It is our great pleasure to welcome our new IntLawGrrls Contributor Madalyn K. Wasilczuk! Madalyn is a Clinical Teaching Fellow in the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, where she works with the International Human Rights Clinic and the Death Penalty Project. At Cornell, Madalyn has specialized in advocating for prisoners’ rights in domestic courts and international tribunals. She has litigated on capital cases in the U.S., Malawi, and Tanzania, and assisted in the representation of a Guantánamo detainee before the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Madalyn’s work at Cornell has also focused on the right of self-determination, and she has led students in advocacy efforts before the United Nations in collaboration with human rights defenders in Western Sahara and the Occupied Golan.

Prior to joining the Center, Madalyn worked as an Assistant Defender at The Defender Association of Philadelphia, where she litigated all stages of misdemeanor and felony cases and juvenile delinquency proceedings. In addition to domestic criminal defense work, at International Justice Mission in Nairobi, Kenya, she represented individuals facing illegal detention and assisted child victims of sexual assault. Madalyn has also worked with New York University School of Law’s Global Justice Clinic and Federal Defender Clinic, Open Society Justice Initiative, and the Metropolitan Public Defender of Nashville & Davidson County. Through her work, she has provided legal, policy, and advocacy support to criminal defendants, protestors, and whistleblowers around the world. Madalyn holds a B.A. from American University, summa cum laude, and a J.D. from New York University School of Law, where she received the Leonard J. Schreier Memorial Prize in Ethics. She is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania, and she will soon be joining the faculty at Louisiana State University’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center as director of the Juvenile Defense Clinic.

Heartfelt welcome!