Glazer Scholarship Recipients

• Terry Allen '23

  In addition to being a first-year law student, Allen is also a Ph.D. candidate in Education at UCLA. He has earned a bachelor’s degree in Rhetoric from UC Berkeley and a master’s degree in Education Policy from Columbia University. He is also a recipient of the Ford Foundation Fellowship and the Gates Millennium Scholarship. Upon graduating from UC Berkley, Allen interned for the White House and subsequently served President Barack Obama as an advanced associate. Since then, he has worked in various research and policy capacities dedicated to reshaping the United States’ criminal justice system. He is concerned with the structural features of the criminal justice system and the ways in which the U.S. political economy constrains already marginalized communities, particularly historically marginalized youth. Allen’s goal is to become a legal academic in areas of policing, education policy, juvenile and criminal justice administration, and civil rights.

• Amber Dean '23

  After earning her bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Vassar College, Dean worked as a paralegal at Root and Rebound, a legal reentry nonprofit in Oakland, CA. Among many of her duties in this capacity, she facilitated statewide record cleaning clinics and prescreened calls for legal reentry hotlines. Dean is passionate about and dedicated to ensuring that formerly and currently incarcerated people have access to the legal recourses. Her goal is to help people navigating the criminal justice system work through the structural barriers they may encounter. This includes issues relating to family reunification, record cleaning, occupational licensing barriers, and more. Dean plans to pursue a career in civil rights law or employment discrimination law.

• Nicole Powell '23

  Powell was born and raised in Los Angeles. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Loyola Marymount University (“LMU”), where she majored in Communication Studies and Journalism. For her work in establishing Harambe, a program modeled after freedom schools which provides college preparation and political education to high school students, and her collaborative efforts in coordinating an “Alternative Spring Break” trip on Anti-Racism, Powell was awarded LMU’s Marian Award. This is the highest service and leadership award conferred at LMU. Upon graduating, Powell moved on to Harvard Divinity School to pursue African-American religion studies. There, she continued her efforts to bring people together through community building. Powell oversaw the Prison Education Project, served as co-founder of the Harvard Low-Income Student Advocates, and established Harvard’s first-ever community food pantry. After graduating, she served as Assistant Deputy for Homeless Advocacy for Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas.

• Hope Bentley '22

  Hope Bentley earned her bachelor's degree summa cum laude from Texas Christian University, where she majored in psychology and minored in criminal justice and comparative race and ethnic studies. While at TCU, Bentley was a member of the campus Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee and Director of Diversity and Inclusion for the Student Government Association. She founded the Justice Coalition, a student-led organization that advocated for greater diversity among faculty and for a diversity requirement in the university's core curriculum. During her undergraduate years, she also interned with the Midwest Innocence Project and with a nonprofit law firm helping families of people convicted of drug-related charges. She aspires to work in the criminal justice arena in Los Angeles, either in criminal defense or with an organization focused on the effects of mass incarceration.

• Kennedy Willis '22

  Kennedy Willis is a Los Angeles native. She earned her bachelor's degree from St. Catherine University in Minnesota, where she majored in political science and critical studies of race and ethnicity; and a master's degree in cultural anthropology from Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York, where she served as a student representative on the admissions and departmental elections committees. While in school and in between her undergraduate and master’s programs, Willis worked as a data analyst, coordinator and manager at organizations addressing fair housing, women’s health, access to mental health resources, education and environmental justice. She hopes to work in L.A. as an advocate for improving access, opportunity and outcomes for African American and other historically underrepresented communities. She also has interests in data security, government ethics, labor and environmental regulation and election law.