Class of 2027
Jude Ahmed
Jude Ahmed (she/her) grew up in the Seattle area and studied Economics, Political Science at Western Washington University. Her community has been her greatest teacher, grounding her studies in political movements and policy development through collective struggle and grassroots advocacy. During her time at university, Jude discovered her passion for organizing and public policy through her leadership in the Arab Student Association and her role as a registered lobbyist representing over 100,000 college students statewide. Jude worked her way to becoming the Advocacy Program Manager at the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle. Working within an organization that provides comprehensive support services, she gained a deeper understanding of the intersecting needs disproportionately affecting the Black community in the Seattle area. Jude leveraged her lobbying skills to bring her colleagues' experiences in providing legal, economic, educational, and health services to the attention of policymakers. Her exposure to the connections between incarceration and poverty drove her to focus on criminal justice reform. Thus, she joined the ACLU of Washington as a campaign organizer, where she worked on reforming the state’s criminal justice system and coordinating coalition efforts to advance critical legislation. Looking ahead, Jude hopes to combine her organizing skills with direct legal service after law school, aiming to address the critical need for legal assistance. Jude lives by the mantra "design our democracy," reflecting her belief in building a more inclusive and engaging democratic society as the foundation for systemic change. She has served on the board of FairVote Washington and as Vice Chair of Voter Participation for the King County Citizens' Election Oversight Committee. In these roles, Jude brings her expertise in organizing and legislative strategy, driving efforts to enhance voter engagement and representation. In her free time, Jude enjoys cooking Egyptian food, watching movies, and asking to pet every dog she meets.
Claudia Arias
Claudia Arias (she/her) comes to the PIPS program after working as a legal assistant at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in Newark, New Jersey. During her time at AFSC she worked with undocumented survivors of domestic violence to prepare applications for U-Visas and VAWA self-petitions. Before her time at AFSC, she was a legal assistant for Catholic Charities Archdiocese of Newark’s premiere legal orientation program for unrepresented respondents in deportation proceedings. She graduated with a BA in political science from The College of New Jersey in 2020, followed by an AmeriCorps term at Norwescap, a nonprofit servicing low and middle-income people in Northwest New Jersey. As an AmeriCorps member at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, she became motivated to work toward dismantling the systemic inequalities that most affect people of marginalized identities. Claudia is the proud daughter of Venezuelan immigrants. In her downtime, she enjoys watching movies, going to concerts, and spending time with her husband and two cats, Kahuna and Ricky.
Ally Brown
Ally Brown (she/her) joins PIPS after a decade of working in the labor movement and progressive politics. As an opposition researcher, she has conducted and oversaw research for Democratic campaigns from the municipal and state-legislative to the presidential level. She has also provided support to labor unions and progressive groups like Planned Parenthood, Working Families Party, and the League of Conservation Voters. In her various roles, including serving as Research Director of a female-owned political research consulting firm, Ally has held companies accountable for illegal anti-unionization practices and helped expose anti-worker legislators and organizations. She’s also worked on teams that have elected pro-union candidates, connected working families with crucial state and federal resources, and fought against billionaires attempting to influence elections. Originally from New Jersey, Ally graduated from George Washington University in 2014, majoring in Political Science and minoring in Statistics and French. During and after college, she traveled to Florida to protest for better working conditions for migrant farmworkers with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. She also helped run a high school leadership conference in D.C. to empower service-minded young professionals. After living in Chicago for three years, she is excited to move back to D.C. to attend AUWCL to further her commitment to workers’ rights.
Emily Clarkson
Emily Clarkson (they/she) grew up in San Diego, California before moving to the Sacramento area to attend the University of California (UC), Davis. They graduated in 2020 with a Bachelor’s in International Relations and Spanish. They found their passion for direct legal services at age 20 while studying abroad in Santiago, Chile. While there, Emily interned at INCAMI (Chilean Catholic Institute of Migration), an organization that provides free immigration legal services to immigrants in Santiago. Her internship at INCAMI sparked her commitment to utilizing the law as a tool for social justice. After returning to the United States, they spent almost the next five years at the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center, where they worked as first an intern and later as a legal assistant to provide free immigration legal services to UC students and their immediate family members. She is excited to join the PIPS community at AUWCL and explore Washington DC.
Amanda FitzWilliam
Amanda FitzWilliam (she/her) grew up in Oakville, a suburb of Saint Louis, Missouri. Amanda found her passion for business thanks to her incredible teachers in high school. She attended Clemson University and studied Financial Management while minoring in Accounting and Political Science. While at Clemson, Amanda saw the disparity between the financial knowledge needed for the real world and the lack of opportunities to learn it while in school. This knowledge gap inspired her to start FitzWilliam Financial Services, an organization that provides free financial literacy to students and young adults to help them reach their financial dreams. Amanda has helped clients with budgeting, investing, understanding debt, and more. She hopes to continue to use her financial background and interest in advocacy when she enters the legal field. At AUWCL, Amanda is excited to be surrounded by people with a similar passion for helping others and is looking forward to all the opportunities the public interest field offers.
Dominic Lyles
As a Black man who grew up in Northeast, Washington, D.C., Dominic Lyles (he/him) witnessed the quotidian effects of structural violence early in his life. Living in a city where a few mere miles can prove drastically different living conditions among its residents, Dominic dedicated himself to the law in order to do his part in improving the material conditions experienced by the most marginalized members within DC and abroad—particularly those of African descent. On a full-ride football scholarship, he earned his Bachelor of Arts from Bucknell University in 2022, where he studied International Relations with a particular focus on culture and identity within Latin America and the Caribbean. As an undergraduate student, Dominic was introduced to concepts and ideas that exposed structural systems that promote and maintain severe levels of inequality within societies both domestic and foreign. Accompanying Dominic’s athletic efforts, where he was awarded numerous honors throughout his collegiate career and even named a team captain his final season, his academic endeavors led him to take on new roles at his university, where he began to question the inefficacious practices he observed there and attempted to cultivate answers to these problems. Specifically, he met directly with university administrators and professors to voice the concerns of the Black student body; facilitated presentations and discussions highlighting numerous structural issues on campus and detailing their potential solutions; and cooperated with other student leaders to lead on-campus affinity groups. His comprehension of structural violence deepened when Dominic undertook several different roles as a public servant within DC, including when he interned with the esteemed Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia as an intern investigator. In directly assisting public defenders and investigators within both the trials and parole divisions, Dominic witnessed empirically how Black people are portrayed in this system; how the system works to incarcerate Black men, women, and children; and the complexity of the flawed criminal justice system at-large. Furthermore, Dominic went on to serve as an AmeriCorps member at DC Prep Public Charter School in Northeast DC, where he taught 7th Grade English Language Arts for two years, and as a volunteer at So Others Might Eat’s adult workforce development program in Southeast DC, where he provided insight and advice to students, most of whom are aged between 25 and 50 years, regarding the interview process, resume construction and polishing, and goal-setting skills. While as the former, Dominic analyzed the pivotal factors that may contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline, which disproportionately affects Black and brown children from impoverished communities, and, while as the latter, realized how the structural systems intentionally created and codified within society may inhibit the adult students’ abilities to effectively pursue their personal and professional aspirations. In believing wholeheartedly in the emancipatory potential of the law, Dominic committed himself to become an attorney practicing within the public sector of law, where he plans to utilize his legal education as a tool to further dismantle the existing socioeconomic structures that impede the freedoms of all marginalized communities.
Jayla Simonne Meeks
Jayla Simone Meeks' commitment to advocacy is deeply rooted in personal experiences navigating systemic injustices, fueling her dedication to transforming broken systems and advocating for marginalized communities. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Organizational Studies, with a minor in Musical Theatre, from the University of Tulsa as a first-generation college graduate. Her academic journey involved excelling in her studies and taking on leadership roles, which included receiving multiple honors such as a Certificate of Special Congressional & Senatorial Recognition and being named to the President's Honor Roll. Notably, while serving as President of the Association of Black Collegians, she organized her peers to initiate policy changes that continue to impact students long after her matriculation, promoting diversity and inclusion. Her work with the Terence Crutcher Foundation in historic Black Wall Street has been an honor of a lifetime, focusing on advancing policy, strengthening the community through grassroots organizing, and honoring the legacy of Terence Crutcher and the survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre while advocating for police accountability. Engaging in initiatives that connect systemic issues to building community power ensures that those closest to problems become closest to the solutions. Recently, she has collaborated with political leaders, notably serving with the Harris-Walz campaign, where she provided strategic and logistical support. Her long-term goal is to blend law, policy, advocacy, and entrepreneurship to create pathways to wealth and liberation for marginalized communities.
Lauren Talley
Lauren Talley (she/her) is excited to join the PIPS community after almost three years at the de Beaumont Foundation where she split her time between two programs: CityHealth, a health policy initiative in the 75 largest U.S. cities, and the Big Cities Health Coalition, a coalition of 35 large city health departments. With these programs she worked at the intersection of policy and public health, advocating for policies that address the social determinants of health for communities across the country. Prior to the de Beaumont Foundation, Lauren completed a service year with the Lutheran Volunteer Corps where she was placed at Health Care for the Homeless in Baltimore, Maryland as a policy and engagement assistant. This role prompted her interest in public health as she worked on the health outcomes of food insecurity and advocated for increased access to health care and affordable housing in Baltimore. While completing her undergraduate degree, she conducted research on food insecurity rates among children under age five and the impact of COVID-19 on food accessibility in North Carolina. Lauren graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2020 with a BA in Public Policy and Political Science.
Delisha Thompson
Delisha Thompson (she/her) is a double Terp who graduated with her M.A. in Public Policy in 2018, and her B.A. in Government and Politics in 2014 from the University of Maryland College Park. She was a Banneker/Key Scholar in undergrad and a Graduate Teaching Assistant in graduate school. During her time at Maryland, Delisha tutored students in the College Bound Program, mentored local high schoolers, planned and executed community service events, worked with survivors of sex trafficking, helped her students launch social entrepreneurship projects, and much more. Delisha is most proud of her master's capstone, which focused on providing various policy solutions to address the mental health crisis on Maryland’s campus. Due to her coursework on comparative racism/ethnocentrism domestically and in Asia, after obtaining her master's, Delisha moved to Taiwan and worked at Tunghai University. She taught over 300 students about diversity, equity, and inclusion using English as the vehicle. While applying to law school, Delisha worked at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law to understand mental health advocacy from a legal lens. As an adoptee, Delisha is also a strong advocate of adoption policy reform and making the adoption process child-centered to help fix the current system, which she believes is broken and inherently unethical. Delisha hopes to spend her time in law school examining racism and ethnocentrism, and their varied impacts on different areas of the legal system both domestically and abroad. She will also continue to advocate for better mental health policies at post-secondary institutions. Ms. Thompson’s strong passion for advocacy and mental health reform was inspired by her mother, who provided mental health services to Baltimore City children for more than 30 years.
Taylor Trimble
Taylor Trimble (she/her) is a Chicago native and recent graduate from Denison University, a liberal arts college hidden in Granville, Ohio where she graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Politics and Public Affairs. Throughout her undergraduate experience, Taylor committed her time in-and-out of college to racial equity, particularly educational equity. Specifically, Taylor was an active member of Denison University’s Black Student Union, creating and spearheading innovative programs dedicated to providing career preparation, professional development, and civic education to Black undergraduate students and other racially marginalized groups on-campus. Taylor’s efforts were often recognized by the University, resulting in awards such as the Denison Forward Excellence Award, the President’s Medal, the Distinguished Service Award, and the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Antiracism) Person of the Year Award. Outside of the University, Taylor has held several notable internships including a research internship with the Brookings Institution’s Race, Prosperity, and Inclusion Initiative, a seasonal internship with one of Chicago’s Cook County Commissioners, a legislative internship with Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland’s DC Office, and a policy internship with the Urban Institute’s Office of Policy Impact. Taylor’s interests for racial equity and educational equity run deep and she hopes to bring these passions to AUWCL, which she believes will equip her with the knowledge and tools necessary to better advance educational equity for racially marginalized groups both through law and public policy.