Class of 2003

Ingrid grew up in San Antonio, Texas, and graduated from Stanford University in 1991. Prior to law school, she spent eight years in the labor movement, organizing health care workers, janitors and public sector workers for the Service Employees International Union. Through this experience, she developed an interest in and passion for the issues of low-wage and immigrant workers. Her co-ops included Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS), Employment Unit; a federal judicial internship with the Honorable Patti Saris; the labor firm of Segel, Roitman and Coleman; and the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. After graduating, Ingrid worked as counsel at the Service Employees International Union, Local 615, in Boston. She is currently a staff attorney at GBLS, Employment Unit

Patricio Rossi

Patricio graduated from Brown University in 1996 with a degree in history. Before attending law school, he worked as an investigative fellow for the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights, where he handled housing and employment discrimination cases. He was also a housing advocate and stabilization worker for the Crossroads Family Shelter in East Boston, where he assessed the needs of homeless families and developed housing search plans for them. While at Northeastern Patricio completed co-ops with the Honorable Raymond Brassard of the Massachusetts Superior Court; the Appeals Division of the Essex County District Attorney’s Office; and Citizen’s Housing Planning Association.  He also volunteered for Shelter Legal Services as a student advocate. After graduating, Patricio completed one-year clerkship with the Massachusetts Superior Court in Boston. Patricio is a staff attorney in the Housing Unit at Neighborhood Legal Services in Lynn, Massachusetts, where he has worked since 2004.

Class of 2004

Stephanie Mandell

Stephanie graduated from Trinity College, in Hartford, Connecticut, with a degree in American studies. Prior to attending Northeastern, she worked in several public interest capacities, including positions as a campus organizer, training students in the skills of public interest advocacy and research; at a woman’s health program at Harvard Medical School’s Center of Excellence in Women’s health; and as a medical advocate for the Boston area Rape Crisis Center. At Northeastern, she was involved with the Domestic Violence Institute’s Boston Medical Center Advocacy Project. Her co-op employers included the Honorable Nancy Gertner  of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts; State Senator Cheryl Jacques and the Post-Audit and Oversight Committee; the Family Law Unit of the Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center; and Mintz Levin. After graduating, Stephanie clerked for the Honorable Gordon Doerfer of the Massachusetts Court of Appeals.

Caitlin Palm
      
Caitlin graduated from Yale University in 1998 with a degree in sociology, and went on to teach elementary school in the South Bronx through Teach For America. She then helped start a charter school in Harlem. During law school, Caitlin twice served as a teaching facilitator for the Law, Culture and Difference program (now Legal Skills in Social Context), and enjoyed diverse co-ops at the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts; the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division; Robinson and Cole; and Children’s Legal Services. After graduating, Caitlin served as an associate at Robinson and Cole in the firm’s labor and employment and litigation sections. During her time at the firm, she represented a variety of clients such as nonprofit urban health care centers, and pro bono clients including nonprofit agencies serving disadvantaged women and children. She also served as a mentor for the Boston Lawyers’ Group. Currently, Caitlin is an Assistant Director of Co-op at the law school, and an advising attorney for the Legal Skills in Social Context program, working on a project aimed at reforming bilingual education in Massachusetts. 

Class of 2008

Alysia Melnick

Alysia graduated from Tufts University in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, and recently earned her master’s degree in public policy and management from the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service. While at Tufts, Alysia was involved with Vision of Tibet, the Tibetan Nuns’ Project of the Tibetan Women’s Association in India, Bosque Enterno de los Ninos in Costa Rica, and was a guest speaker for the Feminist International Radio Endeavour in Costa Rica. Before starting her graduate work, Alysia was a member of the Permanency Planning Taskforce and the Child Watch Coalition in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, while also working as a case manager for the Allegheny County Court Appointed Special Advocate Program. As a graduate student, Alysia continued her public service work as chair of the Muskie Student Organization and worked as a research assistant for the Edmund S. Muskie Institute for Child and Family Policy, where she dealt with domestic violence and sexual assault issues. Alysia also worked as a research associate and trainer for the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence, where she trained middle and high school students about bias-based teasing, bullying and harassment, and researched and advocated for statewide policy change regarding violence and discrimination targeting immigrants, refugees, people of color and the homeless. She also worked to help pass anti-discrimination legislation targeting GLBT individuals in Maine.

Mara Voukydis
            
Mara graduated from Wesleyan University in 2001, majoring in government with a concentration in American politics. Mara then spent  two years as a triage case manager for Cambridge Cares about AIDS and one year as a program consultant for United for a Fair Economy. Mara’s first co-op at Northeastern was in Philadelphia with Judge Giles of the Pennsylvania District Court. Since representing an inmate through the law school’s Prisoners’ Rights Clinic, Mara has focused on prisoner and ex-offender issues through co-ops with Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services and Community Legal Services in Philadelphia. She hopes  to work in this field after graduating this spring. Throughout her time at Northeastern, Mara has also studied and worked on animal welfare issues, which is her other passion.

Class of 2009

Yuri Gottesman
      
Yuri graduated from Wesleyan University in 2001 with a BA in sociology. While at Wesleyan, he developed a strong interest in union organizing through his work with the United Student Labor Action Coalition. After graduating, Yuri moved to Oregon where he led co-workers at a local pizza shop to organize into the Industrial Workers of the World. His passion continued to deepen as he spent the following three years organizing other workers, such as nurses, TSA agents, university researchers and administrative assistants. He also volunteered with a Palestinian-led group called the International Solidarity Movement, where he worked with non-violent activists from around the world to resist the occupation of Palestine. This experience included a month-long stay in Palestine, where he directly aided the group in their efforts to resist the occupation. Upon his return home, Yuri gave several presentations and talks on the subject. Though Yuri’s drive to work in the public interest arena stems largely from his experiences organizing labor unions, his decision to become an attorney came about after completing a year as an AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteer at the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law. There, he participated in campaigns against Social Security privatization and payday loan abuses and was able to witness innovative policy work. After studying abroad in Mexico and Costa Rica, Yuri spent his first co-op in Mexico working for the National Lawyers Guild creating worker and immigrant rights trainings. He believes that becoming a public interest attorney will help him in his ultimate desire to enforce existing labor laws, strengthen the labor movement and bring people together to create change.

Jill Havens

Jill graduated from Randolph-Macon College in 1989 with a BA in history and sociology/anthropology. Jill then began a graduate program in sociology at the University Massachusetts at Amherst, where she studied social movements and the sociology of law and criminology. Through this program, Jill discovered that her true passion

Josina Raisler-Cohn
                                                               
Josina graduated from Macalester College in 2004 with a BA in international studies. After her first year at Macalester, Josina spent a summer in Guatemala and Mexico studying Spanish as well as the social inequalities plaguing both countries. This experience sparked a passion in Josina and set her on a path towards public interest law. Throughout her undergraduate career, Josina actively volunteered in her Minnesota community by advocating for Spanish-speaking immigrants, providing literacy education for disadvantaged youth, participating in letter-writing campaigns to free innocent prisoners, and coordinating activities for Latino youth programs. Josina also spent a semester studying in Nicaragua, where her frustration with social inequality deepened as she further witnessed the difficulties low-income families face accessing the resources they need to get themselves out of poverty. After graduating from Macalester, Josina continued to follow her passion for social justice as a community outreach coordinator for Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services, Inc. This experience not only enforced Josina’s belief in the importance of accessible legal services, but also gave her practical experience in housing law. Since starting law school, Josina has been very involved in the National Lawyers Guild student group. For her first co-op, Josina worked at Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services, a legal services organization assisting prisoners. 

Sarah Schendel

Sarah graduated from Bard College in 2003 with a BA in cultural anthropology. Her senior thesis, for which she won the Boaz/Benedict Award for a Senior Project in Anthropology, was titled, “Beyond the Frame: Holocaust photography, images from Bosnia, and the act of witnessing contemporary atrocity.”  Throughout her undergraduate education, Sarah lived in a student-run cooperative house and volunteered for various organizations, including a local elementary school, through the activist organization The Student Action Collective, and on the Bard Human Rights Project. After graduating, Sarah spent a year working as an AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteer at Cornell University’s Public Service Center as a student programs coordinator. There, her main responsibility was to lead and train university students to run their own service programs, and encourage them to focus on community needs as opposed to simply student interests. The experience deepened Sarah’s commitment to social justice and activism. For the following 18 months, Sarah worked as a legal assistant at Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, a nonprofit organization that handles cases for male inmates at maximum-security prisons. Sarah conducted legal research and investigations, taking part in the litigation process for various issues the inmates face, such as guard brutality, medical care and mental health treatment. During her first year at Northeastern, Sarah took part in the NUSL Student Bar Association, the Northeastern Graduate and Professional Students Association and the law school’s chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. Sarah completed  her first co-op at the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit as a judicial extern to Judge Kim Wardlaw. Learn more about Sarah by reading her blog.

Class of 2010

Jessica Hahn

Jessie graduated from Reed College in 2000 with a BA in anthropology. She actively worked in numerous public service organizations for well over 10 years. Several nonprofit legal work experiences transformed her interest in social justice issues into a true passion for a career in public interest law. Jessie’s first legal position was as a research assistant with the Community Defenders Network in Chiapas, Mexico. She carried out field research and analysis for major human rights cases that challenged the forced evictions of indigenous communities from their lands. Her next position as a community organizer for UCIZONI, an organization in Oaxaca, Mexico, allowed her to discover her own role in a greater social justice movement and reinforced her path towards the public interest law field. As a community organizer, Jessie instructed community authorities and youth activists on Mexican and international protections for women’s and indigenous peoples' rights. She also coordinated rural educational campaigns against domestic violence and hosted delegations of visiting human rights activists and foreign journalists. As a paralegal for the Texas Civil Rights project, Jessie’s most recent work involved assisting undocumented immigrant victims of domestic violence in rural east Texas to obtain legal status in the US. Jessie managed the immigration cases for 200 family violence victims, launched a legal services outreach program in a rural area, and led seven immigration law seminars for legal advocates and law enforcement agents. After obtaining a law degree, Jessie plans to practice public interest law and would like to use human rights law as part of a broader community organizing strategy.

Catharine Hornby 
                   
Catharine graduated from Harvard University in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in history and science, and from St. Catherine’s College at Oxford University in 1999 with a MPhil in economic and social history. Her passion for public interest law largely stems from the six years she spent working for the Massachusetts Senate Committee on Ways and Means. Catharine’s position as the associate budget director allowed her to develop and negotiate public policy, including school construction reform legislation that re-wrote the state’s financing for, and prioritization of, public school construction. She was one of the principal staff members in the Senate charged with developing this legislation and shepherding it through the legislative process. After working for the Ways and Means Committee, Catharine took a position at Boston Consulting Group in order to gain insight into how corporations make decisions. Although this job helped broaden her horizons and taught her about communicating ideas in a clear and simplified manner, Catharine is now ready to go back to public policy work. She is pursuing a law degree in order to gain the tools she needs to succeed as a public servant. Catharine lives in Cambridge and is a member of the city’s Bike Advisory Committee.

Kate Krepel

Kate graduated from Northwestern University in 2003 with a BS in journalism. While in school, she co-founded the Northwestern Prison Moratorium Project. As part of a

Kara Smith

Kara graduated from Knox College in 2001 with a BA in gender and women’s studies and sociology and anthropology. She then spent six years working for public service organizations. Her passion for family law and child advocacy eventually led her to pursue a career as a public interest lawyer. As a field organizer for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Kara helped create healthier and safer low-income and immigrant communities by organizing more than 200 people to address local problems using strategies developed  and implemented by community members. Her next position with the Synthesis Child Placement Agency allowed her to work closely with foster children and parents as a caseworker. Kara provided support, advocacy and safety assurance for foster children, as well as ongoing case management, support and advocacy for foster parents. This experience working with clients significantly  contributed to her decision to practice public interest law. Kara also worked closely with adults with developmental disabilities at Developmental Pathways. Through site visits, communication with service providers and contact with clients, Kara monitored the health, safety, well being and quality of life of her clients. Her most recent work at the Denver Juvenile Court as a court judicial assistant further solidified her drive to pursue family law and child advocacy.

Meaghan graduated from Kenyon College in 1997 with a BA in international studies. As an undergraduate, Meaghan spent a year working with internal refugees in Bogota, Colombia. This experience and the relationships she formed while in Bogota had a profound impact on Meaghan, inspiring her to pursue a career dedicated to social justice. She returned to the US committed to fulfilling a promise she had made to the displaced women in Bogota to continue to strive to illuminate and right social and economic injustices and advocate for underserved communities. Committed to fulfilling her promise, Meaghan became the director of the Vermont Youth Development Corps, a statewide AmeriCorps program that provides emergency services and creates skill-building opportunities for runaway youths. As director, she expanded the program from eight to 13 sites and helped secure over $1 million in grant funding. She worked to make the AmeriCorps member retention rate 100 percent and successfully educated members of the state legislature to ensure continued funding. Building on this experience, Meaghan spent the next six years in the philanthropic sector, where she worked to develop and promote giving strategies that address the root causes of social, economic and racial inequities. From 2004 until she began law school, she served as the executive director of the Brett Family Foundation, a philanthropic organization dedicated to creating a more just society through progressive social change.

Kate Strangio