Michaela Caplan is a rising 2L at Northeastern University School of Law. Caplan is a cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College, where she majored in Anthropology modified with English. Before law school, she worked as a faith-based community organizer in Massachusetts, organizing clergy into local legislative campaigns with a focus on transformational criminal justice policy. A large part of her work was centered on building coalitions across difference, elevating the voices of directly impacted communities, and broadening the conversation about the impact of mass criminalization. Caplan has also held digital communications roles for movement organizations and worked as an electoral organizer and field director for progressive presidential and congressional candidates. Her experience volunteering as an EMT at the Standing Rock Dakota Access Pipeline Protests instilled in her an abiding belief in the power of people to make transformational change in the face of structural violence. Caplan will spend her summer at the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. Her mentors are Anthony Benedetti, chief counsel at the Committee for Public Counsel Services and Rappaport Center board member, and Lizz Matos, chief of the civil rights division and senior advisor to the Attorney General.