Undergraduate Director’s Fellow

Bessie Bauman is a junior in Ezra Stiles College majoring in Economics. At Yale, Bessie is the Co-President of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, and she conducts research with the Yale Law School Community Economic Development clinic. She is interested in how public policy, specifically tax policy, can assist underserved communities to build wealth and alleviate wealth inequality in the United States.

Jason Contino is a junior in Benjamin Franklin College majoring in sociology with a concentration in health. He is mainly interested in drug policy, with a focus on studying the effects that different treatment modalities have on people who use opioids, as well as labor policy and legislation protecting and empowering the right to collective bargaining in the workplace. Jason is currently Co-President of A Leg Even (a first-generation/low-income student group on campus), and has previously been involved with Matriculate.

Kahlil Greene is a junior from outside of Washington D.C. majoring in History with a specific focus on United States policies affecting Black Americans. Currently, he is the student body president of Yale College and is the first Black student to ever hold this title. Kahlil has also served as an executive board member of the Yale Black Men’s Union, an advocate for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and consultant at McKinsey and Company.

Makayla LaRonde-King a junior in Benjamin Franklin College studying Political Science. She is also a Human Rights Scholar through Yale Law School’s Schell Center. She is interested in the implications of Black feminist theory for studying U.S. law and policy, particularly surrounding criminal and reproductive justice. On campus, she works as a research assistant in the Departments of Sociology and African American studies, where she has conducted research on lynching, police violence, and white supremacy.