National Center on Philanthropy and the Law Fellowship in Nonprofit Law
2024 Fellow
The seventh National Center on Philanthropy and the Law Fellowship in Nonprofit Law was awarded to Dalton Valerio. Dalton graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law with certificates in International Law and Public Interest & Social Justice, where he supported various types of workers in their efforts to organize. Through multiple internships, Dalton worked on policy change with the National Employment Law Project; represented unions at Cohen, Weiss and Simon LLP; represented native tribes and the environment at Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP; and represented workers at Virginia & Ambinder, LLP. He was a 2023 diversity fellow to UT Law’s annual Nonprofit Organizations Institute and is a professional dancer and actor. Dalton graduated with distinction in 2017 with an M.A. in Dance Performance from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance, and summa cum laude in 2014 with a B.S. in Biology from the University of New Mexico.
2023 Fellow
The sixth National Center on Philanthropy and the Law Fellowship in Nonprofit Law was awarded to Celine Zhu. Celine graduated from New York University School of Law as a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar in 2023, where she worked with communities in South Carolina and Louisiana to combat racially discriminatory infrastructure and voting practices through the Civil Rights Clinic. Celine also served as Digital Articles Editor for the Review of Law and Social Change, and a volunteer advocate for incarcerated New Yorkers eligible for parole through Ending the Prison Industrial Complex. During law school, Celine interned for the National Institute for Reproductive Health and the American Civil Liberties Union Voting Rights Project. Prior to law school, Celine graduated magna cum laude from Barnard College in 2020 with a B.A. in Political Science.
2022 Fellow
The fifth National Center on Philanthropy and the Law Fellowship in Nonprofit Law was awarded to Nick Aquino. Nick graduated from Harvard Law School in 2022, where he represented public housing tenants through the Harvard Tenant Advocacy Project and worked on transactional matters with Boston nonprofits and local musicians at the Transactional Law Clinics. While in law school, Nick also interned for legal advocacy organizations Root & Rebound and the Detroit Justice Center. Prior to law school, Nick worked as an organizer and researcher in the fight against Detroit’s tax foreclosure crisis. Nick graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 2017 with a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, and minors in Afroamerican & African Studies and Urban Studies.
2021 Fellow
The fourth National Center on Philanthropy and the Law Fellowship in Nonprofit Law was awarded to Elizabeth Johnston Wytock. Elizabeth graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2018, where she served as executive editor of the Virginia Law Review. Elizabeth also participated in the UVA Law Nonprofit Clinic and interned for the Honorable Nancy Atlas and the Honorable Mary Milloy at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Since graduating from UVA Law, Elizabeth worked as a tax associate at Proskauer Rose LLP. Prior to law school, Elizabeth worked as a health policy program assistant at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. Elizabeth graduated from Georgetown University in 2012 with a B.A. in Psychology and Art History.
2020 Fellow
The third National Center on Philanthropy and the Law Fellowship in Nonprofit Law was awarded to Peter F. Martin. Peter graduated in January 2020 from New York University School of Law, where he served as a board member of Law Students for Economic Justice. From March to November 2020, Peter worked at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund as a lawyer on the Voting Rights Defender Project. During law school he interned at Forward Justice in Durham, North Carolina, and the No Exceptions Prison Collective, in Nashville, Tennessee. He also founded and co-ran Indivisible Brooklyn and took a semester off from law school to work on Beto O’Rourke’s 2018 Senate campaign in Texas. Before law school he worked as an investigator for Brooklyn Defender Services; for a high school anti-violence program in Brooklyn; as a substitute high school social studies teacher; and as a freelance writer, editor, and English teacher in Bogotá, Colombia. Peter graduated from Yale College in 2010 with a B.A. in Political Science.
2019 Fellow
The second National Center on Philanthropy and the Law Fellowship in Nonprofit Law was awarded to Raphael (“Rafi”) Stern. Rafi graduated cum laude from Cornell Law School in 2017, where he served as acquisitions editor on the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy and a pro bono scholar at Mobilization for Justice. Since graduating from Cornell, Rafi has clerked for the Honorable Margaret Cangilos-Ruiz, Chief Judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of New York and worked as an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. Prior to law school, Rafi worked as a program officer at the Stella and Charles Guttman Foundation and as an NYC Civic Corps member with Phipps Community Development Corporation. Rafi also participated in the Fellowship for Emerging Leaders in Public Service at the NYU Wagner School of Public Service. Rafi graduated from Brown University in 2010 with a B.A. in Economics.
2018 Fellow
The first National Center on Philanthropy and the Law Fellowship in Nonprofit Law was awarded to Grace Heusner. Grace graduated from Yale Law School in 2016, where she was active in the Community and Economic Development Clinic, the Yale Law Journal, and as a teaching assistant. Since graduating from Yale, Grace clerked for the Honorable Robert N. Chatigny on the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut and worked as an associate at Covington & Burling LLP. Prior to law school, Grace worked as an Honors Paralegal in the Environment & Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice. Grace graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the College of William & Mary in 2010 with a B.A. in Government and Environmental Studies.