Born in Japan and raised in Tacoma, Washington, Kayla Mathurin is a first-generation law student and rising 2L at Columbia Law School. A lifelong advocate for equity and justice, Kayla has led community organizing efforts since childhood, including a successful campaign to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Tacoma. As an undergraduate at Pitzer College, she served as Vice President of Diversity and completed a thesis on gender-based asylum law in the United States.

This summer, Kayla is serving as a Legal Research Intern for the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights. At Columbia, she is involved in multiple student organizations, including the Black Law Students Association, Empowering Women of Color, Native American Law Students Association, and the Columbia Journal of European Law. Kayla’s work is grounded in a lifelong commitment to advocacy, and she aspires to a career at the intersection of human rights litigation and transnational justice.