Background information
on gender and asylum issues4

The Judith Stronach Women's Rights Fellowship

The Center for Gender and Refugee Studies is the beneficiary of an extraordinarily generous bequest by Judith Lee Stronach, a Berkeley resident and long-time peace activist and philanthropist. Judith's life was dedicated to nonviolence and social justice, and she tirelessly gave her time, as well as her financial resources, to a range of causes. Judith was a poet, teacher, and arts patron as well as a social activist. She worked with homeless people living on Berkeley streets, taught poetry to Berkeley middle school students, and belonged to the Buddhist Peace Fellowship and Berkeley Friends Meeting.

Judith began her participation in international human rights efforts in 1985 as an interpreter for the Guatemalan Office of Human Rights, then in exile in Mexico City. Her dedication to victims of human rights violations led her to work at a respite camp for Bosnian children traumatized by war, and she was a generous supporter of human rights NGOs. Judith expressed interest in CGRS's work shortly after it was founded in 1999. The Center's efforts on behalf of women asylum seekers resonated with her long-standing commitment to women's rights and human rights, and she especially valued the use of the law in service of social justice.

In her memory, CGRS has established the Judith Stronach Women's Rights Fellowship. Beginning in 2005, the fellowship recognizes those CGRS summer law students whose background, idealism, and commitment to women's rights exemplify Judith's dedication to protecting the human rights of women, especially women refugees.

In 2007 we recognize three outstanding law students as Stronach Fellows:

Cassandra Lopez

Cassandra Lopez is a third-year law student at King Hall School of Law, University of California, Davis. While at King Hall, Cassandra served as a student attorney with the UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic, representing detained immigrants. During a summer internship at the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment in Delano, California, Cassandra worked with farmworkers and rural communities struggling to improve the environmental quality of the Central Valley. She came to law school after working with the Chiapas Support Committee in Oakland and Legal Services for Children in San Francisco.

Joana Simonini

Joana Simonini is a third-year law student at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Last summer Joana interned in the Immigration Department at Canal Alliance, a Bay Area nonprofit organization, where she helped immigrants and asylum seekers prepare for immigration proceedings. Joana’s dedication to this area of law is demonstrated by her decision to enroll in the Refugee and International Human Rights Clinic at U.C. Hastings this fall, where she will continue working on some of the projects she began during the summer as a Stronach Fellow. Born and raised in Brazil, Joana studied law at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janiero. After moving to the United States, Joana worked with the Friends of the MST, an organization that supports the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement.

Joanna Wilson

Joanna Wilson is a third-year student at the University of Washington (UW) School of Law in Seattle and a second-year graduate student at UW’s Jackson School of International Studies. While at UW, Joanna worked with the law school’s Immigrant Family Advocacy Project and in the asylum unit of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. Prior to law school, Joanna served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines and as Managing Director for an international education company in Los Angeles.

 

Past Stronach Fellows