Meet Our 2019 Summer Interns and Fellow

Our summer interns and fellow have arrived and are hard at work assisting BPI program staff in projects related to justice reform, housing, and early childhood education. We’re excited to have them with us for the summer!

Kristen Gagalis: Legal Intern

Kristen is a rising 2L at the University of Chicago Law School where she is a Rubenstein Scholar, member of the Public Interest Law Society, and participant in the Federal Bond Court Watching Project. She graduated magna cum laude from Rice University where she earned a B.A. in Sociology and minored in Poverty, Justice, and Human Capabilities.

Following college, Kristen worked for six years as an educator: first as a middle school Civics and World History teacher through Teach for America in Miami, then as a feeder pattern manager with KIPP Houston Public Schools and a founding 6th grade social studies teacher at YES Prep Southside in Houston.

Fun fact: Kristen has a dog named Riggins who was named after the TV show Friday Night Lights. Her students in Texas loved him so much that they made Riggins his own Instagram account.

Danny Ivanov: Legal Intern

Danny is a rising 3L at George Washington University Law School. He graduated with Bachelors Degrees in Economics, Political Science, and History from the University of Miami. During college, he worked as a Field Organizer for the Charlie Crist Gubernatorial Campaign and Tom Cullerton for Illinois State Senate Campaign, and also served as an intern for the Tenth Congressional District Democrats.

After graduating from college, he served as a Political Department Intern for the Democratic National Committee. During his 1L summer, he served as a law clerk at Project Daylight where he worked on issues ranging from economic security to land conservation.

Fun fact: Danny was a student assistant for the University of Miami basketball program for 3 years.

Fatoumata Magassa: Undergraduate Intern

Fatou is a rising junior at the University of Chicago where she is working towards a Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy and serves as Coordinator of the Politics and Identity Program, which plans and leads community conversation as an avenue for UChicago students to engage in discussions regarding the intersection of politics and identity, defined broadly around race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender identity, among many other personal identities.

She grew up in Harlem where she was a member of the Harlem Youth Court—a peer mentorship effort by the local community to address the issue of youth incarceration. Fatou volunteered for LegUP Woodlawn, where she coached and mentored high school students, as well as Chicago HOPES for Kids, where she developed programming for children in homeless shelters. She currently volunteers with the Cook County Jail Writing Workshop Program where she provides feedback on writing projects to individuals who are incarcerated.

Fun fact: Fatou loves to dance and created an Afro Dance group on campus called Femme D’Afrique. They’ve performed every spring for the past two years at UChicago’s African Caribbean Student Association Culture Show

Ciara O’Muircheartaigh: Undergraduate Intern

Ciara O’Muircheartaigh is a rising senior at Barnard College of Columbia University, where she is studying Political Science with a minor in Statistics. She is also a member of Barnard’s Athena Scholars Program, which is designed to train Barnard students in leadership skills through academic and other curriculum requirements. Ciara is the Editor-in-Chief of the Columbia University Journal of Politics & Society, which publishes original undergraduate research from colleges and universities across the U.S. and internationally.

Before moving to New York for college, she grew up in Hyde Park on Chicago’s South Side, where she volunteered as a tutor with the High Jump program throughout high school. Most recently in the summer of 2018, Ciara interned with Organizing for Action (OFA) in the buildup to the 2018 midterm elections.  

Fun fact: Ciara speak Irish!

Reine Rambert: Policy Intern

Reine is entering her second year of the Master of Public Policy program at Harvard Kennedy School where she was selected for the inaugural cohort of the Harvard Climate Leaders Program, an interdisciplinary training program for students across Harvard’s professional schools. She is also a member of Harvard’s Black Student Union and is serving as the Director of Content Strategy for the 16th Annual Black Policy Conference.

After earning a B.A. in Government from Georgetown University, she worked at Deloitte Consulting LLP for three years serving federal clients in transportation, public health, and clean energy/sustainability. Prior to Deloitte, she interned at the United States Green Building Council, U.S. Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division, and the Georgetown University Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching, and Learning.

Fun fact: Reine has flown a plane but does not know how to drive.

Adrienne Tarver: PILI Fellow 

Adrienne Tarver graduated from Columbia Law School in May 2019. She was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, a member of the Columbia Law Review, and served as Academic Chair of the Black Law Students Association. During law school, Adrienne was actively involved with Columbia’s Incarceration and the Family Clinic, teaching family law classes at a maximum security women’s prison in upstate New York and working with individual clients to seal felony records.

Adrienne received her B.A. in Economics and African American Studies from Yale University where she completed a thesis on urban redevelopment. After graduating from law school and serving as a PILI Fellow at BPI, Adrienne will be an associate at Sidley Austin in Chicago and will clerk with the Honorable Amy St. Eve of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the Honorable Robert Dow of the Northern District of Illinois.

Fun fact: Adrienne was captain of the Yale Women’s lacrosse team while in college.