People

Kamille (she/her) is a 3L from West Hartford, CT. She received her B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Tufts University. Kamille has been a member of Harvard Defenders since her 1L Fall and has previously been a Team Leader and Community Director. 

During her 1L summer, Kamille interned in the Capital Habeas Unit in the Federal Community Defender Office- EDPA working on death penalty litigation. In her 2L summer, Kamille worked in civil litigation ranging from election law disputed to representing plaintiffs in antitrust claims at law firms in DC and Houston. At HLS, Kamille has been a part of the Crimmigration Clinic, the Election Law Clinic, and is a part of the Criminal Justice Institute this year. Kamille is also a member of the Black Law Students Association and the Caribbean Law Student Association.

Defenders is Kamille’s favorite community on campus. She is so excited and honored to lead this organization this year. 

Bridget Pranzatelli 

Bridget Pranzatelli (she/hers) is a 3L from the Washington, D.C. area. She has been a member of Harvard Defenders since Fall of her 1L year, previously holding positions as a Team Leader and Intake Director.

Before law school, Bridget worked at the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition, where she provided legal services to people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention. The vast majority of detained immigrants go through immigration court pro se (without an attorney). Bridget was able to coach them through that process.

Bridget’s favorite things about law school are Harvard Defenders and the Crimmigration clinic, where she supports people contending with cascading immigration consequences of racist criminal convictions. She believes that we can (and will!) build safe, accountable, loving communities without police or prisons.

Alexia (she/her) is a 2L from Montgomery County, MD. Before law school she graduated from Arizona State University, receiving her B.S.E in Mechanical Engineering and a B.A. Political Science. Alexia has been a member of Harvard Defenders since her 1L fall. During her 1L summer, Alexia interned at Public Defenders Services in DC in their Civil Legal Services Division. This year Alexia is a part of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. Alexia is also on the board of the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Journal, and is a member of the Black Law Students Association.

Mikaela Rabb

Mikaela Rabb (she/her) is a 2L from Nashville, TN. She received her B.A. in Ethnicity, Race, & Migration and Global Affairs from Yale University. Before law school, she worked at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab on research and policy to alleviate poverty, with a focus on gender equality and financial inclusion in low- and middle-income countries. She also spent a year in Beijing, China as a Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University, where she received a M.A. in Global Affairs. In addition to Harvard Defenders, she is involved with the Harvard Journal of Law & Gender and member of the Black Law Students Association. She is excited to build and support a committed and close-knit group among Defenders as Community Director.

Taylor King (she/her/hers) is a 2L from Tulsa, Oklahoma. She graduated from the University of Michigan in 2020 with a BA in Political Science. Between undergrad and law school, Taylor worked at the Brennan Center for Justice on their justice policy team.

Taylor has over ten years of experience working at the intersection of community violence and criminal justice. She most recently spent her 1L summer at Still She Rises, a holistic defense organization working with indigent mothers in the Tulsa area.

Sean Wynn

Sean Wynn is a 2L at Harvard Law School from Norman, OK. After graduating magna cum laude from Jackson State University he moved to Los Angeles where he worked in entertainment. He has been involved in multiple initiatives to increase diverse representation throughout the entertainment industry. On campus Sean is involved with Harvard BLSA and the West Coast Club. This summer

Marian Gardner 

Marian (she/her) is a 2L who was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and grew up in Scarborough, Maine. Before law school, she worked as a paralegal with the Civil Justice unit at Brooklyn Defender Services for three years. During her time there, she worked on judicial sealing of eligible criminal convictions, which inspired her to join Harvard Defenders’ CORI working group and run for the CORI director position. During her 1L summer, Marian worked at Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County, where she assisted clients with expungement petitions and employment denials and discrimination cases. She received her B.A. in International and Global Policy and Health Policy from Brandeis University.  

Wesley Neal

Wesley is a 2L from Corvallis, Oregon. He received his B.A. in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020, where he concentrated in LGBT Studies. While at Penn he was an intern in the Homeownership Unit of Community Legal Services, where he worked to prevent the sale of homes due to tax foreclosure. During his 1L summer, he clerked at Orleans Public Defenders. This year Wesley is part of the Crimmigration Clinic.

Christine Tamir (she/her) is a 2L from the Washington DC area. She received her B.A. in Political Economy and Public Health from Williams College in 2018 and was as a researcher at Pew Research Center in Washington D.C. for four years before starting law school. Her work focused on the racial and ethnic diversity of the U.S., with a focus on the Black and Hispanic U.S. populations.

At HLS, Christine has been part of Defenders since 1L fall. During her 1L summer, she worked at a law firm and the DC Federal Public Defender office.  This year, Christine is part of the Crimmigration clinic, the Black Law Students Association (as a co-leader of the Academic Affairs Committee), and the African Law Students Association.

She is excited to train incoming Defenders and provide ongoing support as they take on cases and represent our clients.

Jacqueline Rayfield 

Jacqueline Rayfield (she/her) is a 2L from the suburbs of Seattle, Washington. She received her B.A. in International Relations from Boston University and was a labor and workforce policy researcher at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. for two years. Jacqueline joined Defenders during her 1L fall. Her 1L summer, she worked at Unite Here Local 11, a service workers’ union in California and Arizona. She is looking forward to welcoming a new class of Defenders and training them to advocate for their clients.

Jamari Stanton

Jamari Stanton is a 2L at Harvard Law School. A Raleigh, North Carolina native, he graduated Magna Cum Laude from Morehouse College where he double majored in political science and economics. He has previously interned at Gideon’s Promise, and Fortress Investment Group, and worked as a research assistant at Harvard Business School and MIT: Sloan School of Management. He spent his 1L summer working with the Michigan Justice Fund as a Summer Fellow and interning at the New England Innocence Project. He is the Outreach Director of Harvard Defenders and is on the Harvard Business Law Review.

Kennedy Mackey

Kennedy Mackey is a 2L at Harvard Law School. Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Kennedy graduated magna cum laude from Spelman College, where she majored in Political Science and minored in Philosophy. With a passion for activism and advocacy, Kennedy has relentlessly made it her life goal to use her voice to assist in the collective pursuit of social justice.  Kennedy has interned with several organizations that align with her dedication, including Student Freedom Initiative and IMPACT Strategies. At HLS, Kennedy is a proud member of Harvard Black Law Students Association and Harvard Defenders. As an Outreach Director for Defenders, Kennedy looks forward to furthering the organization’s mission through continued growth and increased community involvement.

Nathan Poland (he/him) is a 2L from Rockville, MD. He received his B.A. in African American Studies from Princeton University in 2020. Prior to law school, Nathan was the Project Manager of Civil Rights Corps’s Policing Abuse Litigation Projects in Washington, D.C. and Houston, TX. During his 1L summer, Nathan worked at the Promise of Justice Initiative in New Orleans, LA. He is also a member of the Harvard Black Law Student Association, and a Resident Tutor at Winthrop House. As Strategic Partnership Director, he is looking forward to finding ways to align Defenders, internally and externally, with anti-carceral movements in Greater Boston, providing resources and referrals to local community members, and beyond.

Déborah Aléxis

Déborah Aléxis (she/her) is a 2L from West Palm Beach Florida. She received her B.S. in Sociology with minors in French and Africana Studies from Brigham Young University in 2020 and worked for the Department of Elder affairs for the State of Florida and as a poll worker before starting law school.At HLS, Déborah joined Defenders in Spring of 2023. During her 1L summer, she worked at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia.  This year, Déborah is part of the Election Law clinic and the Equal Democracy Project.

She has been loving heading the Litman program with her co-director and looks forward to organizing the symposium for the fall and hope anyone reading this attends

Apoorva Dixit

Apoorva (she / her) is a 3L born in Bhopal, India and raised in Memphis, TN. Apoorva studied Anthropology at Dartmouth College; after graduation, she conducted an ethnography on the collective memory of the worst industrial disaster in the world back in her birth town of Bhopal on a Fulbright. She recently turned that research into a podcast called They Knew Which Way to Run. Defenders was the first organization Apoorva joined as a transfer her 2L fall after a summer working at the public defenders’ office in Boston. She’s a part of the Institute to End Mass Incarceration clinic on campus, and she externs with a criminal legal nonprofit in her hometown of Memphis called Just City that is leading bail reform efforts. Apoorva is excited about supporting the Litmans this summer and highlighting the work Defenders’ does in this year’s Litman Symposium.

Allie Ryave

Allie Ryave (she/her) is a 2L originally from Pittsburgh, PA. She attended Penn State University where she earned her B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies and in Global and International Studies. She then worked in Montana Children’s Special Health Services as an Americorps VISTA, where she engaged in capacity building initiatives such as parent education, therapy provider training, and resource mapping throughout the state. She has also worked in research studying evidence-based policymaking and researcher-policymaker interactions.

For her 1L summer, Allie interned with the Advancement Project, supporting racial justice movement lawyering focused on policing, education, and elections.

John Salsberg, ESQ.

Since 1980, Attorney John Salsberg has been the clinical instructor at Harvard Defenders.  John is an experienced trial lawyer, focusing on state and federal criminal litigation and academic discipline cases. His legal career started at the Public Defender office in Boston, until he went into private practice. He was also a part time faculty member at Boston College Law School.

John was a founding member and chair of Suffolk Lawyers for Justice, a not-for-profit organization coordinating the provision of private assigned counsel to indigent criminal defendants charged with offenses in the Suffolk County Superior and District Courts. He was a Board Member, and then Chair, of the Criminal Justice Act Board, which is responsible for managing the selection and performance of private attorneys who take appointments in the First Circuit. John is experienced in handling high profile murder cases and has taught at continuing legal education seminars and authored articles in the area of criminal defense practice.

In 1998, John received the Edward J. Duggan Award for “zealous advocacy and outstanding legal services to the poor” from the Committee for Public Counsel Services, and has been recognized by the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the National Lawyers Guild for his work as a criminal defense attorney.

Sama joined Harvard Defenders in 2021. Prior to working at Harvard Defenders, Sama worked at Harvard Medical School as an Events and Logistics Administrator.  After two years, Sama joined the Alumni Center at Harvard Law School.

Sama earned her Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Keele University in the United Kingdom. She earned her Master of Arts in Organizational Behavior from Murray State University and Master of Liberal Arts in Management from Harvard Extension School.

Sama is passionate about diversity and inclusion. She is the founder of the first HLS Staff Cultural Festival. She served as an advisory committee member on the HLS Dean’s Award for Excellence and Harvard Heroes. Sama is also the recipient of 2023 Suzanne L. Richardson Staff Appreciation Award which is given each year to a staff member who demonstrates commitment to the student experience and concern for students’ lives and work.

Sama is very committed to working with our General Board to help serve our clients effectively, while also supporting all members of Harvard Defenders.