newleaderscholarship.org » Scholar Stories

New Leader Scholar summary biographies listed alphabetically by last name 2001-2021 (click link for pdf).

2022 NEW LEADER SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS

TERRY ALLEN, 31, graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a Bachelor’s Degree in Rhetoric. A few months after graduating, he was accepted into the White House Internship Program at the Travel Office of the Obama Administration. Shortly thereafter he received a Masters Degree from Columbia University in Education Policy and Social Analysis. In his fourth year of doctoral study in the Education Department of UCLA, he served as a lead researcher for the Million Dollar Hoods Project, which maps the fiscal and human cost of mass incarceration in Los Angeles. The project documents how hundreds of millions of dollars are wasted every year on ineffective and inequitable law enforcement. Little did he know, he was born and raised in precisely a community that is the basis of the project. Terry's dissertation research focused on the structural inequality in youth contact with law enforcement and school discipline. During his studies, he worked as a trainee at the U.S. Government Accountability Office and summer associate-adjunct researcher at RAND Corporation. Terry completed his dissertation and has entered his third year of Law School at UCLA. This year, Terry was given UVA Law’s first Race, Place and Equity Postdoctoral Fellow Studies Policing Schoolchildren. This is his seventh New Leader Scholarship.

NAZINEEN KANDAHARI, 27, BA, graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, Berkeley with majors in Public Health and Molecular & Cell Biology, and an emphasis in Infectious Diseases. Nazineen is committed to serving the underserved, particularly refugee and multicultural communities, through medicine, research, and public health advocacy. She is passionate about resolving health inequities and improving reproductive and sexual health. Nazineen is currently the Senior Project Coordinator to a research project collaboration between UC Berkeley and a predominantly Latino church; she recently received an award from the American Public Health Association for producing novel culturally-sensitive health promotion and health education materials. Nazineen also conducted qualitative research at Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research to improve the healthcare experience for historically marginalized patients; she is published in Contraception journal for her project titled, “Exploring young women’s decisional needs for contraceptive method choice: A qualitative study.” Upon graduation, she received the Departmental award of Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher for her contribution to molecular genetic research on delaying the effects of aging and age-associated disease. She is the recipient of numerous scholarships from institutions including Palo Alto Medical Foundation and Women Health Care Executives. She is currently completing her fifth year in the prestigious UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program for her Medical Doctorate and Master's Degree in Health and Medical Sciences and is part of the Program in Medical Education for the Urban Underserved, a five-year track at the UCSF School of Medicine for students committed to promoting social justice through medicine, community-based work, and policy change. This is her sixth New Leader Scholarship.

LARRY McDANIEL JR., 38, received his Bachelor’s Degree from UC, Berkeley, majoring in Sociology, with an AA degree from Peralta College. As he saw many of his friends falling victim to the challenges which face poor minority communities and finding himself struggling to survive, he vowed to dedicate himself to helping those coming from similar backgrounds. At Berkeley, he joined a student-run organization “Spread the Word” which assists underperforming minority youth through mentoring and advocacy. He became the president of the organization, a testament to his leadership skills. Larry earned a Master’s Degree in Higher Education at the University of Pennsylvania and is pursuing his doctorate in Higher Education and Organizational Change at UCLA. He aspires to become a university professor, using his own background as a means of reaching out to students who have been similarly discouraged. Following his own struggle over a 10-year period in community colleges, he is acutely aware of the struggles of Black children ”growing up in economically neglected neighborhoods”. He plans to engage in research which affects policy changes in social structure with a particular emphasis on “racial identity for community college transfer students of color who attend historically and predominantly white universities”. This is his seventh New Leader Scholarship.

ABDULLAH PUCKETT, 50, is pursuing his doctorate in cultural anthropology at UCLA and was awarded the prestigious Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship. He majored in Political Economy and Interdisciplinary Studies and received his BA from UC Berkeley. On his own from the age of sixteen, he was imprisoned from 1999 through 2014. Inspired by the election of Barack Obama in 2008, he saw that real change in our systems was more than a theoretical possibility. He saw that “when ordinary people come together, we can make extraordinary things happen”. Initially, he was inspired to become a community organizer like President Obama but began to realize that many more avenues were open to him through his studies. His mother went to school at the age of 47 and earned a doctorate in Pharmacy in part to inspire and demonstrate to her children what was possible through education and determination. This is his sixth New Leader Scholarship.

2021 NEW LEADER SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS

2020 NEW LEADER SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS

2019 NEW LEADER SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS

2018 NEW LEADER SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS

2017 NEW LEADER SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS

2016 NEW LEADER SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS

2015 NEW LEADER SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS

2014 NEW LEADER SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS

2013 NEW LEADER SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS

2012 NEW LEADER SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS

2011 NEW LEADER SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS

2010 NEW LEADER SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS