FLPC Welcomes Food Law and Policy Clinic 2022 Summer Interns

Gita Connolly

Gita is a second-year law student at the University of Wisconsin Law School in Madison. She is dedicated to advocating for the basic rights of migrants, refugees, LGBTQ+ people, and minority populations. She is passionate about equitable reforms surrounding food security, the immigration system, and land justice for minority farmers. Her prior work supported refugee populations and policy research addressing child welfare systems, youth homelessness, and the empowerment of racial minority students. She has a degree in Asian Studies from Cornell University with minors in International Relations and Inequality Studies. In her free time, she loves cooking global vegetarian dishes, collecting Japanese records, reading satire, and playing squash.

Max De Faria 

Max De Faria is a Master of Food and Agriculture Law and Policy student at Vermont Law School. At the law school, Max works as a Research Assistant for the Center on Agriculture and Food Systems in addition to their studies. Focusing on food justice through a systems lens, they earned their B.A. in Geography and Spanish with a minor in Political Science from Clark University in Worcester, MA. Prior to Vermont Law School, they served as an Emerson National Hunger Fellow with the Congressional Hunger Center, advocating for greater inclusion of people with lived experience in research, advocacy, and program implementation based on their own experience with childhood hunger and poverty. They have also worked on urban farms and organic farms domestically and internationally. In their free time, Max enjoys cooking, reading, and learning languages.

Elena Klonoski

Elena is a rising 2L at Boston University School of Law. She is passionate about building a more sustainable food system through the intersection of food and law. Before law school, Elena was the Local Food Program Manager for a Cambridge-based nonprofit, where she worked to promote local farmers and food producers through the Boston Local Food Festival, the Local Food & Specialty Crop Trade Show, the Buy Local MA Mobile App, and more. Elena also has experience in urban agriculture project development, installation, and management services in the metro-Atlanta area.

Asha McElroy 

Asha is currently pursuing an MPH in Nutritional Sciences with a concentration in Dietetics at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.  She became interested in food policy through her involvement in the Detroit Food Policy Council (DFPC) as the Youth At- Large Representative. Through her involvement on the council,  Asha gained firsthand experience in engaging community members with lived experiences in sharing their knowledge and input about opportunities to improve food access and nutrition in grocery stores within the City of Detroit. Asha earned a B.S. in Food and Nutritional Sciences with a concentration in Human Nutrition from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. She is an aspiring registered dietitian nutritionist looking to specialize in the design and implementation of culturally appropriate nutrition education programs while continuing to advocate for food policy that advances racial justice in underserved populations.

Jasmine Norris

Jasmine is currently pursuing her MPH in Nutrition with a focus on food policy at Harvard School of Public Health. She obtained her credential as a Registered Dietitian and, pursuing her love of community health and teaching children, worked in the public school system nutrition department. This experience prompted the decision to return to school for a master’s degree, seeing a great potential for food assistance programs to reach the population more broadly and deeply. Outside of school and work, Jasmine has volunteered as a local and state coordinator in California for the Ruhi Institute, a community program for spiritual education. She also enjoys art, culinary inventions, and Cuban dancing at social events whenever possible.

Gabrielle S. Stewart

Gabrielle is a rising 2L at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. A native Louisianian, she completed her undergraduate degree at Tulane University and became interested in food justice through her work coordinating programming for an urban farm in New Orleans. Prior to law school, Gabrielle served as a FoodCorps service member in two elementary schools in southwest Montana. There, she worked with stakeholders across the school and the wider community to design the school’s first garden program, and connect students to healthy food through cooking and nutrition lessons in the classroom. At Lewis & Clark, Gabrielle is a member of the Northwest Environmental Defense Center’s Clean Water and Food & Agriculture project groups. Through her work with NEDC, she is able to conduct research for ongoing litigation and contribute to official comments on pressing environmental policy issues in the Pacific Northwest.