2008 Williams Institute Summer Fellow: Ajay
Kusnoor
Ajay Kusnoor
UCLA School of Law, Class of
2010
 Ajay
grew up in Beaumont, Texas, and attended Brown University
in Providence, Rhode Island. He graduated magna cum laude
with a degree in Modern Culture and Media in May 2005.
The year after graduation, Ajay had a Fulbright teaching
assistantship in Austria. From 2006-2007, he was an
AmeriCorps volunteer in Austin, Texas, and taught
after-school classes at an elementary school. Ajay is in
the Critical Race Studies program at UCLA, and I am an
OUTlaw co-chair and a Student Note Editor for JOSOGIL
during the 2008-2009 school year. This summer, Ajay will
be working with Thomas Deboe, the housing attorney at
HALSA (HIV and AIDS Legal Services Alliance) in Los
Angeles. HALSA assists clients with eviction defenses,
habitability issues, illegal rent increases, and other
issues arising from landlord-tenant disputes. As an
intern, he will conduct client interviews, research
housing law, and prepare in-house memos. Ajay is really
excited about having the opportunity to apply the
knowledge and skills he has gained during his first year
of law school, and looks forward to learning more about
the unique legal challenges faced by men and women with
HIV or AIDS.
2008 Williams
Institute Summer Fellow: Alessandro Ferrando
Alessandro Ferrando
UCLA School of Law, Class of 2010
 Alessandro
Ferrando is currently a student at UCLA School of Law.
Alessandro is involved with the school's OUTLaw chapter
as well as being a member of the Dukeminier Awards'
staff. For the 2008-09 academic year, he will also serve
as one of the co-chairmen of the HIV/AIDS Legal Services
Alliance Clinic. Alessandro graduated from the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A.
in International Studies. While at UNC, he was active
within the school's GLBT-SA and LGBTQ Center. He shared
receipt of the LGBTQ Center's first annual LGBTIQ
Advocacy Award in 2006.
During the summer of
2008, Alessandro will be working as an intern at Lambda
Legal in their Los Angeles office. Primarily, he
will be assisting attorneys at Lambda Legal with
investigation, research and drafting in ongoing cases,
prospective cases, and amicus curiae briefs, regarding
legal issues pertaining to sexual orientation, gender
identity, and HIV discrimination. He may also end
up researching, drafting, and editing publications on
these issues for public education, and will assist in
the maintenance and expansion of resources for Lambda's
national legal Help Desk.
2007 Williams Institute Summer Fellow: Shawn Kravich
Shawn Kravich
UCLA School of Law, Class of 2009
 Shawn
Kravich, a rising 2L at UCLA Law,
graduated with Honors from USC in 2006 with
B.A.'s in International Relations, Political Science, and
Art History. At UCLA, Shawn is in the Epstein Program for
Public Interest Law and Policy and the Critical Race Studies
program, and he is co-chair of HALSA, Business Editor for
the Dukeminier Awards journal, and Director of the
Sexual Orientation Moot Court Competition for 2008. His
past work related to sexual orientation includes founding
and directing a small non-profit focused on LGBT youth
peer-mentorship, emphasizing sexual health and pursuits
of higher education.
At the Williams Institute, Shawn will
be researching and writing about the fiscal impact of
marriage equality in various states.
2006 Williams Institute Summer Fellow: Shayla Myers
Shayla Myers
UCLA School of Law, Class of 2008
 This
summer Shayla Myers was a law clerk at the National Center
for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), a national non-profit legal
resource center dedicated to advancing the rights and safety
of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people and their
families. There she fielded calls on NCLR’s national
hotline providing resources and legal information to
individuals from around the country who had legal issues
related to their sexual orientation or gender identity. She
also had the chance to work on legal research related to
NCLR’s legal docket. Their docket includes ground-breaking
cases defending the rights of lesbian and gay parents,
fighting discrimination in college sports, and representing
same-sex couples in the California marriage case, Woo v.
California. In addition, she worked on an article for
the NCLR’s Immigration Project regarding the challenges
faced by lesbian asylum seekers in the United States.
Shayla Myers is
originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico. She graduated with
honors in Political Science from Kenyon College in 2002.
After graduation, she returned to Albuquerque and
coordinated the 24 hour hotline and advocacy program at the
Albuquerque Rape Crisis Center. At UCLA, Shayla is the
assistant articles editor of the Dukeminier Awards Journal
and staff member of the UCLA Law Review.
She is also co-coordinator of the HIV/AIDS Legal Services
student clinic at the law school and co-chair of OUTLaw.
Shayla is specializing in Public Interest Law and Policy and
Critical Race Studies.
2004
Williams Project Summer Fellow: Thomas Lepak
Thomas Lepak
UCLA School of Law, Class of 2006
 This
summer, Thomas Lepak will be working at the Los Angeles Gay
& Lesbian Center (a.ka. "the Center") to build
a legal aid program for victims of same-sex domestic
violence. Seeking help can be daunting for anyone involved
in domestic violence, but the process is all the more
difficult where same-sex violence is concerned.
At the Center, Thomas will not only assist people in
domestic violence situations, he will also educate public
safety, service and legal providers to improve their
responsiveness to violence between and against LGBT
people. Thomas says, "not only the courts, but
the LGBT community itself too often ignores the reality of
same-sex domestic violence. Your generosity makes it
possible to meet the needs of these most vulnerable members
of our community." His efforts will serve as a model
for LGBT centers nationwide to address the same-sex domestic
violence legal needs of the LGBT community.
Thomas grew up in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. While
an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin at Madison,
he worked as the LGBT Liaison for University Housing and the
Dean of Students Office. After college, Thomas moved to
Massachusetts to serve as an AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteer,
then became the Assistant Director of the Community
Outreach
Program at Amherst College. Upon his return to UCLA
School of Law in the fall, Thomas will serve as the Student
Notes Editor of the Dukeminier Awards Journal.
2004 Williams Project Summer Fellow: Rachel
"Duffy" Lorenz
Rachel Lorenz
UCLA School of Law, Class of 2006
 The
Williams Project also welcomes Rachel "Duffy"
Lorenz as a member of the fourth annual Williams Project
summer internship program. Rachel will be working at
the HIV/AIDS Legal Services Alliance (HALSA) before
returning to UCLA School of Law in the fall. Rachel
will assist LGBT members living with HIV-disease to
immigrate to the United States. Currently, persons
living with HIV must receive an HIV waiver from the federal
government to legally move to the United States.
At HALSA, Rachel will assist with intakes, maintain
contact with Citizenship and Immigration Services, and
research immigration issues. She will also work to
help those who have been persecuted due to their HIV/AIDS or
sexual orientation status. Finally, she will support
efforts to modify current immigration policy to allow those
with HIV to legally enter this country -- to visit or to
live -- without a waiver.
Rachel grew up in Grand Forks, North Dakota and graduated
with honors from the University of Chicago. She
majored in Latin American Studies. Rachel entered the UCLA
School of Law in Fall 2003 to pursue a career in public
policy
and legislative advocacy. This past year, Rachel
worked on the UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign
Affairs.
2003
Williams Project Summer Fellow: Ezekiel Webber
Ezekiel Webber
UCLA School of Law, Class of 2005
 "Thank you very much for funding my Summer Fellowship. This internship would not be possible without the Williams Project's support because the ACLU cannot pay its interns. The Summer Fellowship will allow me to work in the important and often under-supported area of LGBT law."
- Ezekiel Webber, Letter to the Williams Project 4/26/03
Ezekiel ("Zeke") Webber received a summer fellowship in 2003 to work with Martha
Matthews, Esq., at the ACLU of Southern California. An Eagle Scout
himself, Zeke worked on ACLU cases related to the Boy Scouts' denial of
membership to gay scouts during his summer fellowship. He also worked on a
lawsuit against a city that had refused to issue a permit for an LGBT Pride
parade and on issues related to promoting diversity education in public schools.
In March of 2004, Zeke spoke eloquently at a fundraising party in Long Beach
dedicated to raising money for upcoming summer fellowships.
Zeke grew up in San Diego, attended Dartmouth College, and worked for a year at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights in Philadelphia before coming to UCLA School of Law. He
was part of UCLA's Program in Public Interest Law and Policy and was interested
in public interest career after law school. Zeke also served as the Managing
Editor of the Dukeminier Awards
law journal for two years, putting in countless hours to publish the journal's
first three volumes. During the early months of 2004, Zeke and other students
worked to create a new annual moot court competition focused on sexual
orientation law issues.
Zeke passed away in early May 2004; a memorial fund has been created in Zeke's name to support further UCLA
law student work in his areas of interest. See
information about contributing to the Zeke Webber Memorial Fund.
2003 Williams Project Summer Fellow: Brigit Greerson-Alvarez
Brigit Greerson-Alvarez
UCLA School of Law, Class of 2004
 "CCR sends its heartfelt thanks for providing funding for Brigit to work here this summer. We are always scrambling for resources, and consequently have been unable to fund law student interns for several years. Due to the Project's generosity, we will be able to expand our fight against the hostile educational environment endured by lesbian and gay students."
Denise Reinhardt, Esq., Center for Constitutional Rights
Letter to the Williams Project, 5/01/03
Brigit Greerson-Alvarez received a summer fellowship to work at the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York City. During the summer
of 2003, she worked on developing a lawsuit challenging hostile educational
environments for lesbian and gay students. In many high schools, the
administration fosters a climate of harassment against these students by failing
to intervene when fellow students attack them and by failing to correct teachers
and staff who openly ridicule these students. Brigit worked on developing this
case and creating model court documents that could be used in other cases.
Brigit, UCLA School of Law Class of 2004, grew up in Astoria, New York and attended Columbia College. She has worked at the Peter Cicchino LGBT Youth Project this past year, and at the Audre
Lorde Project in New York City before coming to UCLA School of Law. Brigit is part of UCLA's Program in Public Interest Law and Policy and hopes to have a public interest career after she finishes law school.
2002 Williams Project Summer Fellow: Stephanie Plotin
Stephanie Plotin
UCLA School of Law, Class of 2003
 The first Williams Project Summer Fellowship was awarded
to Stephanie Plotin, UCLA School of Law Class of 2003, to work at the
Los Angeles Office of Lambda Legal Defense and Education
Fund during the summer of 2002.
"As
an intern at Lambda Legal Defense in LA, I conducted legal
research for attorneys, compiled information regarding gay
youth in California for the "Safe Schools" coalition, and
staffed the Help Desk, providing information to callers.
Near the end of the summer, I was fortunate to work closely
with a Lambda attorney on a case involving a temporary
guardianship petition. As part of my work on this case, I
interviewed the client and drafted court documents. At the
hearing, the petition was granted, enabling a surviving
domestic partner to be re-united with the child she had
raised from birth! I feel very lucky to have spent my summer
in such a supportive and challenging work environment. It
wouldn't have been possible without the fellowship I
received from the Williams Project."
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