2021 Peggy Browning Fellows

2021 Peggy Browning Summer Fellows Nisha Krishnan JD’22 University of Pittsburgh School of Law Pittsburgh, PA Justice at Work Pittsburgh, PA As a daughter of hard-working immigrants, and a first-generation law student, Nisha has always been passionate about serving underrepresented communities.  She chose to go into law to address the various ways that minority status can intersect to create disparateoutcomes forpeopleof color.As anundergrad, Nisha was a psychology major and criminal justice minor.  Both disciplines taught her about systemic inequality in society and in institutions. In law school, Nisha took an employment discrimination course that impassioned her to the issues that employees face. She is currently a member of the University of Pittsburgh Law Review and is writing a note on how employer dress codes affect nonbinary employees. Nisha hopes to one day be a plaintiff-side employment lawyer and help employees with claims of discrimination in the workplace. Richard Kidney JD’22 University of Maryland School of Law Baltimore, MD Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) Washington, DC Before attending law school, Richard taught middle school humanities at IDEA, a charter school system in San Antonio, TX that predominantly serves low- income students of color. Lacking a union, Richard experienced the disparate power and influence employers can exert over their workers; how this power imbalance affects other systems of inequality; and the critical need to rebuild worker power in the United States. His teaching experiences compelled him to attend law school and become a union attorney. Richard is the current secretary of his school’s chapter of the National Lawyers’ Guild. He also serves as an editor for the Journal of Race Religion Gender and Class through which he has written about class conflict, neoliberalism, and the contradictions of professional- managerial-class ideology and governance. Wade Homer JD’23 Boston College Law School Newton, MA Make the Road New Jersey Elizabeth, NJ Wade got his start in politics volunteering for the Bernie Sanders Campaign in Iowa. He travelled with the campaign to five states, organizing and speaking with voters along the way who reinforced his belief in the need for system-wide change. After the campaign, Wade interned for, and was later hired by, the New Jersey State Senate Democratic Office staffing the Labor Committee. During that time, the committee passed legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, expand paid family leave, and hold employers liable for wage theft, all of which were signed into law. He witnessed the crucial role workers’ rights organizations and unions play in bringing about these changes. Wade hopes to establish a career working with these organizations to further workers’ and immigrants’ rights. Elydah Joyce JD’23 Temple University Beasley School of Law Philadelphia, PA Justice at Work Philadelphia, PA Elydah grew up in many locations between South America and Canada, with a front row seat to the difficulties of immigration and family separation. Her experiences of shifting between these two continents shaped her interest in helping the Latinx community, but her desire to return to the USA to pursue her goals was solidified by the growing tensions around immigration and incarceration. Many questions arose regarding access and equality that drove her to study and understand the complex systems of labor protection and employment law. After completing her Master of Arts at the University of British Columbia, Elydah once again moved across the continent to complete her education in Philadelphia and begin working towards the necessary changes needed in this country.