Mayan communities that are organizing in defense of natural resources as well as with survivors of massacres in the 1980s who are now witnesses in the national genocide case.
The daughter of Northern Irish immigrants, Tracey enjoys spending time with her family in the United Kingdom and Ireland, as well as in Spain. Tracey enjoys travelling and yoga. She is an avid baker and biker, and is excited about being part of the Washington College of Law community.
Ashly Hinmon
B.A. Anthropology, Reed College, 2004
Born in Utah and raised in Oregon, Ashly Hinmon spent three years after high school living, working and studying in Europe, Central America, the Middle East and Asia. She returned to Portland, Oregon to study cultural anthropology at Reed College and wrote a senior thesis on globalization, media and constructions of gender in India. During college she became involved with movement to eradicate gendered violence, volunteering as an advocate with the Portland Women’s Crisis Line. After graduating from college she returned to India to conduct human rights research, monitoring and reporting in Chhattisgarh, a rural state divided by an armed conflict among Maoist insurgents, paramilitary organizations and the Indian military. She researched involuntary displacement and published articles on human rights abuses, development and conflict.
For the last two years Ashly has worked as a bilingual domestic violence advocate in Portland, Oregon with the DVERT program, a collaborative community response to high-risk domestic violence cases. Ashly works with Spanish- and English-speaking survivors of domestic violence to improve victim safety and access to the legal system as well as to promote offender accountability through collaboration with law enforcement, prosecution, probation and parole, and community-based agencies. Ashly is interested in issues of gender, human rights, development and the eradication of violence and is excited to continue pursuing these interests during law school and beyond.
Zachary Ista
B.S. Secondary Education, North Dakota State University, 2007
Zac Ista, originally from West Fargo, ND, comes to WCL after completing his degree in secondary education from North Dakota State University in 2007. As an undergraduate, Zac pursued many community service and leadership development activities. For several years, he was a member of the national board for Students Today Leaders Forever (STLF), a nonprofit dedicated to leadership development through service learning with an emphasis on college and high school students. In his role, Zac led several Pay It Forward Tours which are multi-day community service and leadership development trips for students that expose them to areas in need throughout the United States. Addtionally, Zac has been active in politics and government. He twice served as an intern for U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan, worked as campaign manager for a team of legislative candidates, and ran as a candidate for the North Dakota House of Representatives in 2006.
Since receiving his degree, Zac has worked in a variety of roles as an educator. He served as a coach and teacher for West Fargo Public Schools, was an educator and youth leader at Faith Lutheran Church, and traveled to Livingstone, Zambia, to volunteer as a teacher in rural African schools.
Zac is eager to join the PIPS community at WCL where he plans to focus on public service with particular interest in the federal government and public policy.
Cyrena Khoury
B.S.F.S. Culture & Politics, Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, 2003; M.A. Anthropology, Graduate Diploma in Forced Migration & Refugee Studies, The American University in Cairo, 2006; M.A. Arabic, University of Maryland at College Park, 2007
Cyrena grew up in northern New England and moved to Washington, DC in 1997. Since then, the intersection of international human rights and domestic civil rights concerns has formed the core of both her academic and professional endeavors. After working as a reading tutor in a DC public school, she took leave of her undergraduate studies in 1999 and moved to Tanzania to volunteer at the Mkombozi Centre for Street Children, an organization serving and advocating for the rights of children.
She then returned to Georgetown University, completed her senior thesis on the politics of international humanitarian assistance in the Sudan in 2003, and received a Boren Fellowship to study anthropology and forced migration at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. While there, she served for six months as a Resettlement Assistant with UNHCR, determining individual refugees’ eligibility for resettlement to the U.S., Canada or Australia. She also co-authored a funded research study, “Expectations & Experiences of Resettlement,” which traced Sudanese refugees’ perspectives on their resettlement from Egypt to each of those countries. In 2005, Cyrena received a second Boren Fellowship to develop her skills in Arabic. She studied at the University of Maryland and Damascus University in Syria for the next two years, and interned as a translator and Protection Assistant at UNHCR in Damascus during the spring of 2007.
While a 1L at WCL, Cyrena is on a leave of absence from her current position as a Policy Advisor with the Office for Civil Rights & Civil Liberties (CRCL) at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Her portfolio at CRCL has included immigration issues, refugee integration, and engagement of American Arab, Muslim and South Asian communities. She looks forward to her time at WCL, and to working with her colleagues to advance human and civil rights in the U.S. and beyond.
Natassia Megan Rozario
B.A. Political Science, Columbia University, 2004; M.P.H., Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 2007
Natassia Rozario was born in New York and raised in New Jersey. She graduated from Columbia University with a degree in political science and received her MPH from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Throughout her professional and academic career, Natassia has investigated health and human rights issues and plans to continue its study as a PIPS Scholar at Washington College of Law.
For her final Masters project at Johns Hopkins, Natassia used epidemiological techniques to better understand the practice of human trafficking among North Korean women in China. Her research took her out to Yanbian Prefecture, China, where she worked with a research team from the Johns Hopkins Center for Refugees and Disaster Response and a local Chinese NGO to better understand the gross human rights violation.
As a research associate at the Center for Medicine as a Profession at Columbia University, Natassia advanced her study of health and human rights. She worked on two major grant projects: The Challenge of Living Organ Donors to Social and Health Policy (funding: Robert Wood Johnson), and The Prescription Project (funding: Pew Charitable Trusts). Her work on living organ donation resulted in an article, "What Body Parts do We Owe Each Other?", published in the social science journal Society, and a chapter, "The Impact of Information Technology on Organ Donation: Private Values in a Public World", forthcoming in a Robert Wood Johnson funded book project on information technology and medical professionalism.
Most recently, Natassia served as a William J. Clinton Service Fellow in Ahmedabad, India. During the 10-month fellowship, she assisted the non-governmental organization, Saath, increase access to affordable healthcare to marginalized populations. Her main task was to conduct a health assessment of certain slum communities in Ahmedabad and advocate the government to open more urban health centers to serve these populations. She also helped the organization design a health insurance scheme for the urban poor.
Lauren Trevisan
B.S. Business Administration, Leadership and Change Mgmt, Georgetown University, 2006
Lauren Trevisan grew up in Burtonsville, Maryland and completed her undergraduate education at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. A Leadership and Change Management major, Lauren was the first student at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business to minor in Environmental Studies. Lauren began at Georgetown interested in pursuing a degree in finance, however after taking a number of environmentally-focused courses her sophomore year, decided to change her path to focus on environmental conservation and preservation. After graduating from Georgetown Cum Laude, Lauren began working for the Sierra Club, the nation's oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization.
While at the Sierra Club, Lauren worked on issues of environmental justice and explored the linkages between social justice and environmental quality. To support Sierra Club's campaign to transition from coal-fired electricity to renewable energy sources, Lauren developed Sierra Club’s national online database of proposed coal-fired power plants, which serves as a tool for clean energy activists across the country who are opposing new coal plants in their communities. Her work has been featured in The New York Times and Grist Magazine. Also during her time at Sierra Club, Lauren worked closely with a team of experienced environmental attorneys and saw first-hand how environmental litigation results in long-term environmental protections and brings relief to communities.
While at WCL, Lauren plans to continue to pursue her interest in environmental law,and is excited to learn more about the practice of public interest law from her classmates and faculty.
Ann C Webb
B.A. International Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2005
Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Ann studied international politics as a Robertson Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During this time, she worked to halt capital punishment through campus organizing and as an intern with The Moratorium Campaign in New Orleans, Louisiana. After studying development and social movements in Oaxaca, Mexico, and Havana, Cuba, Ann began pursuing an interest in the legal and social issues facing immigrant communities in the U.S. As an intern with Student Action with Farmworkers, Ann spent a summer living in Newton Grove, North Carolina, where she taught English to farmworkers and began learning about the experiences and struggles of immigrant workers.
After graduating, Ann spent a year as the Autry Fellow at MDC, Inc., a Chapel Hill non-profit focused on economic development demonstration projects in the South. While at MDC, she worked on projects to promote individual asset development and researched the impact of philanthropy in the South. From 2006 to 2009, Ann worked as a paralegal at Legal Aid of North Carolina's Farmworker Unit. As part of the Farmworker Unit's outreach program, Ann traveled throughout North Carolina visiting farmworkers in their homes, providing legal rights information and interviewing clients. She assisted with litigation related to farm employment, H2-A and H2-B temporary work visas, family immigration and human trafficking. In addition, Ann coordinated the Farmworker Unit’s first Volunteer Income Tax Preparation site serving Spanish-speaking clients in rural North Carolina. While at WCL, Ann plans to continue working on issues affecting immigrants and low-wage workers.
Class of 2013
Mary Bonventre
B.S. Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, 2006
Originally from Hamilton, Massachusetts, Mary studied comparative behavioral psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her involvement with campus political activism during the 2004 presidential campaign motivated her to focus on her longtime interest in social justice. After an internship in the Office of Congressman John Tierney in 2004, Mary decided to pursue a career of promoting social justice through the political process.
After graduating Phi Beta Kappa, Mary went to work for the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington Legislative Office as a Legislative Assistant. While working as a Legislative Assistant, Mary focused on First Amendment speech rights, Fourth Amendment privacy rights, and immigration rights. She participated in multiple focused campaigns to oppose harmful federal legislation by drafting formal letters to Congress and Executive Agencies, commenting on proposed agency rules, and requesting action on agency policy that was likely to impede civil rights and liberties. In 2008, Mary joined the ACLU’s Technology and Liberty Program as an Advocacy Coordinator. In this role, she was responsible for developing and executing legislative policy strategies with the ACLU’s state affiliates, and forming lasting coalitions with outside advocacy organizations. She also had the opportunity to speak at outside events including university classes, affiliate seminars, and grassroots political rallies as a representative of the ACLU.
Mary is excited to continue working to preserve civil rights and liberties for vulnerable communities as a PIPS scholar at WCL.
Alice Brathwaite
B.A. in International Relations, Stanford University, 2005
Alice developed her interest in public service while in college. As a sophomore at Stanford University, Alice served a fellowship working with HIV/AIDS Orphans in rural Uganda. The following summer she interned at the U.S. Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda where she learned firsthand the successes and challenges of the Rwandan reconciliation efforts, specifically as they pertained to the countless children orphaned by the 1994 Genocide. These grassroots experiences left Alice with the understanding that she wanted to focus her career on increasing vulnerable children's access to opportunity.
Alice was awarded the Community Service Award at Stanford, which is given to one Senior student for his/her demonstrated commitment to public service. Her experiences working with AIDS orphans in Uganda, orphans of the Genocide in Rwanda, abandoned children in Chile, and teenage reconciliation initiatives in South Africa deepened her reason to go to law school: to uphold human rights by being a legal advocate for children in need.
After college, Alice worked as a Paralegal/Investigator at a nonprofit law firm committed to fighting for the human rights of those caught up in the criminal justice system in the South. In this position, Alice visited people in jail in Georgia, Alabama, and post-Katrina Louisiana to document conditions and advocate for prisoners' rights to adequate health-care, protection against physical and sexual abuse, and overall fair and just conditions. After moving on to work for the Obama campaign in 7 states, Alice moved to DC and became a Political Appointee at the Office on Violence Against Women at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Alice hopes to lend her career to working in the field of international human rights law, with a particular focus on being a legal advocate for children in need.
Arli Christian
B.A. in International Relations, Wesleyan University, 2004
Born and raised in New York City, Arli developed an early love of social justice and advocacy. She first explored the legal field in 2004 as a paralegal at McVey Mullery Dulberg & Cho, an immigration law firm in San Francisco. She worked one-on-one with English and Spanish speaking clients, helping to develop cases ranging from family-based immigration and employment visas to deportation defense and asylum.
Arli wants to pursue a career in public interest law because it combines the intellectual challenge of interpreting the law with the compelling nature of working directly with underserved populations. To expand upon her paralegal skills and bolster her knowledge of community development, Arli joined the Calvert Foundation based in Bethesda, Maryland in 2007. Calvert Foundation is a social lending institution that invests in microfinance organizations, affordable housing groups, and fair trade operations around the world. As a Senior Portfolio Associate, Arli was responsible for servicing the domestic portfolio, including managing all legal documentation, loan disbursements and renewals, investment committees and requests for loans. Arli also served as dedicated manager and spokesperson of the Fair Trade portfolio, and traveled to numerous Fair Trade conferences domestically and internationally to communicate Calvert Foundation’s dedication to Fair Trade.
Arli earned her BA from Wesleyan University in 2004, where she wrote her senior thesis essay on the merits of microfinance in Latin America. During her undergraduate years she studied abroad in Chile and worked at a microfinance institution in Paraguay. Arli loves the outdoors, enjoys travelling, and spent the three months prior to law school exploring Southeast Asia and India.
Jennifer Girard
B.A. in French, Duke University, 1997; M.A. in Linguistics, University of North Dakota, 2001
Raised in the Charlotte, NC area, Jennifer's interest in international issues stemmed from her experience as a volunteer ESL teacher with refugees during her college years. A semester abroad in Cameroon further solidified her desire to work cross-culturally. After graduating from Duke University with a Bachelor's in French, she worked in social services and taught English as a second language at a community college, while completing her master's degree in linguistics during summers at the University of North Dakota.
Since 2003, she has coordinated adult English language programs and provided immigration legal services to refugees through Catholic Social Services in Charlotte, NC. Teaching citizenship classes to elderly refugees sparked her interest in immigration law. Many of her refugee students struggled to acquire the necessary language skills to become US citizens, and it became increasingly clear that these students needed an advocate to navigate the immigration legal system. After training, she became a Board of Immigration Appeals Accredited Representative. Since 2008, she has been representing mostly elderly and disabled refugees in naturalization, adjustment of status and family reunification cases before US Citizenship and Immigration Services/Department of Homeland Security.
In 2008, she traveled to Burundi and Tanzania for a month to explore the issues faced by returning refugees. She served as a volunteer consultant/editor for Lutheran World Federation, an international development organization focusing on the integration of repatriated refugees from Tanzania to Burundi. She plans to continue her work with immigrants and refugees in law school and beyond.
Jeremy Kelley
B.A. in Sociology and B.A. in Laws, Society, and Justice, University of Washington, 2006
Raised in the Seattle area, Jeremy graduated from the University of Washington in 2006 where he studied sociology and issues at the intersection of law, society and justice. After graduating, he worked for a local youth music non-profit (where he continues to volunteer) and as a legal assistant in a regional law firm.
From 2007 to 2009, Jeremy was a Youth and Community Education volunteer with the Peace Corps in Niger. Having developed a taste for life in the poor, under-developed places in the world (and their welcoming people and cultures), he immediately started looking for a way to get to Haiti following the 2010 earthquake, which he satisfied by sledging up and removing rubble and building transitional shelters for those who lost their homes. Jeremy hopes to work (and live) internationally, improving development practices or working in conflict resolution and post-conflict governance.
Carson Osberg
B.A. in International Relations and B.A. in Spanish, Tufts University, 2003
Born and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Carson studied International Relations and Spanish at Tufts University in the Boston suburbs and spent her junior year abroad in Madrid, Spain. After completing her bachelor's degree, Carson moved to Washington, D.C. for a fellowship at the D.C.-based non-profit, Polaris Project, which endeavors to combat human trafficking. Committed to continue working on trafficking, she later joined the International Organization for Migration, an international, inter-governmental non-profit organization that assists migrants in need. There, she managed a program that collaborates with social workers and legal advocates around the country to provide family reunification assistance to trafficking survivors opting to remain in the United States.
Having facilitated the reunification of over 200 hundred families but often lacking direct interaction with beneficiaries in her work at IOM, Carson began mentoring a recently resettled refugee family from Iraq and volunteering at the DC Employment Justice Center's Worker's Rights Clinic. She plans to continue working with her Iraqi family and volunteering in a variety of public interest capacities while at the Washington College of Law. Carson also enjoys traveling, playing recreational softball, water skiing, and spending time with her family, especially her adorable niece and nephew. She is really looking forward to continuing to work with victim and migrant populations and to studying the law with a specific focus on human rights at WCL.
Emily Paladino
B.A. in Political Science and Minor in Journalism, University of Notre Dame, 2005
Emily grew up in both Denver, CO and Granger, IN. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame in 2005, she moved to Washington, DC to work on the legislative staff of then-Senator Ken Salazar. When Salazar was appointed to be Secretary of the Department of Interior, Emily stayed on the Hill to work for Senator Michael Bennet, who was appointed to the seat. As a Legislative Assistant in Senator Bennet’s office, Emily handled appropriations, defense, telecommunications, transportation, and veterans issues. Her work focused on developing legislative proposals and working to move them through the relevant Senate committees, advising the Senator on legislative actions, and researching various policy alternatives. Emily comes from a diverse family.
Emily has three sisters who were adopted from South Korea and three siblings with disabilities. Because of her family background, she has a special interest in disability law. She’s also interested in environmental law.
Elly Steiner
B.A. in International Relations, College of Wooster, 2006
Originally from Colorado, Elly Steiner graduated from the College of Wooster in Ohio with a degree in International Relations. Her studies took her throughout Europe to investigate Islamic relations with the West, and to Washington, D.C. to study U.S. Foreign Policy. While pursuing her undergraduate degree, she worked as a tutor for French elementary school students, and interned at the American Enterprise Institute’s Foreign and Defense Policy branch.
After receiving her BA, Elly joined the Peace Corps as an English Education Volunteer and served for two years in a rural village in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, West Africa. While in Mauritania, she co-organized a young women’s nutrition-health camp to battle the country’s endemic diabetes, created a youth’s sport and cultural club for high school students, and taught youth and adult English classes. Elly also led a team of Mauritanians in fundraising, implementing, and managing the renovation of her town’s decrepit elementary school.
Cynthia Wildfire
B.A. in Environmental Studies and Sociology, Amherst College, 2009
Growing up in rural West Virginia surrounded by both natural beauty and destructive extractive industries, Cynthia developed an early interest in environmental protection. She studied sociology and environmental studies at Amherst College in Massachusetts, a combination that advanced her interest in environmental justice issues. She was one of the first group of students to graduate from Amherst with the new Environmental Studies major.
Class of 2014
Rachael Curtis
B.A., History, University of California, San Diego, 2008
Amy Gellatly
B.A., International Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007
Lydia Gottesfeld
B.A., Political Science and Women’s Studies, Colgate University, 2008
Claire Grandison
B.A., Latin American and Latino/a Studies, Vassar College, 2008
Claire developed an early interest in international justice and human rights through her undergraduate coursework and internships at various non-profit organizations. Claire worked on a number of issues ranging from ESL education to improving access to basic services such as food and housing. She also completed an internship in Paris, France at France Amérique Latine, an organization working to promote human rights, democracy and economic development in Latin America. Following graduation, Claire received a fellowship to live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for a year where she used her time outside of class to teach dance and art to children at a local NGO. She then completed an internship at Justiça Global, an organization with a mandate to protect and promote human rights and strengthen civil society and democracy in Brazil. Claire contributed to research and reports on human rights violations in prisons as well as on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions in the country. Upon her return to the United States, Claire performed research for the National Security Archive regarding a genocide case in Guatemala and the assassination of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador. Claire went on to work for two years at the Coalition for the International Criminal Court in their New York City office. During her time there, Claire oversaw membership outreach to more than 2,500 NGO members around the world; attended the 2009 International Criminal Court meetings in The Hague and the 2010 ICC Review Conference in Kampala, Uganda; and contributed to global campaigns to ensure a fair, effective and independent ICC and improve access to justice for victims of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
Christine Lonergan
B.A, History, Economics, and English, The Ohio State University, 2005
Christine spent a year with the Mercy Volunteer Corps from 2007-2008 and worked as a full-time volunteer at Mercy Education Project in Detroit, Michigan. MEP provides after-school tutoring, GED preparation, adult literacy, and other educational services to girls and women in Detroit. When her year with the Mercy Volunteer Corps ended she began working as a paralegal with the United Community Housing Coalition in Detroit. UCHC focuses on preventing homelessness through advocating for low-income Detroiters at risk of losing their housing due to eviction and foreclosure. Because of her experiences in Detroit, Christine is interested in community advocacy and development, housing law and policy, and poverty law. She looks forward to participating in volunteer and clinical opportunities at WCL and hopes to explore the outdoors in the DC area as well.
Lauren Nussbaum
B.A., Spanish (Latin American Studies), Columbia University, 2005; M.A., Latin American Studies, Tulane University, 2008
Lauren was born and raised in Amherst, Massachusetts. She graduated from Barnard College in 2005, where she majored in Spanish: Latin American Studies. Lauren's study abroad experiences in Cuba and Bolivia motivated her to return to La Paz to work for a year following her college graduation, and to pursue a Master's degree in Latin American studies at Tulane University. Lauren's concentration at Tulane was in gender and health in the Andean region. She wrote her thesis on gendered barriers to cervical cancer prevention in Peru, and returned to Lima following her graduation, where she continued her cervical cancer research and worked in a sexuality research institute. Lauren returned to the US in 2009 and began her work at the National AIDS Housing Coalition, a national policy and advocacy association. Lauren is pleased to attend a law school that was founded by women, has a Latin American dean, and emphasizes human rights.
Matthew Smith
B.A., English, Harvard University, 2008
Matthew’s younger sister, who has Down syndrome, has led to a lifelong interest in disability, but only as a senior in college did he develop an interest in law while studying special needs trusts. Matthew went on fellowship to work with people with intellectual disabilities in India and Bangladesh, where he returned to work for the Harvard Law School Project on Disability for two years. Matthew will be continuing his work while studying, which includes capacity building of self-advocacy groups and guardians of people with intellectual disabilities, public interest litigation, and legislative advocacy. Outside of work, Matthew enjoy reading, speaking, and cooking in Italian and Bangla, and playing basketball, soccer, and rugby -- though he cannot claim high levels of proficiency in any of the above.
Thais-Lyn Trayer
B.A., Politics, New York University, 2006
Thais-Lyn Trayer joins the AU WCL community after three years with the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative, where she managed legal reform programs throughout Asia. As ABA ROLI’s youngest Program Manager, Ms. Trayer was responsible for the organization’s second largest portfolio in the Philippines, and supported anti-corruption and judicial reform programs increasing access to justice and judicial efficiency. Ms. Trayer has also worked on criminal justice reform, anti-trafficking, and legal education projects in China, Mongolia, Cambodia, and Nepal. Additionally, she helped to secure funding for ABA ROLI’s first program in Indonesia, which will assist civil society in legal advocacy efforts to strengthen the ASEAN Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights. Ms. Trayer’s commitment to international development first began during her time in the United States Peace Corps, where she served for two years in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Ms. Trayer taught English in secondary schools in Poti, as well as assisted local NGOS in writing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating small grant projects. She established her community’s first English language resource center, an English language scholarship program for disadvantaged high school students, and conducted one of the first PEPFAR-funded programs in Georgia to promote HIV/AIDS awareness peer education.
Upon return from the Peace Corps, Ms. Trayer helped to co-found Peace Corps Georgia’s official alumni organization and facilitated its rapid start-up as a non-profit corporation following the August 2008 war between Russia and Georgia. Ms. Trayer graduated magna cum laude from New York University with a major in Politics and minor in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. While at NYU, Ms. Trayer worked for the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs and also interned at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Ms. Trayer speaks Georgian and has studied German, Czech, and Arabic. She is originally from Pennsylvania and enjoys traveling, learning languages, and playing the piano.
Liz Turrin
B.A., Women’s Studies, Earlham College, 2007
Liz graduated from Earlham College in 2007, where she deepened her understanding of social justice and developed a love of feminist theories as a Women’s Studies major. At Earlham she co-convened the Womyn’s Center, a student run campus space for woman-identified people.
After graduating from Earlham, Liz moved to Seattle where she completed a year of AmeriCorps service as a case manager for chronically homeless adults in the city’s largest homeless shelter. Taking a liking to the Pacific Northwest, Liz stayed in Seattle for three more years, continuing to work in direct social service with homeless youth in shelter and transitional housing settings, as well as with survivors of domestic violence in a confidential shelter setting. Outside of work, Liz had the privilege of volunteering at Reel Grrls and at Legal Voice, two non-profits that tackle gender oppression from media and legal perspectives, respectively.
Liz believes that a legal education is a fitting next step for advancing her analysis of injustice and ability to work for social change. She is excited to join the WCL and PIPS communities, and proud to attend the alma mater of Alice Paul.