Ivana Berlin ’18, JD

Ivana Berlin '18, JD, found her academic direction at Adelphi when courses in criminal justice, sociology and law gave her a framework for examining systemic inequality and imagining better systems.

Member of Adelphi University's 10 Under 10

Faculty mentors, including Teaching Professor Stephanie Lake, PhD, and Professor Celeste Kaufman, helped her sharpen her writing, research and media literacy skills, deepen her interest in constitutional law and prepare for a career in civil rights. She later shared that learning as a writing assistant for the course Crime and Punishment.

After graduation, Berlin worked as a paralegal in family and matrimonial law before enrolling at New York Law School with a clear interest in mental health and disability law. She interned with several organizations serving people with disabilities and participated in the school's Civil Rights and Disability Justice Clinic. She graduated magna cum laude, served on the New York Law School Law Review, joined the Dean's Leadership Council and received the Alvin J. Bronstein Civil Rights and Social Justice Award.

Berlin began her legal career as a Wilf Public Interest Legal Fellow with Disability Rights New York (DRNY), a New York Law School-funded postgraduate program that places recent graduates with social justice organizations. Now serving as a staff attorney at the agency-New York state's federally designated protection and advocacy system-she represents individuals with mental illness in matters involving employment, special education and access to public accommodations. She also monitors facilities for abuse and neglect and contributes to federal class action litigation, including a recent settlement intended to improve community-based mental health services for an estimated 200,000 Medicaid-eligible children statewide.

Adelphi honors Berlin for challenging inequitable systems while empowering individual clients with the knowledge and confidence to advocate for themselves.