Philadelphia, PA, June 4, 2020 - The Peggy Browning Fund has awarded summer fellowships to Julie Daw, a second-year student, and M. Tyler Gillett, a first-year student, at University of Pittsburgh School of Law. The application process is highly competitive, and the award is a tribute to their outstanding qualifications.
Before stay-at-home orders were issued across the nation, the Peggy Browning Fund awarded summer fellowships to 91 talented law students – our largest number to date. Since then, we have worked closely with our mentor organizations to ensure that all Peggy Browning Fellows will be able to complete a fellowship this summer. Most will work in their original placements; we secured alternate placements for the remaining few. Until stay-at-home orders are lifted, students and mentor organizations will be working remotely.
Securing a Peggy Browning Fellowship is not an easy task, with over 500 applicants competing for the honor this year. Peggy Browning Fellows are distinguished students who have not only excelled in law school but who have also demonstrated their commitment to workers’ rights through their previous educational, work, volunteer and personal experiences.
Julie Daw will be a Peggy Browning Fellow at the AFL-CIO in Washington, DC. Julie is a proud Pittsburgher who believes in the dignity of all persons and the importance of upholding workers’ rights. With a background in International Affairs, Julie worked in international development for several years before law school. This experience helped her to better understand the need for international solidarity and led her to pursue a law degree. In her 1L summer, Julie interned with Community Justice Project, where she helped represent workers experiencing wage theft. As a 2L, Julie worked with the United Steelworkers at the union’s headquarters. She is a research editor at the University of Pittsburgh Law Review, where her research focuses on pregnancy discrimination, and a Pitt Graduate Student Organizing Committee member. Julie grew up in a union family, with her mother teaching for nearly 40 years as an AFT member. In the future, she hopes to use her law degree to support workers across international borders.
M. Tyler Gillett’s Peggy Browning Fellowship will be at Women's Law Project in Pittsburgh, PA. Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Tyler holds advanced degrees in religious studies from the University of Kansas and Claremont Graduate University. He has always been moved by the importance placed on striving for social justice that is found in the major Western monotheisms. After moving to Pittsburgh he met lawyers and advocates working for equal rights in the workplace for women and the LGBT community. These friends convinced him to go back to school, get a law degree, and join in the fight. He is one of the founders of Friends of Aseema, a non-profit organization dedicated to aiding a Mumbai-based charitable trust that provides education for children from marginalized communities. He also serves as an assistant editor with JURIST, a web-based legal news and research service.
The Peggy Browning Fund is a not-for-profit organization established in memory of Margaret A. Browning, a prominent union-side attorney who was a member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from 1994 until 1997. Peggy Browning Fellowships provide law students with unique, diverse and challenging work experiences fighting for social and economic justice. These experiences encourage and inspire students to pursue careers in public interest labor law.
To learn more about the Peggy Browning Fund, contact Ruby Tumasz, Program Coordinator, by phone at 267-273-7995 or by email at rtumasz@peggybrowningfund.org, or visit
www.peggybrowningfund.org.