2009 Advancement of Animal Law Scholarships

We are proud to announce outstanding Animal Legal Defense Fund Student Chapter students Mary Race (McGill University) and Akisha Townsend (Georgetown University) have been awarded the Animal Legal Defense Fund Advancement of Animal Law Scholarship for 2009-10. Please join us in congratulating these two exceptional students who have demonstrated their commitment to advancing animal law during law school and in their anticipated participation in the field following graduation. Scholarship recipients will also serve as an advisor to their Animal Legal Defense Fund Student Chapter for two years upon graduation. Read about Mary and Akisha below, or learn more about the scholarship here.

Mary Race

Mary Race (McGill University): Mary is a second year student at the McGill Faculty of Law. She holds an undergraduate degree in Music from Vanderbilt University and graduate degrees in English, Music, and Religious Studies from Oxford University and the University of Southern California. Before moving to Montreal to begin her law studies, she worked for Human Rights Watch. Mary is the current president of the Animal Legal Defense Fund Student Chapter at McGill University and is excited to be organizing a student-led seminar in Animal Law to be held at McGill next fall. This summer she will be working as a legal intern in the Washington, DC office of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Akisha Townsend

Akisha Townsend (Georgetown University): Akisha is a second year law student at Georgetown University Law Center. She currently serves as the Law Student Vice-Chair for the ABA TIPS Animal Law Committee, an Associate Editor for the Michigan State University Journal of Animal Law, and co-president of her Student Animal Legal Defense Fund. She is also an Associate Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. In addition to planning several events for her Animal Legal Defense Fund Student Chapter, she has successfully worked with her law school to add more vegetarian options to its menu and has served as an intern and law clerk in the litigation departments of Compassion Over Killing and the Humane Society of the United States. Through the ABA TIPS Animal Law Committee, she started a mentoring program pairing attorneys and law students interested in pursuing animal law as a career.