Executive Board (2022-23)
Co-Presidents
Ariella Katz
Ariella is a third-year law student from Brookline, Massachusetts who hopes to use her skills to make our hurting world a little more gentle. During law school, she researched and drafted torture decisions at the European Court of Human Rights, helped write an amicus brief in Jam v. IFC, led an Advocates team in a submission to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, supported the Gambia’s genocide suit against Myanmar, and secured parole for a client with a life sentence. She is also an Articles Editor of the Harvard Law Review and an occasional poet. She is inspired, among others, by her mother, an activist in the Soviet freedom movement, and her great grandfather, a Gulag survivor and an unfailingly optimistic spirit.
Email: akatz@jd23.law.harvard.edu
Dane Underwood
Dane is a 3L from the Santa Ynez Valley, California. He joined Advocates as a 1L and has since led projects on climate justice before the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights and equitable energy transitions with South Africa civil society. He’s passionate about poverty, inequality, and the equitable distribution of the world’s resources. Dane is hoping to marry into wealth, but he’s preparing for a career in climate and environmental justice as a backup plan. When he’s not studying, Dane likes to spend time with friends, play the drums, and watch anime.
Email: dunderwood@jd23.law.harvard.edu
Vice-President & Treasurer
Madeleine Cavanagh
Madeleine is originally from Toronto, Canada and is a 3L at HLS. After graduating from Vassar College with a degree in Political Science, Madeleine worked as an educational consultant in Beijing, China, where she helped students in grades 9-11 develop their extracurricular activities and interests in preparation for international college and university admissions. Madeleine is passionate about international criminal law, and spent her 2L summer working with the Clooney Foundation for Justice’s Docket Initiative and with International IDEA. At HLS, Madeleine is also a Co-Editor in Chief of the Harvard Human Rights Journal. Outside of school, Madeleine loves running, baking, and crosswords!
Project Coordinator
Claire Beutter
Allison is a third-year J.D. student at Harvard Law School. She graduated from Bowdoin College with a B.A. in Government and Legal Studies and the Fletcher School at Tufts University with an M.A. in Law and Diplomacy. Prior to law school, she lived in Jordan, where she worked for a start-up e-commerce bookstore, a Middle East news agency, a humanitarian research consultancy, and a refugee resettlement legal aid organization. This summer, she worked on war crimes investigations as an intern with the Commission for International Justice and Accountability and on consumer protection with the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. At HLS, Allison is also a Co-President of the Law and International Development Society and works on the Harvard Human Rights Journal and the Harvard International Law Journal.
Programming Director
Avery Gerdes
Avery is a third-year law student at HLS from the Chicago area. He is interested in regulatory health and bioethics, LGBTQ+ rights, and right to health work internationally (as well as the intersection of these interests), and was a project leader for Advocates last year.
Communications Director
Zoe Shamis
Zoe Shamis is a 2L at HLS, originally from Burlington, Vermont. She studied international relations and Russian at Bowdoin College and prior to law school worked at the Manhattan DA’s Office investigating major economic crimes. This summer, Zoe interned at the Clooney Foundation for Justice, where she worked with their TrialWatch team on issues involving human rights abuses in criminal justice systems abroad. At HLS, Zoe is involved in the Harvard International Law Journal and is a research assistant for the Program on International Law and Armed Conflict.
Director of Activism
Deepika Singh
My name is Deepika and I’m a 2L this year at Harvard. I loved being on Advocates last year and I’m excited to take on a more prominent role this year! A little bit about me: I was born in India but have spent the majority of my life in Massachusetts. In my free time I enjoy reading nonfiction (though I tell people Im a fiction reader because that’s what I wish I was…), watching ducks at the pond, running at Castle Island, and petting my gentle giant of a dog. Below is a picture of us together (I’m the one in the HLS sweater, he’s the one enjoying his ears being scratched.) If you see me around campus, don’t be a stranger!
Director of Community Development and Trainings
Carolina Rabinowicz
Carolina is from Long Island, New York and is a 3L at HLS interested in counter-terrorism and human rights. After graduating from Columbia University in 2018 with a B.A. in English Literature, she worked at a New York law firm in their financial regulation practice. In her free time, Carolina enjoys rock climbing, biking around Cambridge, and making elaborate desserts. At HLS, she is active in La Alianza and was a Research Assistant for the Program on International Law and Armed Conflict during her 1L year.
Director of Alumni Outreach and External Relations
Hina Uddin
Hina Uddin is a 1L interested in transitional justice and law in conflict. She is a graduate of the University of Houston where she received a BBA in Finance. After graduating, Hina completed a Fulbright fellowship in India where she taught English at a grade school in Kolkata. Thereafter, she worked at a refugee resettlement agency in Houston where she connected refugees with vocational training opportunities to further their careers. Hina spent her 1L summer at Reprieve UK working on Death Penalty appeals in Pakistan, and at Global Diligence working on international human rights litigation. At Harvard Law School, Hina is an editor for the Harvard Law Review and a student attorney in the International Human Rights Clinic.
Project Leaders
Lloyd Lyall
Lloyd is a 2L from Vancouver, Canada. He earned a B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University in 2019 and a professional LL.M. in Canadian Common Law from the University of Toronto in 2021. Lloyd worked on a variety of development and post-conflict transition issues before coming to HLS and spent his 1L summer with Accountability Counsel in San Francisco working to address harm from internationally financed development projects. He is also involved with faculty research on campus and holds leadership positions with the Harvard International Law Journal and two affinity organizations for international students. In his spare time, Lloyd enjoys hiking and backcountry skiing.
Olivia den Dulk
Olivia is a 2L from Grand Rapids, Michigan who is interested in the intersection between environmental law and international human rights issues. After graduating from Calvin University with degrees in International Relations and Environmental Studies, she worked to reduce waste and promote recycling through producer responsibility at the Product Stewardship Institute. At HLS, Olivia is a board member of the Environmental Law Society, an editor for the Environmental Law Review, and a student attorney in the Immigration and Refugee Clinic. She spent her 1L summer at the Clean Air Task Force. In her free time, Olivia loves to run, hike, and do pottery.
Jake Soria
Jake is a 2L from Miami, Florida, and is interested in LGBTQ+ advocacy and human rights. He graduated from Tufts University with a degree in International Relations and Spanish Literature. After graduating, Jake worked as a Public Policy Fellow at AIDS United, a non-profit organization dedicated to advocacy for people living with and vulnerable to HIV. He spent his 1L summer working with the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania. At HLS, Jake is also involved in Lambda and La Alianza. He will be serving as a student attorney with the International Human Rights Clinic this fall.
Rebecca Gore
Rebecca Gore is an LLM Candidate at Harvard Law School from Johannesburg, South Africa. Before joining HLS, Rebecca was the legal researcher for the Inspecting Judge of the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (JICS), Justice Edwin Cameron and a law clerk at the Constitutional Court of South Africa. She has interned for The Presidency of the International Criminal Court in The Hague and various public interest organizations in South Africa, including the Legal Resources Centre and Sonke Gender Justice. Rebecca is a graduate of the University of Cape Town with a Bachelors of Laws (Cum Laude), Bachelors of Social Sciences (Hons) in Justice and Transformation (First Class), Bachelors of Social Sciences in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (with Distinction). While human rights are her passion, in her free time, Rebecca enjoys long-distance running and cuddling up with a captivating novel.
Amre Metwally
Amre is a 3L interested in the intersection of technology and human rights. Prior to law school, he worked and lived in Turkey on a Fulbright Scholarship, helped run an international human rights and education non-profit, and worked at YouTube as the Policy Manager for political extremism and graphic violence issues on the platform. In this role, Amre also led efforts to advocate for product and policy changes to better protect content uploaded by human rights actors from erroneous takedowns. At HLS Amre is involved with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, the Harvard Human Rights Journal, the Journal of Law and Technology, and the Middle Eastern Law Students Association. Outside of school, Amre spends much of his free time defending the glory that is Egyptian food to his fellow Arabs.
Ariella Katz
Ariella, a native Bostonian, is a 2L at HLS. She started Freedom Words, a Moscow-based creative writing and theater program for people transitioning to life after prison. With Freedom Words, Ariella published Does the Sun Have a Light Switch? A Literary-Criminal Almanac (Translit, 2018) and produced two collaboratively-written plays. Ariella spent her 1L summer at the European Court of Human Rights, researching and writing judgments on torture. At HLS, Ariella is involved in the Prison Legal Assistance Project, Harvard International Law Journal, and Harvard Human Rights Journal. She is also a Research Assistant in class action law. Ariella earned her B.A. at the University of Chicago where she studied the relationship between love and politics. She is a published poet.
Emma Svoboda
Emma is a 3L from the Boston area interested in human rights and foreign policy. She studied History and French at Northwestern University and prior to HLS worked for four years as a teacher, living in French Guiana, Kyrgyzstan, Macao, and Turkey. She spent her 1L summer in Armenia doing documentation work and her 2L summer at the State Department’s Office of the Legal Advisor and at the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights in Warsaw. At HLS she is on the Harvard Law Review, in the International Human Rights Clinic, and is a Research Assistant for the Program on International Law and Armed Conflict. Emma loves reading fiction, planning her future travels, and cooking.
Supervising Attorney
Beatrice Lindstrom
Beatrice Lindstrom is a Lecturer on Law and Clinical Instructor in the International Human Rights Clinic. Her work focuses on access to remedies for human rights violations, aid accountability, and Haiti. Prior to joining Harvard, Beatrice was Legal Director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, an organization that works in partnership with Haitian lawyers and activists to bring grassroots struggles for human rights to the international stage. For nearly a decade, she has led advocacy and litigation to hold the UN accountable for causing a devastating cholera epidemic in Haiti. She was lead counsel in Georges v. United Nations, a class actions lawsuit on behalf of those injured by cholera. Lindstrom was previously an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights, and a Haiti country expert for Freedom House. She has extensive experience advocating in the UN human rights system, lobbying governments, and speaking in the media.
