Ashley Nkadi (she/her), 3L
Ashley graduated from the University of Cincinnati (UC) in 2016 with a B.S. in Neuroscience. Ashley’s interest in social justice catalyzed when she co-founded The Irate 8, a student-activist movement, on UC’s campus in response to the fatal police shooting of Samuel Dubose. After graduation, Ashley worked and organized at BYP100 as a Communications Manager and at the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) as a Digital Organizer & Strategist. During this time, she proudly served as the digital lead on the BREATHE Act, a visionary, modern-day Civil Rights Act. After graduation, Ashley’s writing career also blossomed. She has written about social justice, identity, race, and politics for publications such as GQ, Playboy, Teen Vogue, The Root, and Essence Magazine — she also covers the State of the Union addresses annually as a part of Rep. Maxine Waters’ Millennial Media Row. Ashley pursued a Social Justice Fellowship in order to ensure that her law study would include a grounding education in the way that law intersects with race, class, and gender. Ashley is currently the Student Bar Association President and is an incoming Intellectual Property Associate at Frost Brown Todd.
Inma Sumaita (she/her/they/them), 3L
Inma graduated cum laude from Miami University in 2018 with a double major in International Studies and English Literature and a double minor in Economics and French. After graduating, she spent two years working as a paralegal in Immigration and Corporate Acquisitions and Transactions. As an immigrant herself, Inma has seen firsthand how resolving language barriers and acknowledging how a person’s nationality can impact how they are perceived in matters of immigration. Her professional experience and volunteer in immigration has equipped her to recognize and respond to the importance of familiarity and understanding. Inma is a board member of the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center (IJPC), which is a grassroots organization based in Cincinnati that works on matters of peace and equity. As a Social Justice Fellow Inma will explore the ways in which she can use her legal education to be an advocate in her community specially with immigrants and incarcerated people. She is committed to ensuring her work in social justice is intersectional and equitable. Inma believes that social justice measures the success of a society, in terms of how it treats its most vulnerable citizens, rather than by its gross domestic product. Inma is currently working in the Entrepreneurship and Development Clinic which provides free legal services to non-profits and small businesses.
Aqdas Khudadad (she/her), 2L
Aqdas graduated from Centre College with a B.A. in Political Science. As a member of the Bonner Program, she was a volunteer at Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) which is when her interest in pursuing law school began. During her undergraduate studies, she was a research fellow with the American Pakistan Foundation and focused her research on reproductive health access in rural Pakistan. During the fellowship, she was also involved in a project regarding access to legal resources in low-income, rural communities. This fellowship solidified her interest in women’s rights and increasing access to legal resources in marginalized communities. After graduation, she was an AmeriCorps VISTA at an environmental nonprofit called Louisville Grows. She also worked with a nonprofit in Pakistan to develop a menstrual health management curriculum based on her fellowship research to be taught to students in a village in Northern Pakistan. She is passionate about addressing issues related to gender-based violence, racial injustice, and Islamophobia. Aqdas pursued the Social Justice Fellowship to shape her career in public interest work through the lenses of race and gender.
Kassius “Kash” Brodus (he/his), 1L
Kash is a native of Albany, New York and completed his Bachelor of Arts in History at SUNY Buffalo State College in May 2022. In his final semester of undergraduate studies, he received a commendation for the History and Social Studies Education Department from the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Buffalo State and the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Academic Excellence, the highest academic honor in New York State’s public university system. Kash’s only real goal is to leave the world better than how he found it and The Nathaniel R. Jones Center will help him make that dream a reality.
Elizabeth “Libby” Beach (she/her), 1L
Libby is originally from Akron, Ohio and completed her undergraduate degree in Political Science at Denison University. Libby’s “call” to social justice work is primary in the area of family law, with a special interest in foster care, adoption, and the ways different identities experience the child welfare system. Outside of school, Libby loves to practice yoga, play with her dog, and explore local coffee shops around Cincinnati.
Nicholas “Nick” Anderson (he/his), 1L
Nick grew up in Morehead, Kentucky, and pursued his undergraduate degrees at Morehead State University. At MSU, Nick majored in Political Science and Legal Studies, graduating in 2021 with honors and was named Outstanding Student of Political Science. In Nick’s interim year between college and starting at UC College of Law, he served as a legal assistant for a rural county attorney’s office, gaining real life perspective on a host of legal procedures outside of the classroom. While Nick is open to various practices of law, his current aim is to one day serve in his home state of Kentucky in a governmental policy and legislative role, preferably in relation to how the law shapes curriculum and funding for the sphere of public education. Nick believes a good, quality education can serve as a means to break generational cycles of inequity, a trend which has long strained the rural landscape of Appalachia.