Summer may have ended, but we are grateful for the work of our interns. They provided OJD with invaluable support that helped moved our projects and initiatives forward. Learn more about them and their work below.
My name is Shontierra Sharmaine Anderson and I am a second-year Master of Public Policy candidate at Duke University. I am eager to join the OJD team this summer! I received my undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2019 with a major in African American Studies, and a concentration in Black Feminism. I began a career in the nonprofit sector, which spanned five years, where I gained a variety of professional experiences working in areas such as youth programming, food insecurity, and homelessness. For example, in my prior full-time role as a Community Partnership Specialist, I connected over 13,900 underserved students to free youth programs. I simultaneously worked part-time as a Program Manager at the Circuit Court of Cook County, Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC) in Chicago, IL, the largest juvenile detention facility in the nation.
I have a deep passion for community service. Before moving from Chicago, IL, to Durham, NC, I volunteered with a local journalist organization to assemble policy recommendations for Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson. My policy recommendations followed a series of community-led focus groups, which centered on the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Missing In Chicago” investigation. The focus was on police discipline and bettering infrastructure for missing persons reports. These recommendations assisted in developing the Task Force on Missing and Murdered Chicago Women Act. More recently, I volunteered with the Expunction Clinic for Legal Aid of North Carolina, where I reviewed juvenile records and drafted petitions as part of the Second Chance Project.
Since coming to Durham, NC, I have developed a Generalist policy perspective. I currently have hands-on experience in environmental policy, social policy, technology policy, international policy, and urban policy. In my most recent work this Spring, I acted as a policy consultant for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice (DCJS) Services, a public safety department within the state legislature. I evaluated multidisciplinary policies in Arizona, California, Delaware, and Utah regarding investigative protocols, evidence collection practices, and prosecutorial outcomes. Further, I developed a formal presentation on my research related to nonfatal strangulation protocols, in an effort to assist the NY DCJS in addressing the issue of intimate partner violence.
I believe that my variety of grassroots professional experiences and generalist policy knowledge will act as an impactful perspective to OJD’s work. I look forward to working with OJD this summer!
Fun Facts:
- Studied abroad in China, Peru, Argentina, Hong Kong, and Macau
- Have a Maltese named Bella
- Loves all things Chicago-related
Howdy! My name is James Galipeau, and I am a rising 3L at Elon University School of Law.
Before attending law school, I worked in Forsyth County as a legal assistant with the Public Defender and in Guilford County as a Deputy Clerk. While working in Guilford County, I was assigned to the Juvenile Department where I became fascinated with the juvenile court processes and the legal sphere as a whole. The attorneys I worked with in juvenile court are among those I credit the most for my desire to further my education.
While working with OJD, I am excited to act as second chair to AJDs Fair and Johnson, and to build strong cases in defense of our juvenile clients.
Fun facts about James:
- He is originally from Rhode Island, but grew up in Greensboro, NC.
- He writes movie reviews in his free time.
- He was co-principal investigator for a student experiment that was conducted on the International Space Station (SSEP-ISS Mission 5).