Leadership Academy

Mansoor Alam comes to Berkeley Law after a decade in the tech industry. He was first introduced to programming 20 years ago, teaching himself through YouTube videos, forums, and IRC channels how to build everything from bots for AOL Instant Messenger to basic exploit protections for WordPress Plugins he created.

Mansoor began his career as a data scientist at athenahealth, where he worked on large-scale recommendation engines to help map patients with providers experienced in their unique clinical needs. He then co-founded a venture-backed precision health startup that developed AI-supported clinical decision support tools for managing complex polypharmacy in patients with severe mental illness and chronic pain. He later held leadership roles in software development, most recently as Director of Applied AI & Machine Learning at Flyte Health, leading a team focused on observability and safety in deploying large-language models in a clinical setting.

His decision to pursue law arises from a commitment to cyber civil rights and a belief that law is perhaps our most effective tool to confront the growing social perils of technology. He believes technologists have a moral obligation to shape and build systems in service of a more empowered, accountable, and accessible society.

Mansoor graduated from Wesleyan University with dual degrees in Economics and Psychology, where he conducted computational research on health information diffusion and online community dynamics. At Berkeley Law, he aims to advance cyber civil rights, internet law, and information policy through interdisciplinary research and public-sector work.

Cody Bloomfield (they/them) is passionate about advocating for a world where activists can pursue transformative change without fear of political repression and government surveillance. Beginning in high school, Cody became engaged in environmental and political protest movements in their hometown of Colorado Springs, CO. They subsequently attended Smith College in Northampton, MA, where they majored in Government and minored in Biological Sciences, graduating cum laude in 2022. As an undergraduate, Cody advocated for food justice, founded a trans* affinity organization, and engaged in cross-affinity group collective organizing.

After graduating, Cody worked for Defending Rights & Dissent, a small civil liberties nonprofit based in Washington DC. There, they engaged in grassroots advocacy, direct lobbying, and public education around legislation impacting First and Fourth Amendment freedoms. They also reported on rising threats to dissent for Truthout, Jacobin, and The Intercept. They reported on the repression of Stop Cop City protesters in Atlanta, used FOIA to expose a domestic terrorism investigation into a nonviolent environmentalist group, and covered other issues pertaining to protest and policing.

At Berkeley Law, Cody hopes to learn the law governing surveillance authorities and study how best to protect activists. In their free time, Cody is an avid reader, rock climber, plant/frog dad, and Halloween enthusiast.

Alexis Fineman (she/her) brings a decade of experience as an educator, public servant, and climate advocate to her education at Berkeley Law. A graduate of Wesleyan University with a background in cultural anthropology and critical food studies, she spent her early career working on organic farms, for an heirloom seed company, as a public school garden teacher, and as an outdoor educator before becoming an elementary school teacher. Most recently, she led SEI’s Energize Schools program, where she managed K-12 programs focused on air quality, renewable energy, environmental leadership, and zero waste initiatives.

Alexis’s love for plants and her work to protect a neighborhood community garden unexpectedly launched a parallel career in local government. She was appointed to the San Anselmo Town Council in 2019 and elected to a full term in 2020. She served as vice mayor in 2021 and mayor in 2022. As a councilmember, Alexis worked to operationalize San Anselmo’s Climate Action Plan by initiating staff reporting protocols, hiring the Town’s first-ever Climate Action Coordinator, and establishing both the Climate Action Fund and the Active Transportation Fund. Her policy work focused on building electrification, single-use plastics, housing affordability and tenants’ rights, and urban habitat protection. She played a critical role in developing the town’s first solar microgrid, first protected bike path, and first “purple pipe” outlay, as well as a downtown parklet program, public mural program, and neighborhood speed hump program.

Alexis also represented San Anselmo on a variety of regional boards, including the Marin Wildfire Protection Agency and Marin Clean Energy, where she proposed developing Green Hydrogen Procurement Guidelines (adopted 2024) to counter industry greenwashing. She is eager to use her legal education to champion decarbonization, livable communities, and healthy ecosystems as well as to pursue accountability for climate and environmental injustices.

In her free time, Alexis enjoys hiking, biking, visible mending, and creating visual art. She will talk about bike infrastructure with anyone who will listen.

Desmond Johnson grew up in Philadelphia and earned his degree in Cognitive Science, with a minor in Computer Science, from the University of Pennsylvania, where he explored how technology and equity intersect. Through Engineers Without Borders, he helped design an electronic medical record system for a children’s home in Eswatini and collaborated on a water infrastructure project in Guatemala—experiences that deepened his commitment to using technology for social impact. As an intern with Uptrust, a startup focused on reducing recidivism, he designed an app to help people on probation and parole avoid pitfalls that often lead to reincarceration. He also served as a Student Educator with Penn Anti-Violence Educators, leading workshops on preventing sexual violence and fostering an inclusive campus culture.

After graduation, Desmond joined Accenture as an AI Strategy Consultant, advising clients on responsibly integrating artificial intelligence across industries including healthcare, utilities, and cybersecurity. Beyond client work, he led a pro bono team within Accenture’s Data & AI for Good initiative to help a community health clinic in South Florida improve patient outreach through data analysis and visualization. As an executive board member of Accenture’s African American Employee Resource Group, he organized programs connecting Black-owned businesses with venture capital and highlighting diverse experiences within the firm.

Desmond’s decision to pursue law reflects his belief that technology and corporate power must be guided by principles of justice and accountability. At Berkeley Law, he hopes to build on his interdisciplinary background to advance public interest law at the intersection of technology, equity, and human rights.

Zainab Zohra “Zz” Khan (they/them) is a Muslim artist born and raised in the Bay Area. They earned a B.A. in Psychology and Public Affairs at UCLA, where they also minored in Education Studies and Visual & Performing Arts Education. During their undergraduate years, Zz immersed themselves into the ways policy, pedagogy, and creative expression can intersect to shape more equitable educational experiences.

After graduation, they worked as a Mental Health Specialist at a healthcare nonprofit, where they supported individuals navigating the Medi-Cal system, designed and facilitated harm-reduction curricula, and led community outreach initiatives.

At Berkeley Law, Zz looks forward to deepening their study of education policy, its ability to better support youth and marginalized communities, and its intersections with the criminal justice system. They hope to explore legal academia through a lens of public health–bridging law, youth advocacy, and developmental psychology.

In their free time, Zz recharges themselves through crafting, crocheting, and cooking!

Kate Leonard was born and raised in San Diego, CA. She graduated from Duke University with degrees in Neuroscience, Cultural Anthropology, and East Asian Studies. While at Duke, she explored the intersection of culture and neurobiology and researched sustainable agricultural practices in Hawai’i, drawing from her family’s experience farming on O’ahu.

Prior to coming to Berkeley Law, Kate spent the last three years in DC working on Capitol Hill. There, she worked for Senators from Hawai’i and Michigan covering appropriations and issues of the environment, energy, agriculture, maritime, and infrastructure. At Berkeley Law, Kate looks forward to continuing to explore these topics and engage with them at a deeper level through the legal lens. In her free time, she enjoys baking, cooking, reading, and spending time at the beach.

Vikas is a strategist, researcher, and organizer committed to advancing reparatory justice and a culture of repair. Previously, he served as the Director of Grantmaking Strategy and Research at Liberation Ventures, a nonprofit accelerating the Black reparations movement in the United States. He’s also worked on campaigns to end forced prison labor and expand tenant protections in California. Vikas earned his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Stanford University, where he studied design, sociology, and data analytics. He’s originally from Indiana and loves open-water swimming, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and baking banana bread.

Samia is a 1L at Berkeley Law and originally from Corona, CA. She graduated from Duke University in 2021 with a degree in Public Policy and Documentary Studies. While at Duke, she focused on research related to violence against women. After college, she worked in government consulting for three years in New York City. She also spent one year serving in the Capital Fellows program, placed as a Judicial Fellow at the Superior Court of California, County of Riverside.

At Berkeley Law, Samia hopes to explore the vibrant pro bono culture and engage in meaningful service opportunities. Samia envisions serving her community through advocacy and empowerment.

Camryn Pak grew up in Orange County but has lived primarily in the Bay Area since 2019. Camryn graduated from Stanford University with a master’s degree in Communication and a bachelor’s degree in American Studies. For her master’s thesis, she examined the impacts of large language models on reporter conduct and newsroom policies. Camryn is passionate about storytelling, supporting local journalism, and protecting civil rights.

Prior to starting at Berkeley Law, Camryn completed the Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs. She also spent a summer working in attorney recruiting and development at a law firm. As an undergraduate, Camryn interned at the U.S. Department of Justice, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Orange County Register.

Camryn believes that a Berkeley legal education will equip her with the necessary tools to serve her communities with integrity and purpose. Outside the classroom, Camryn enjoys learning new languages, making kimchi udon, and working on her 50-state travel bucket list.

Greta Zorn is from Seattle, Washington. After graduating from Barnard College in 2020 with degrees in Political Science and English, she moved from Morningside Heights down to Brooklyn and worked in research and writing positions, including supporting breaking-news reporting projects for New Yorker journalist Ronan Farrow.

Greta has also spent the past ten years running Uterish, a reproductive justice nonprofit she co-founded in 2016. Uterish fundraises for reproductive justice causes––largely consisting of directing funds to local abortion clinics––while engaging in digital advocacy and educational initiatives. Among her responsibilities at Uterish, Greta has especially loved writing for the company’s monthly newsletter reporting on the reproductive justice movement, and running Uterish’s annual summer internship program for high school students interested in social justice.

Greta’s work in the reproductive justice movement directed her to issues of carcerality and criminalization. She has volunteered for the Northwest Community Bail Fund, a fund serving people trapped in pretrial detention in the greater Seattle area, since 2021. Learning more about the issues driving arrests, imprisonment, and recidivism in Seattle continued to emphasize the intertwined concerns of reproductive justice and the prison-industrial complex. Greta hopes to continue exploring criminality through a reproductive justice lens by working in public interest law.

Greta is thrilled that Berkeley Law has given her a chance to return to the West Coast, and in her free time can be found driving to nearby hikes or frequenting Berkeley Bowl to mine its supply of nectarines.