Careers in Child Advocacy
- Trying to secure a post-graduate fellowship in child advocacy?
- Want to learn how to convert a fellowship into a long-term job in child advocacy?
- Have dreams of opening your own school?
- Hoping to do international children's work but don't know how to make that happen?
- Interested in children's issues and academia?
- Want to learn how to transition from a private sector job into child advocacy work?
Join the Child Advocacy Program (CAP) and the Bernard Koteen Office of Public Interest Advising (OPIA) for our first-ever joint job panel. Panelists will include leading attorneys in the areas of child welfare, education, and juvenile justice. The panel will be moderated by CAP Faculty Director Elizabeth Bartholet, with ample time for student questions. Following the panel will be a reception where students can meet individually with the guests.
Wed., Dec. 5th, 2007
7:00 – 8:00 PM, with a reception following
Pound Room 335
Harvard Law School
Panelists Include:
- Elissa Gelber '01, Staff Attorney, Children's Rights Inc. in New York City
Elissa Gelber (formerly Elissa Hendler) began her legal career as a law clerk in federal district court. Following her clerkship, she traveled to Hanoi, Vietnam on a Luce Fellowship doing child development work. After working for a large private New York law firm, where she was involved in numerous pro bono asylum and child welfare matters, she transitioned back to children's work full-time. She currently does impact litigation at the boutique non-profit law firm, Children's Rights Inc. in New York City.
- Anika Gzifa '05, Staff Attorney, The Children's Law Center in Washington DC
Recent graduate Anika Gzifa (formerly Anika Simmons) completed a Prettyman Juvenile Justice Fellowship at Georgetown Law this past summer and is now a staff attorney at the Children's Law Center in DC, where she is representing children in a variety of civil matters.
- Shani King '99, Assistant Professor and Associate Director, Center on Children and Families, University of Florida Levin College of Law in Gainesville
After working at private law firms, Shani King did direct service work as an attorney at Legal Services for Children in San Francisco, where he specialized on cases with intersecting immigration and child welfare issues, as well as school discipline cases. He then transitioned into academia and is now an Assistant Professor at the Univ. of Florida, where he serves as the Associate Director of their Center on Children and Families and teaches courses in family law and children's rights.
- Marina Volanakis '99, School Director, KIPP South Fulton Academy in Atlanta
Prior to law school, Marina Volanakis worked in the Mississippi Delta as part of the Teach for America program. After law school, she was awarded a Skadden Fellowship to do poverty law at the Atlanta Legal Aid Society. Then she transitioned back to education, founding and now serving as the School Director of KIPP South Fulton Academy, a charter middle school in Atlanta, Georgia.
RSVP:
Click here to RSVP to the event: <http://tinyurl.com/yve2ho>
Contact:
- To reach CAP, contact Jessica Budnitz at 617-496-1684 or jbudnitz@law.harvard.edu
- To reach OPIA, contact Alexa Shabecoff at 617-495-3108 or shabecof@law.harvard.edu
Audio of the Session:
- For an audio of the Job Panel, click here.