Meet Our Newest Steins

Puanani Brown ’28 holds an A.B. in environmental science and public policy from Harvard University and an M.A. in food studies from New York University. She has worked in Indigenous food sovereignty and environmental justice, most recently serving as a policy consultant for the First Nations Development Institute’s Native Farm to School Program and previously as director of operations and strategic relations at Real Food Generation.

Her undergraduate thesis on Native Hawaiian food sovereignty and water rights received Harvard’s 2018 Thesis Prize in Ethnicity, Migration, Rights, and her master’s thesis is published in the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. A former ballerina with American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet, Pua is delighted to be back at Lincoln Center for law school. As a Stein Scholar, she aims to pursue movement lawyering, impact litigation, and policy work that strengthens representation and advances Native rights.

Sarah Cohen ’28 graduated from Tufts University with a B.A. in English and environmental studies. As an undergraduate, she interned at the Global Center for Climate Justice, where she researched environmental policy, and founded Tufts’ hub of the Sunrise Movement to educate and mobilize students around climate justice. After college, Sarah moved to New York City, where she ran an educational internship program for high school students focused on the value of urban green spaces in Brooklyn and Queens.

She also directed a research project on climate change and wealth inequality with the Institute for Policy Studies and worked with policy experts to advance environmental legislation in New York State through a fellowship at an environmental nonprofit. Sarah looks forward to using her law degree to advocate for environmental justice, climate resilience, and a clean energy future.

Michael Deddo ’28 graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2016 with a B.S. in environmental engineering. He is a nine-year Army veteran serving as an Infantry Officer in the 82nd and 11th Airborne Divisions, in Georgia, North Carolina, Alaska, and Afghanistan.

He is a husband and father of two girls. He also earned a M.S. in global studies and international relations from Northeastern University in 2023. As a Stein Scholar, he hopes to continue his life of public service.

Audrey Grace ’28 graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 2025 with majors in French and francophone studies and political science. Her studies focused on structures of oppression and cultural responses to these structures. During her time at Bryn Mawr, she gained experience working in food service, led the Mock Trial Team, and completed an internship at Congress.

At Fordham, Audrey is excited to be a Stein Scholar and to learn how best to use the skills she learned from these experiences in her legal career. She is passionate about direct client services and hopes to be able to contribute to the legal field through a career in public defense.

Madelaine Jade Hall ’28 graduated from Pitzer College with a B.A. in history in 2024. Before Fordham, she interned at the Superior Court of Santa Clara County where she created applications for commutation and updated legal forms to employ gender-inclusive language.

At home in Santa Cruz, California, she volunteered at the Santa Cruz County Immigration Project and the Diversity Center. As a Stein Scholar, she hopes to explore housing equity while continuing to advocate for immigrants’ and LGBTQ+ rights.

Cheryl Hao ’28 was born and raised in Houston and Dallas, Texas. Cheryl spent the summer of 2021 interning as an investigator at Orleans Public Defenders, an experience that solidified her interest in public defense advocacy. In 2022, she graduated cum laude with a B.A. in sociology with honors and a minor in human rights from the University of Chicago.

She then moved to New York City and began working at Brooklyn Defender Services in the Family Defense Practice as a paralegal, where she worked for three years until starting at Fordham Law in the fall of 2025.

Jake Hardwick ’28 is from Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in professional music and a minor in music technology. Over the past five years, they served in the United States Marine Corps as both a trumpet instrumentalist and a paralegal, gaining experience in criminal defense, criminal prosecution, and administrative law. They recently commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, becoming the first participant in a newly-established Marine Corps law education initiative, the Enlisted to Judge Advocate Program.

Through their service, Jake developed a passion for public service and the importance of upholding the Constitution. As a Stein Scholar, they hope to make a meaningful impact on communities in need and to embody Fordham Law’s motto: “In the service of others.”

Malcolm Iyizoba ’28 graduated from Hampton University with a degree in political science before working in real estate, where he supported Section 8 tenants and saw firsthand the structural barriers low-income families face in securing stable housing, as well as the limits of existing safety-net programs. He later worked with the New York Immigration Coalition, assisting immigrant communities in navigating complex systems and accessing essential services.

These experiences shaped his commitment to housing justice and community-centered advocacy. As a Stein Scholar, Malcolm hopes to build on this work by defending tenants, advancing more equitable housing laws, and contributing to broader efforts to expand access to safe, affordable housing.

Adanya Jeudy ’28 graduated from Colgate University with honors in peace and conflict studies and educational studies. As a student, her interests focus on how carceral logics inform our everyday lives with specific attention to how they manifest in what we learn and how. Looking to push past the theoretical, post graduation, she worked in the Conviction Integrity Unit at the Queens District Attorney’s Office where she investigated wrongful conviction claims.

Meeting with incarcerated individuals, investigating their claims, and researching their cases imparted a deeper understanding of the criminal justice system’s mechanisms, harms, and complexities. She is excited to continue building on what she’s learned with her peers in the Stein Scholar Program.

Macken Keefe ’28 is a student of post-conflict peacebuilding. He graduated from Michigan State University in 2023 with a B.A. in political science. In East Lansing, Macken was part of an interdisciplinary research team that evaluated the news representation of drug users through the critical lenses of race and criminal justice. Macken’s interest in racial politics and inclusion led him to Trinity College Dublin, where he earned an MPhil in conflict resolution and reconciliation in 2024.

His dissertation analyzed how the power-sharing regime in Northern Ireland, which is strictly organized around ethnonationalism, has evolved in response to various peacebuilding obstacles since 1998. Connecting with grassroots peacebuilders in Northern Ireland inspired Macken to serve with City Year (AmeriCorps) for one year in Seattle, where he discovered the power of relationships in human rights work. Macken embraces the idea that meeting marginalized communities where they are, as a partner, is the only way that peacebuilding ideals can be sustainably implemented.

As a Stein Scholar, Macken is excited to discover peacebuilding tools that not only draw from theory, but also push it forward. Macken is from Lake Arrowhead, California.

Brooke Kessler ’28 graduated from Hamilton College with a B.A. in government and women’s and gender studies. After graduation, she built a career in progressive digital communications. Most recently, she served as digital director for Rep. Kelly Morrison, the first pro-choice OBGYN in Congress. Working alongside a physician-legislator deepened Brooke’s commitment to reproductive justice and shaped her approach to reproductive health advocacy. In this role, she led a digital communications program that used creator partnerships and new media tools to elevate the stories of people directly affected by policy.

Prior to this, Brooke worked on battleground House and Senate races, producing digital ads to inform voters and increase electoral participation. Her campaign work across the country showed her that she didn’t just want to communicate policy and legal decisions, but help shape them. Brooke hopes to use her law degree to advance reproductive justice, strengthen voting rights, and expand access to democratic participation at the state and local levels.

Emily Kramer ’28 graduated from Barnard College in 2021 with a B.A. in English literature and political science. After working as a corporate paralegal, she attended culinary school and cooked in Michelin-starred restaurants across Manhattan. There, she witnessed a culture that took advantage of individuals without the resources or opportunities to advocate for themselves.

Through her volunteer work with Edible Schoolyard NYC, she saw the impact hands-on cooking and nutrition education has on children, equipping them with practical skills that promote agency and confidence. Inspired by these experiences, Emily came to law school to challenge systems that perpetuate inequality. As a Stein Scholar, she hopes to explore her interests in child advocacy, juvenile defense, and education reform.

Samir Lavingia ’28 is a policy advocate and former software engineer leveraging his diverse background to address New York City's most critical systemic issues, including housing, transportation, and traffic violence. Prior to law school, he pushed advocacy efforts forward at Open New York, a policy-based non-profit dedicated to solving the dire housing crisis. His earlier career as a software engineer included improving Google Maps and developing products at Twitter to curb misinformation by leveraging community voices.

As a Stein Scholar, Samir is committed to transforming his policy and tech expertise into legal action, specifically aiming to use the law as a powerful tool to fix the systemic inequities confronting everyday New Yorkers.

Ava Levine ’28 graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2023 with a degree in international studies and economics. While in college, Ava worked with the Maryland Justice Project and Out for Justice to advocate for legislation that supports the needs of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals in Maryland.

She also led a project interviewing formerly incarcerated women in Baltimore to understand the gendered barriers women face in their re-entry journeys. After graduation, she was a paralegal at the Department of Justice in the Antitrust Division. As a Stein Scholar, Ava looks forward to learning about how the law can be used to advance change in the criminal legal system.

Nina Page ’28 is from Carrboro, North Carolina. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in political science and economics in May of 2025. She originally became interested in advocacy through the Orange County Teen Court Program, defending youth who had committed first-time misdemeanors in sentencing hearings.

She continued her advocacy work as a guardian ad litem, where she built a working relationship with a child-client whose family was involved in an abuse-neglect-dependency case, advocating for her best interests in and outside of the courtroom. Nina also has experience working on the Descendants Project at UNC, conducting genealogical research and interviewing families whose ancestors were lynching victims in North Carolina in connection with the “Norlina 16.”

With her law degree, Nina plans to continue working with underserved communities to improve their legal outcomes and their lives.

Preetica Pooni ’29 is a journalist, educator, and writer-activist whose work centers on storytelling and social advocacy. As a double-graduate of St. John’s University, she continues to draw on her background in postcolonial studies to examine how American civil rights have historically been shaped by impact litigation.

As a Stein Scholar, Preetica hopes to expand her interdisciplinary research interests in AI-driven repatriation, economic justice, and environmental policy.

Leah Rosner ’28 graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor's in industrial and labor relations and minors in inequality studies and law & society. After graduating, she worked in a special education law firm where she represented parents of children with disabilities. Leah enjoyed working directly with clients and seeing the transformative power of the law in their lives, which fueled her commitment to pursuing a career in the law.

As a Stein Scholar, she is excited to learn from practitioners and her peers about their work and gain more experience in client advocacy.

Natalie Reisman ’28 graduated magna cum laude from Vanderbilt University, where she majored in political science (specialty in American government) and medicine, health, and society (concentration in health policies and economies). Natalie also minored in history and served as the president of Vanderbilt Women in Government. During her undergraduate summers, she interned for U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and for the Domestic Violence Unit of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.

Before law school, Natalie managed a district attorney campaign and worked as a college counselor for Vietnamese international students. Natalie is from Queens, NY and is the proud daughter of two public servants, a New York City public school teacher and an FDNY firefighter. As a Stein Scholar, Natalie looks forward to working at the intersection of human/civil rights, impact litigation, public policy, and public health.

Masha Sidorevich ’28 is from Utica, NY. She majored in sociology as an undergraduate at SUNY Polytechnic Institute. Before coming to law school, Masha worked in refugee resettlement and immigration for about three years. Most recently, she worked with Afghans seeking asylum, green-cards, and other forms of immigration status in the U.S.

As a Stein scholar, she hopes to explore appellate advocacy for people who have received unfavorable outcomes in prior contacts with both criminal and civil justice systems.

Evan Sunshine ’28 graduated from Cornell University in 2023 with a B.S. in industrial and labor relations and a minor in public policy. During his time at Cornell, he performed research on labor economics, labor-management accountability, and nuances in union recognition by employers. Evan simultaneously worked as a Starbucks barista, and he organized every store in his city into Starbucks Workers United, a union that currently represents over 12,000 baristas.

As a leader in a primarily queer-led union, Evan acted as a facilitator for the Trans Rights Action Committee, an affinity group that promotes acceptance and respect for trans workers when anti-trans sentiment is on the rise. As a Stein Scholar, Evan hopes to further examine the relationship between labor law and civil rights law, and to identify how trans workers contribute to the intersectionality and diversity of the labor movement.

Murong (Patty) Yao ’28 graduated from University of California, Berkeley in 2023 with a degree in political economy and a minor in public policy. During her time at Berkeley, she interned for the county public defender’s office, advocated for restorative justice on campus, and covered criminal legal reform issues for a local publication.

After she graduated, she worked for two years as a social work coordinator directly supporting youth aged 18-24 experiencing homelessness in the Bay Area. As a Stein Scholar, she hopes to advocate for incarcerated and system-impacted people and explore ways to make systemic and structural changes to the criminal legal system.