Josephine Messina (she/her/hers) LAW ’24 is a Law & Public Policy Scholar at Temple University Beasley School of Law. Prior to law school, she graduated from the James Madison University Honors College in 2021 with a Bachelor of Science in Statistics. Her undergraduate thesis, “Regulating the Right to Bear Arms: A Statistical Analysis of Gun Control Policies and Gun Violence in the United States,” won the JMU 2021 Mathematics & Statistics Undergraduate Research Award.
Since beginning law school, Josephine had the opportunity to work as a legal intern for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office in the Family Violence and Sexual Assault Division. Most recently, Josephine worked as a legal intern at the Mazzoni Center in Philadelphia, where she assisted low-income transgender, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming clients in filing to change their legal names. Next year, Josephine will serve as the Executive Articles Editor for the Temple International & Comparative Law Journal Volume 38.
As a L&PP Scholar, Josephine will work as a legal intern with the HIV, STI, and Harm Reduction Policy Team at the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), a nonprofit organization in Washington D.C. dedicated to improving the health of communities by strengthening and advocating for local health departments. Her policy interests include criminal justice reform and public health law, with a specific focus on LGBTQIA+ rights, harm reduction, and reproductive justice.