About the Maeve McKean Fellows
We are pleased to introduce you to the talented and dedicated fellows who serve the public health community in the memory of Maeve McKean. We hope these profiles provide a sense of Maeve’s evergreen impact in public health and human rights, the continuing advancements in health equity being made in her name, and the prevailing hope and change generated by a new generation of young lawyers and advocates taking on global health challenges — with her signature energy and effectiveness!
Allyson Crays | 2024 Maeve McKean Women’s Law and Public Policy – O’Neill Institute Fellow
During her fellowship, Crays will be working closely with the National Health Law Program (NHeLP), a national organization that seeks to advance the health rights of low-income and underserved individuals and families. This work will focus on reproductive and sexual health, as well as increasing access to Medicaid.
While in law school, Crays served as the chair of the If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice Chapter and editor of the Online Forum for Northeastern University Law Review. She completed full-time co-ops with the ACLU of Massachusetts, Massachusetts State Senator Jo Comerford, and Reproductive Equity Now. Crays has contributed to legal scholarship on reproductive and menstrual justice, publishing in the Northeastern University Law Review and the UCLA Journal of Gender & Law.
Prior to law school, Crays served as a City Year AmeriCorps member in Columbus, Ohio. In her free time, she continues to mentor young people looking to attend law school or advocate for menstrual equity. Currently, Crays serves as vice chair of the board of directors at PERIOD, a global youth-fueled nonprofit that works to end period poverty and stigma through service, education, and advocacy.
Crays received her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law. She also holds a graduate certificate in women, gender, and sexuality studies from Northeastern University, as well as a B.S. in public health from Baldwin Wallace University.
Rolonda Donelson | 2023 Maeve McKean Women’s Law and Public Policy – O’Neill Institute Fellow
During her fellowship, Donelson will be working closely with the National Health Law Program (NHeLP), a national organization that seeks to advance the health rights of low-income and underserved individuals and families. This work will focus on reproductive and sexual health as well increasing access to Medicaid.
While in law school, Donelson interned at the Center for Reproductive Rights on the U.S. Litigation team and at Catholic Charities Archdiocese of Washington in the Immigration Legal Services division. During her first year of law school, she helped co-found the Women of Color Coalition, a student group focusing on the unique experiences women and femmes of color experience in the legal field. She also worked in the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Affinity Relations, was a student-attorney in the Gender Justice Clinic, and served as the Digital Media & Outreach Editor for the Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law. During her second year Donelson also co-taught a yearlong course in Constitutional Law to D.C. area high school students.
Donelson is passionate about movement lawyering and centering the voices and experiences of directly affected individuals. She is inspired by the leaders of the reproductive justice movement and the need to make movements intersectional.
Donelson holds a B.A. with dual majors in Politics and International & Global from Brandeis University and a J.D. from the American University Washington College of Law.
Mackenzie Darling | 2022 Maeve McKean Women’s Law and Public Policy – O’Neill Institute Fellow
During her fellowship, Mackenzie will be working closely with HIPS, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that focuses on promoting the health, rights, and dignity of people impacted by sexual exchange and substance use. This work will focus primarily on advancing the campaign for the decriminalization of sex work and drug use in D.C. and raising awareness about sex worker rights.
While in law school, Mackenzie completed internships with Reproductive Equity Now, National Advocates for Pregnant Women, and Women’s Law Project. She has also worked as a legal researcher at the Northeastern University School of Law’s Health in Justice Action Lab and as a research assistant at the Northeastern University School of Law Center for Health Policy and Law. As an undergrad student, she co-taught a course on intersectional feminism and worked as a sexual health peer educator.
Mackenzie considers herself an intersectional feminist, abolitionist, and a very passionate reproductive justice advocate.
Mackenzie holds a B.A. in philosophy and a B.S. in public health from the University at Albany and a J.D. from Northeastern School of Law, with concentrations in health law and policy and poverty law and economic justice.
Anna Reed | 2021 Maeve McKean Women’s Law and Public Policy – O’Neill Institute Fellow
During her fellowship year, Anna will work closely with HIPS, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that focuses on promoting the health, rights, and dignity of individuals and communities impacted by sexual exchange and drug use. This work will include analyzing and testifying on issues of local public health policy, particularly around the campaign to decriminalize sex work in D.C. She will also be advising on funding proposals put before the D.C. council, including for sex worker, harm reduction, and housing services, as well as working with community members and organizations to build events and raise awareness about sex worker rights.
This work is important for helping people engaged in sex work and people who use drugs to live healthy, self-determined, and self-sufficient lives free from stigma, violence, criminalization, and oppression.
Anna is committed to the power of self-help and mutual aid as a means of expanding access to bodily autonomy and self-sovereignty, facilitating information shares about self-managed abortion within her community and overseeing the development of reproductive justice curricula for the university’s Street Law program, which is taught in Washington, D.C. high schools.
In Anna’s words, “I am deeply honored to be the first person to be trusted with carrying out Maeve’s legacy as a Maeve McKean Women’s Law and Public Policy – O’Neill Institute Fellow. I am committed to continuing Maeve’s work to transform systems that criminalize and abuse people living with HIV and to advance health and reproductive justice for communities impacted by sex work and substance use. As a former sex education teacher and community organizer, I know that the best policy solutions come from the people who have lived experience with the particular policy at hand. I know that Maeve shared a commitment to community engagement and coalition building, and I take that spirit with me into this work.”
Anna is also an executive producer of “Self Managed,” a podcast dedicated to destigmatizing and demystifying the practice of self-managed abortion. Anna has worked as a youth advocate, community organizer, and sex education teacher in Paris, Chicago, and Seattle. She holds a B.A. in history from Brown University and grew up in Rennes, France.