People

Directors

Douglas Kysar

Faculty Director

Doug Kysar is Faculty Director of the Law, Environment & Animals Program and Joseph M. Field ’55 Professor of Law at Yale Law School. He was born and raised in Indiana. Under his mother’s guidance, he developed a love of reading and a love of the more-than-human world. Kysar later studied at Indiana University, where his two loves developed further with guidance from the great nature writer and teacher Scott Russell Sanders. After law school, Kysar began teaching at Cornell Law School and moved to Yale in 2008. Kysar’s work studies the way society utilizes laws and regulations to prevent, manage, and respond to threats of harm to life. He has had a particular focus on climate change law and policy for several years now because climate change will bring harm to life on an almost unimaginable scale.

Full Biography

Viveca Morris

Executive Director

Viveca Morris is the Executive Director of the Law, Environment & Animals Program at Yale Law School, a Research Scholar at Yale Law School, and a Clinical Lecturer in Law. She founded LEAP in partnership with Faculty Co-Directors Doug Kysar and Jonathan Lovvorn in 2019. Her research investigates the impacts of big business on the environment and animals, including the role of multinational agribusinesses in the climate crisis, strategies to hold agribusinesses and associated actors accountable for their environmental impacts and externalized costs, and policy reforms needed to make agriculture more sustainable, humane, and resilient. She co-hosts and co-produces the Yale University podcast "When We Talk About Animals," which features in-depth interviews with leading thinkers on the big questions animals raise about what it means to be human. Morris received B.A., M.E.M. (Master of Environmental Management), and M.B.A. degrees from Yale University. Her writing on business and the environment has been published by The Los Angeles Times, The Hill, Politico, and other publications.

Full Biography

Daina Bray

Legal Director

Daina Bray is the Legal Director of the Law, Environment & Animals Program at Yale Law School and is a Clinical Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar in Law. Daina has extensive animal law and litigation practice experience, and a sustained and pragmatic commitment to making a positive difference in the ways that we interact with non-human animals. Daina has led LEAP’s climate change and animal agriculture litigation work since 2021. She previously served as general counsel of the nonprofits Mercy for Animals and the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and practiced with major international law firms in the areas of litigation and international arbitration. Daina is a past chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) TIPS Animal Law Committee, the ABA International Animal Law Committee, and the Tennessee Bar Association Animal Law Section. Daina received a JD from Stanford Law School, a BA in international studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Morehead scholar, a Fulbright scholarship for research in environmental education, and the 2021 ABA Excellence in the Advancement of Animal Law Award.

Full Biography

Faculty, Fellows & Staff

Laurie Sellars

Postgraduate Fellow

Laurie is the Postgraduate Fellow with the Law, Environment & Animals Program at Yale Law School and an Associate Research Scholar at Yale Law School. Her research seeks to understand how anthropogenic activities - particularly food systems - affect and exploit nonhuman animals, particularly marine wildlife and maricultured animals. Before joining LEAP, Laurie received an M.A. in Animal Studies from New York University, where she researched the representation of sharks in tourism activities, the ethics of xenotransplantation, and how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted nonhuman animals. Prior to graduate school, Laurie worked as an analyst at an economic consulting firm, The Brattle Group, which provides expert economic testimony in litigation. She graduated from Swarthmore College in 2015 with a degree in economics and political science.

Laura Fox

Climate Change & Animal Agriculture Litigation Fellow

Laura Fox is a Litigation Fellow focusing on climate and animal agriculture and a Research Scholar at Yale Law School. Laura has a robust background in litigating and teaching, with a focus on advancing farmed animal interests and challenging the environmental, social, and public health impacts of industrial animal agriculture. Prior to her current roles, she most recently was a Visiting Professor and the inaugural Director of the Farmed Animal Advocacy Clinic at Vermont Law and Graduate School. She previously worked as a Senior Staff Attorney at the Humane Society of the United States and as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Animal Law and Policy Program. Laura has taught law and philosophy courses at George Mason University’s school of law, Vermont Law and Graduate School, Northern Virginia Community College, and Southern New Hampshire University. She received a J.D. and Master of Environmental Law and Policy from Vermont Law School and a master’s and BA in philosophy from George Mason University, which recently recognized her as a distinguished alumnus for her leadership, research, service, and contributions in the field of philosophy.

Caroline Zhang

Climate Change and Animal Agriculture Litigation Fellow

Caroline Zhang is a Litigation Fellow focusing on climate and animal agriculture. She is originally from Carmel, Indiana. Prior to joining LEAP, she worked at the Internal Revenue Service Office of Chief Counsel and interned with the U.S. Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division and the Washington State Office of the Attorney General Environmental Protection Division. Caroline received a JD from Stanford Law School, where she was involved in the Environmental Law Clinic.

Jonathan Lovvorn

Jonathan Lovvorn co-founded LEAP and served as its faculty co-director from 2019-2024. He is Chief Counsel for Animal Protection Litigation for the Humane Society of the United States and serves as a board member and/or legal advisor to numerous animal and environmental protection organizations. As a frequent lecturer at Yale, Lovvorn has taught courses such as Animal Law, Climate Change and Animals, and an innovative experiential course he devised called the Climate, Animal, Food, and Environmental Law & Policy Lab, which provides a creative space for students, faculty, outside experts, and non-governmental organizations to devise and propagate novel legal and policy strategies to compel industrial animal agriculture to pay the uncounted and externalized costs these operations saddle upon animals, workers, communities, and the environment. Lovvorn holds an L.L.M. in Environmental Law from Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College and a J.D. from University of California Hastings College of the Law.

Jennifer Skene

Co-Host, When We Talk About Animals

Jennifer Skene is a Clinical Lecturer in Law with the Environmental Protection Clinic at Yale and the Natural Climate Solutions Policy Manager with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) Canada Project. Her work focuses on policy advocacy around primary forest protection in the Canadian boreal and other Northern forests, forest carbon accounting and regulation, and Indigenous rights. Jennifer co-hosts the Yale University podcast “When We Talk About Animals,” through which she explores with guests the astonishing non-human world and the reflections, lessons, and insights it provides on our own humanity. She received a J.D. from Yale Law School in 2014 and holds a B.S. in Communication from Northwestern University.

2024-2025 LEAP Student Fellows

Rebecca Araten

J.D. 2026

Rebecca Araten is a second-year law student interested in using environmental litigation as a tool to prevent climate change and pollution. She spent her summer working on affirmative environmental enforcement cases with the Environmental Protection Unit at the Southern District of New York US Attorney’s Office and has done enforcement research for the Chesapeake Legal Alliance. She is currently exploring policy approaches to climate accountability as a member of the YLS Environmental Protection Clinic.

Terra Baer

J.D. 2026

Terra is a J.D. candidate at Yale Law School. She received B.A. degrees in Environmental and Urban Studies and Law, Letters, and Society from the University of Chicago, where she produced scholarship analyzing the feasibility of criminalizing ecocide as the fifth core crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Prior to law school, Terra worked in legal academia researching extractive energy market regulation and design. As a LEAP Fellow, she hopes to further explore her interests in ecocentric legal frameworks, animal rights, and environmental ethics in the context of global governance.

Liz Beling

J.D. 2026

Liz Beling is a 2L at Yale Law School from Charlottesville, Virginia. She is a graduate of Emory University, where she worked on the Oxford College Organic Farm and studied sociology. Before law school, she worked at the Rappahannock-Rapidan Regional Commission where she served school divisions in a five-county region on expanding farm to school programming and local food procurement. At YLS, she is involved in the Yale Environmental Law Association and the Climate Change and Animal Agriculture Litigation Initiative.

Diarmuid Cassidy

M.P.P. (Global Affairs) 2025

Diarmuid hopes to reduce the suffering and generally improve the lives of non-human animals, with a particular focus on farmed animals. He plans to use his time as a LEAP Fellow to advocate for improvements in farm animal welfare policy, targeting both policy professionals and a wider public audience. Diarmuid is a second-year Master of Public Policy student at Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs. Prior to Yale, Diarmuid trained and practiced as a medical doctor and subsequently worked as a management consultant and philanthropic researcher focused on global public health. After graduating from Yale, he plans to work in politics and foreign policy in Ireland and the EU, where (among other things) he will continue to advocate for improvements in the lives of non-human animals.

Ilaria Cimadori

Ph.D. 2027

Ilaria is a fourth-year Ph.D. student at the Yale School of the Environment. Her interest in animal protection motivated her master's thesis research project. In particular, she carried out a policy effectiveness assessment of four prominent conventions protecting biodiversity with African Elephants as a case study, analyzing data on African Elephants in four countries to see how effective these conventions were at protecting the population over the years. During her Ph.D., she would like to focus her research on new bio-technologies regulations and how they may impact animals and the environment. During her free time, she volunteers at the animal shelter of her hometown. She also has a background in languages and international relations.

Pranjal Drall

J.D. 2026

Pranjal is a J.D. candidate at Yale Law School. His primary research interests are in the fields of environmental law, corporate governance, and bankruptcy. Before starting law school, he was a pre-doctoral fellow at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), where he analyzed the relationships between misallocation of resources, firm learning, and lease terms on productivity in the U.S. fracking industry. Prior to joining EPIC, he was a Tobin pre-doctoral fellow at YLS and focused on retirement menu design, gun policy, and racial discrimination in a variety of contexts. He graduated from Grinnell College in 2020 with a B.A. in Economics and Mathematics.

Grace Engelman

J.D. 2025

Grace is a third-year J.D. candidate. Prior to law school, she worked for a holistic public defense organization in New York City and assisted clients with the civil legal issues that resulted from their contact with the criminal legal and family regulatory systems. She received her B.A. in philosophy from Brown, where she studied alternatives to retributive punishment. As a LEAP Fellow, she hopes to link her background in public defense to topics in animal law and policy. She is interested in the intersection between labor justice, environmental justice, and factory farm abolition.

Rita Flanagan

M.E.M. / J.D. 2025

Rita (she/her) is a fourth-year dual degree student earning her J.D. from Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University and Master of Environmental Management from Yale School of the Environment. In pursuing these degrees, she has built scientific and legal knowledge on climate change, food systems, and environmental justice. Upon graduation, Rita aims to utilize her education and acquired skills, in collaboration with local stakeholders, to mitigate social and environmental harms created and exacerbated by industrial animal agriculture. She also looks forward to eventually running her family’s animal rescue farm in Ohio. As a LEAP fellow, Rita is excited to draw and explore connections between animal welfare and climate justice.

Marisol Garcia

Yale Prison Education Initiative 2026

Marisol Garcia is a justice-impacted scholar who graduated in 2022 and 2023 from Trinity College with a Master's in Public Policy and attends Vermont Law School. She is a Yale Prison Education College to Career Fellow for 2022-2024 and is in the Yale Law School Access Program for 2021-2023. Marisol works on policy and research on the intersection of the carceral system, humans, and animals' dispensability in society. She hopes that her continued research on carceral policy and health outcomes will benefit those deemed unfit for society.

Kelli Hata

M.A.Rc. Religion and Ecology, Yale Divinity School 2025

Kelli Hata is a Master of Arts in Religion, Concentration in Religion and Ecology, Candidate at Yale Divinity School. She is interested in Environmental Theology and Philosophy, including Animal Theology and Christian Food Ethics, and Eco-Justice and the Global South. Currently, she serves as a Research Assistant for the Yale Bird-Friendly Building Initiative (YBFBI). As a LEAP Fellow, Kelli will engage in a creative venture called the Haecceity Project, which complements her work with YBFBI. Inspired by John Duns Scotus' notion of "haecceitas" or "thisness," the aim of this project is to undertake what can be likened to "Adam's task." Centrally, the Haecceity Project seeks to assign a unique name to each bird documented within the YBFBI so as to cultivate a profound and personal connection with these individual beings. Through the act of naming and recognizing the distinctiveness of each bird, the Haecceity Project hopes to inspire a deeper empathy and appreciation for the inherent value of these beautiful creatures. Such a connection can serve as a potent catalyst for driving policy reform and systemic change in favor of the welfare of birds.

Henry Jacob

Ph.D. (History) 2029

Henry is a History Ph.D. student. Before graduate school, he was a Fulbright researcher in Panama. He received a World History M.Phil. at Cambridge as a Henry Fellow and a History B.A. from Yale. He studies efforts to control two interoceanic passageways through the Americas, the Northwest Passage and the Panama Canal. After countless attempts to use these maritime shortcuts, both routes were first crossed in the early 1900s. Henry examines how these sites of global mobility also attracted increased local settlement. He considers how figures from extractive, scientific, military, and tourist bodies engaged with Indigenous peoples and these environments. Changing ideas about polar and tropical spaces reflect and register these complex and uneven dynamics. Even though Henry is figuring out the details, he knows that animals will figure prominently in his project. Through this program, he hopes to gain a grounding in legal and moral debates on this subject.

Advesh Jalan

M.B.A. 2025

Advesh (he/him) is a second-year MBA Student at the Yale School of Management. He has a varied background in engineering and financial services, but his interest in LEAP stems from his passion for animal rights. In India, he was part of a national collaborative focused on raising awareness about animal rights. As a LEAP Fellow, he wants to learn from accomplished and like-minded people, understand the business and legal context around animal rights and plant-based food in the U.S., and find his niche to build a career in this space in the future.

Lauren Killingsworth

M.D. / Ph.D. (History of Science and Medicine) 2029

Lauren Killingsworth is an M.D.-Ph.D. student in the Department of History of Science and Medicine, where she studies the history of zoonotic disease. She is interested in historical understandings of the environment and disease, with a particular interest in the place of non-human animals in infectious disease control. She is currently working on a project on the history of biological control, supported by a student grant from LEAP. She has a long-standing interest in animals and the environment. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, she helped rehabilitated injured seals at the Marine Mammal Center and trained seeing eye dogs for Guide Dogs for the Blind. She looks forward to connecting with other students interested in animals, the environment, and health.

Janhavi Kulkarni

M.P.H. (Environmental Health Sciences) 2026

BJanhavi is a first-year MPH student in the Environmental Health Sciences department at the Yale School of Public Health. She is interested in climate change and environmental & industrial exposures and their effects on human and wildlife health. Janhavi previously worked as a research coordinator in veteran research, studying the health effects of various chemical and toxin exposures. She is very passionate about animal welfare and the impact of industrial environmental regulations on animals, and hopes to further explore the intersection of public health and animal law as a LEAP Fellow. Janhavi graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a B.S. in Biology and Global Health.

Richard Li

Ph.D. (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) 2025

Richard is a Ph.D. candidate in Yale's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. His research focuses on the spatial and temporal dynamics of biological invasions, and aims to use biodiversity data from global databases to inform and improve the monitoring of species invasions worldwide. Richard is additionally interested in the networks of social and ecological values that underpin conservation decisions around invasive species control and management, at the nexus of ethics, conservation science, and invasion ecology. Before coming to Yale, Richard completed his B.A. in Environmental Biology at Columbia University.

Thomas Peterson

J.D. 2026

Thomas Peterson is a J.D. candidate at Yale Law School. He is interested in the impact of animal agriculture on climate change and deforestation and in legal strategies for holding corporations accountable for their environmental impacts. Prior to law school, he worked in climate-related shareholder advocacy at the non-profit As You Sow and at Green Century Capital Management, where he led shareholder proposals targeting some of the world’s largest agribusinesses, retailers, oil and gas companies, and banks on issues related to greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, and conservation. His achievements include majority-supported shareholder proposals focused on climate and deforestation at companies like Costco and Home Depot. Before that, he worked as a field organizer on campaigns to support legislation on environmental issues. Thomas holds an A.B. from Harvard in History & Literature and in Theater, Dance & Media and was a postgraduate Harvard Williams-Lodge Scholar at the Sorbonne Nouvelle.

Grace Prom

M.E.M. 2026

Grace is a first-year Master of Environmental Management student at Yale School of the Environment. She is interested in the intersection between environmental policy, animal agriculture, climate change, and ethics. She holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Geography from Calvin University, where she completed a thesis on successes and failures of the Endangered Species Act. As a LEAP Fellow, she hopes to further explore her interest in animal welfare, particularly in agriculture contexts. At Yale she is a member of the Environmental Protection Clinic through Yale Law School.

Yilei Qin

M.P.H. (Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases) 2026

Yilei is a 2026 M.P.H. candidate in Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at Yale School of Public Health. She holds a B.S. in Animal Science and Public Health Science from UC Davis. With extensive experience in clinical and laboratory settings, Yilei's work focuses on vector-borne and infectious zoonotic diseases. She is particularly interested in animal-human relationships, research animal models, animal welfare, and wildlife conservation. Through LEAP, Yilei seeks to advance animal protection frameworks and address ethical issues through a multidisciplinary approach that promotes One Health and fosters positive legal and political changes.

Jeffrey Schatz

J.D. 2026

Jeffrey is a second-year J.D. student at Yale Law School. Prior to coming to YLS, he completed a B.A. in Mathematics, Philosophy, and Economics at Valparaiso University, and a Ph.D. in Logic and Philosophy of Science at UC Irvine. Jeffrey is interested in the intersection of agricultural and environmental law, exploring possibilities for more sustainable, healthy, and ethical food systems. As a LEAP fellow, he hopes to think more about rights of nature approaches to environmentalism, and how these ideas might inform heterodox approaches to environmental law and policy.

Nathalie Sommer

Ph.D. (School of the Environment) 2025

Nat is a sixth-year Ph.D. student in the Yale School of the Environment. She works with terrestrial arthropods to understand how evolutionary processes within food webs affect nutrient cycling under climate change. Her previous research has focused on how consistent individual differences in animal behavior (aka animal personality) drives trophic cascades. Nat is broadly interested in the gamut of environmental ethics and the consequences of anthropocentrism on wildlife management. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology and Environmental Science from the College of William & Mary and a M.E.Sc. from the Yale School of the Environment.

Reagan Strand

M.P.H. (Environmental Health Sciences) 2026

Reagan's deepest interests lie within food production systems, especially through the scope of industrial agriculture and its impacts on climate change. Our current system jeopardizes soil health, biodiversity, and perpetuates the inhumane treatment of animals within the meat and dairy industry. In addition to research, Reagan is interested in the laws and policies that prevent sustainable practices. Through LEAP, she is eager to make an impact within her local and broader communities while collaborating with a team of dedicated individuals who are also passionate about amending these issues.

Laura Street

M.A.R. 2026

Laura is a first-year student at Yale Divinity School. Her passion for non-human animal rights centers on the principle of personhood and the necessary inclusion of all animals, especially those exploited through industrial agriculture, in our moral community. She intends to research the implications of this principle on a variety of domains, ranging from climate change mitigation to public health, taking a broad and intersectional approach. Prior to matriculating at Yale Divinity School, Laura earned a B.A. in English from Yale College, followed by several years of consulting work that focused on preparing businesses to think critically about the long-term future. She is an enthusiastic volunteer at Animal Haven, the shelter located in North Haven.

Kristen Tam

M.E.Sc. 2026

Kristen is a M.E.Sc. student at Yale School of the Environment. Before coming to graduate school, Kristen worked at the International Livestock Research Institute where she worked with researchers in the global south to create more sustainable livestock system to address the climate crisis. Kristen is generally interested in the how to use scientific research and the law to support more regenerative farming and food systems, especially looking at ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Kristen holds a B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Samantha Tracy

Ph.D. (School of the Environment) 2027

Samantha is a third-year Ph.D. at the Yale School of Environment. Her dissertation work investigates amphibian physiology and response to environmental stressors in a globally changing climate. As a LEAP Fellow, she hopes to analyze alternative methods for animal based experimentation and investigate methods for gathering data on threatened and endangered species without the need for collection, euthanasia, or harm. Samantha received a B.S. in Biology and Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and M.S. in Environmental Health from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Cassandra Traver

M.A.Rc. (Ethics) 2026

Cassandra is a first-year student at Yale Divinity School pursuing a Master of Arts in Religion, with a concentration in Ethics. She is interested in connecting her studies on the contemplative wisdom of early Christian ascetics to modern understandings of animal ethics. Prior to Yale, Cassie attended Middlebury College where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Religion and Spanish in the spring of 2024. For her undergraduate thesis, she focused on asceticism as a vehicle for social change, beginning with individual contemplative practice, which she hopes to expand upon during her time at Yale and as a LEAP Fellow.

Ellen VanDyke Bell

M.A.Rc. (Ethics) 2025

Ellen VanDyke Bell is a Master of Arts in Religion candidate with a concentration in ethics at Yale Divinity School. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and her J.D. from Catholic University, Columbus School of Law. As a LEAP Fellow, Ellen seeks to explore the ethical and moral dimensions of animal and environmental welfare through Jewish and comparative religious traditions. She is particularly interested in how religious beliefs inform our treatment of animals, the environment, and one another. Her work focuses on what religious texts—especially within the Judeo-Christian tradition—teach about our ethical responsibilities toward each other, our planet, and all living beings. By examining key texts and doctrines, Ellen hopes to uncover insights into how religion can promote compassionate and sustainable practices that honor our co-inhabitants of the earth. Additionally, she seeks to investigate the intersectionality of these ethical choices and how they can contribute to policies that embody ethical stewardship, recognizing that our responsibilities encompass the well-being of humanity, non-human beings, and the health of our planet.

Stephanie von Ungern Sternberg Prufer

J.D. / M.E.M. 2026

Stephanie is a J.D. / M.E.M. student at Yale Law School and the Yale School of the Environment. Before coming to graduate school, Stephanie worked at the Center for Biological Diversity where she campaigned for policies that preserve marine biodiversity and address the climate crisis. Stephanie is generally interested in the intersections of international environmental law, ocean governance, biodiversity conservation, and human and non-human rights. Stephanie holds a B.S. in Marine Biology and Environmental Science & Policy from Duke University.

Lakshmi Venkataraman

M.B.A. / M.P.P. 2025

Lakshmi is a lawyer and an M.B.A./M.P.P. joint-degree candidate at Yale. Last summer, she interned with Archer Daniels Midland’s VC arm, focused on alt-protein investments. Prior to Yale, she worked in the Indian animal rights movement. At Humane Society International/India and at the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations, she partnered with the government, farmers, and food businesses (hospitality, CPG, retail, and startups) to grow India’s cage-free and alt-protein ecosystems. She co-created India’s first trade association for cage-free egg farmers (2022), chaired India’s first roundtable on sustainable aquaculture and fish welfare (2020), co-organized India’s then largest alt-protein conference — The Future of Protein Summit (2019), and led India’s then largest animal rights conference — India for Animals (2018). Lakshmi graduated from NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, India in 2016, with a B.A., LL.B (Hons.). After Yale, she hopes to bring an intersectional perspective to the US alt-protein industry.

Taylor Wurts

J.D. 2025

Taylor is a third-year student at Yale Law School who is most passionate about developing novel climate litigation theories, including those which address the many climate change-exacerbating effects of animal agriculture. At Yale, Taylor was co-president of the Yale Environmental Law Association and a clinical student in the Climate Change & Animal Agriculture Litigation Initiative, the San Francisco Affirmative Litigation Project's Environment Working Group, and the Environmental Justice Law & Advocacy Clinic. In addition, he was a legal intern for the Conservation Law Foundation and the California Attorney General's Office Land Use & Conservation and Environment Sections. He holds a B.A. in International Relations and Economics from Tufts University.

Luning Yang

M.S. (Health Informatics) 2025

Luning Yang is a second-year M.S. student majoring in Health Informatics at Yale. Being a person who advocates against animal cruelty, she pays close attention to the progress of the highly appealed legal bills on animal welfare that are still being drafted in China. She actively reflects on the embodiment and practice of animal rights in law. As a LEAP fellow, she hopes to explore how laws and policies can contribute to the prevention of abusive behavior towards animals and the implementation of universal social norms. She also wants to conduct research to investigate how the improvement of animal welfare impacts the mental health of individuals by analyzing population health data. She hold a B.S. in Bioinformatics from the Xi’an-Jiaotong Liverpool University in Suzhou, China.

Past LEAP Student Fellows

Reni Axelrod

J.D. / M.E.M. 2024

Reni Axelrod is a Joint Degree J.D. and Master of Environmental Management candidate at the Yale School of Environment and Pace Law School. Her professional focus lies at the intersection of public health, human rights, and systems thinking. As a LEAP Fellow, she hopes to explore the impact of climate change on zoonotic diseases, with a specific emphasis on addressing water management in agricultural regions susceptible to extreme flooding. She seeks to apply an interdisciplinary approach to address zoonotic disease transmission that considers the health of people and animals. She seeks to learn how animal law can have a role in public health responses to zoonotic diseases. Prior to law school, she obtained a Master of Public Health at Columbia University and B.S. in Bioengineering.

Stuart Babcock

J.D. 2024

Stuart Babcock is a third year J.D. candidate at Yale Law School. As a LEAP Fellow, he is broadly interested in advancing animal welfare in agricultural, scientific, and wild contexts. Before matriculating at Yale, Stuart attended Northwestern University, where he earned a B.A. in Mathematics and a B.M. in Music Theory, and Boston University, where he earned an M.A. in Neuroscience. Between stints in school, he worked as a software engineer and as a patent professional. In the animal space, Stuart has volunteered with Faunalytics, a data-driven animal advocacy non-profit, and the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, a natural history museum with a focus on connecting Chicagoans to nature. He hopes to leverage his technical background as he continues to explore legal avenues to advance animal welfare.

Anagha Babu

M.P.H. 2024

Anagha Babu is a second-year Master of Public Health Candidate concentrating in Social and Behavioral Sciences. Anagha is Co-President of the student organization, Plant-Based For Public Health, which promotes how eating plant-based is indeed practicing public health. Anagha seeks to unite the lens of animal health into public health and vice versa, to promote population health through diet and ultimately foster the lives of Earth’s sentient creatures. Through LEAP, Anagha hopes to bring about change in public health by incorporating and learning about legal and policy-driven strategies around animal treatment in our country.