Liyu Woldemichael is a rising second-year student at Harvard Law School (HLS) and a NAACP Legal Defense Fund Marshall-Motley Scholar. At HLS, she is deeply engaged in the public interest community. Liyu serves as a Student Attorney and Community Director for Harvard Defenders, the only legal services organization in Massachusetts that provides free representation to low-income individuals in Criminal Clerk-Magistrate Hearings. She also serves as a Solicited Content Editor for the Harvard Civil Rights–Civil Liberties Law Review. Next year, she will join the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau—the oldest student-run legal services organization in the country—as a Student Attorney.

Prior to law school, Liyu worked on housing and land-use policy with the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and served as a literacy interventionist in San Leandro. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Telluride Association. Liyu graduated cum laude and with Highest Distinction from Duke University with a B.A. in Public Policy and Africana Studies.