Question 1: When do you plan to begin law school? I plan to begin law school in Fall 2025. I have been accepted to the Master in Law (ML) program at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and have placed my seat deposit. I chose Penn Carey Law because of its interdisciplinary approach to legal education and its unique ability to provide non-JD professionals with rigorous training in law and regulation. The ML program aligns perfectly with my career in policy, innovation, and public impact, and it will equip me with the tools I need to scale my work at the intersection of law and technology. Question 2: What are your short- and long-term career goals? In the short term, I plan to expand my consulting firm, Novara Strategies, which helps emerging tech companies, public institutions, and advocacy organizations navigate the complex legal, ethical, and policy challenges of innovation. My work focuses on areas like AI governance, data privacy, algorithmic accountability, and equitable innovation. Long-term, I aspire to influence policy at the state and federal levels, shaping how we regulate emerging technologies to protect civil liberties and promote equity. I also hope to serve as an advisor or commissioner on issues related to digital justice, particularly ensuring that underserved communities are not excluded or harmed by tech-driven systems. Ultimately, I aim to bridge the gap between legal frameworks and lived realities by helping create policy that safeguards the future of digital rights. Question 3: How do you pursue learning and intellectual growth outside of formal education? I’m a lifelong learner driven by curiosity and a deep desire to understand how systems work—and how they can work better. Outside of formal education, I regularly audit legal webinars, follow legislative hearings, and subscribe to academic journals on tech ethics and public policy. I also participate in roundtables and community-led workshops on equity, governance, and digital inclusion. These self-directed learning experiences have shaped my legal aspirations by showing me that change happens at the intersection of law, policy, and everyday people. For example, during the pandemic, I co-designed a regional childcare equity report by translating legal guidance into language families could understand. This reinforced my belief that legal literacy isn’t just for lawyers—it’s a justice tool for communities. Question 4: Describe a moment when you stood up for what was right despite facing opposition. While working at a nonprofit, I challenged a senior executive’s decision to exclude frontline staff from an equity working group. The plan was to limit participation to leadership, but I believed true equity required input from those most affected. I voiced my concerns privately and then publicly, knowing it could affect my standing. Though uncomfortable, I brought forward feedback from colleagues who feared retaliation. Initially, I was sidelined from the process. But I persisted—using data, employee feedback, and clear communication to advocate for an inclusive model. Eventually, the leadership revised the plan and created space for frontline voices. That experience taught me that standing up for justice often requires sustained pressure and clarity of purpose. It also reminded me that courage isn't the absence of risk—it's the choice to act anyway. Question 5: Imagine you had the resources to create a philanthropic initiative. What cause would you support, and why? I would launch a philanthropic initiative focused on digital justice for marginalized communities, particularly in the realm of artificial intelligence and surveillance technology. This fund would support community-based organizations, researchers, and legal advocates working to challenge biased algorithms, data misuse, and tech-enabled discrimination. As someone deeply engaged in the legal and policy implications of emerging tech, I’ve seen how underserved communities are often the testing ground for flawed or harmful technologies. Yet they’re rarely at the table when policies are shaped. My initiative would fund legal clinics, fellowships, and advocacy campaigns aimed at closing that gap—ensuring that those who are most impacted by innovation also have the resources to fight back, shape solutions, and thrive in a digital society.

I plan to use my law degree to address a social justice issue that is both urgent and often overlooked: the lack of legal accountability and equity in emerging technologies. As artificial intelligence, data systems, and automation reshape our world, they also risk reinforcing existing inequalities—particularly for communities of color, low-income populations, and those historically excluded from policymaking. These technologies are not inherently neutral. They carry the biases, assumptions, and blind spots of their creators, and without legal frameworks to govern their use, they can cause deep and lasting harm. As a first-generation Somali-American woman, I have seen firsthand what it means to be left out of systems that were not built for us. My mother immigrated to the U.S. with four small daughters after my father passed away. She worked tirelessly to ensure we had access to education, but we grew up without financial security, without a network, and without the protections that many of our peers took for granted. That experience taught me the power of policy—but also its limitations when it lacks enforcement and legal teeth. After earning a Master’s in Sustainable Development and working in policy roles for organizations like the Seattle Foundation and United Way, I realized that many of the most promising equity-focused initiatives failed because they lacked legal infrastructure. Whether I was working on childcare access, environmental justice, or digital inclusion, the same problem surfaced: policy can inspire change, but only law can institutionalize it. That realization led me to pursue the Master in Law program at Penn Carey Law. I am now building a consulting firm—Novara Strategies—that helps emerging tech companies, advocacy groups, and mission-driven organizations navigate AI governance, data privacy, and ethical innovation. My goal is to use my legal training to ensure that the communities most affected by technology are not an afterthought in how it is developed, deployed, and regulated. With my law degree, I plan to continue working at the intersection of tech policy, law, and public interest. I want to help shape federal and state regulations that protect people from algorithmic harm, prevent surveillance abuse, and create fairer systems for access to data, opportunity, and privacy. I also hope to advise companies and public agencies on how to build technology that reflects human values—not just efficiency and scale. For me, the law is more than a career path—it’s a tool for structural change. And I plan to use it to ensure that equity isn’t an aspiration in the tech space—it’s the standard.