Three Yale Law School Students Receive Peggy Browning Fellowships

Law School students Danielle Cross ’26, Rachel Vogel ’25, and Helen Zhao ’26 have been awarded Peggy Browning Fund fellowships in workplace justice advocacy. 

This year, Peggy Browning Fellows were chosen from more than 3,950 applications.

Cross will be at Community Legal Services (CLS) in Philadelphia. At the Law School, Cross is a member of the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic and an Executive Editor of the Yale Journal of Law and Policy. Originally from Jamaica, Cross studied psychological sciences and political science at the University of Connecticut. With a commitment to using data analysis for the public good, she pursued a Master of Public Policy degree after interning with the Labor and Public Employees Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly. Through the fellowship, Cross aims to support the labor movement and advance workplace justice

Vogel will be at Levy Ratner in New York, NY. Prior to law school, Rachel completed a Ph.D. in linguistics, where she focused on engagement with Indigenous community-led language rights and language revitalization programs in North America, Indonesia, and Nepal. At the Law School, Vogel is on the board of the National Lawyers Guild chapter, the Law and Political Economy student group, and the 2024 Rebellious Lawyering Conference. She also trains legal observers in Connecticut. After her first year of law school, Vogel interned in the employment law unit at Greater Boston Legal Services. 

Zhao will be at LIUNA Mid-Atlantic Regional Organizing Coalition (MAROC) in Reston, VA. During her 1L year, she volunteered for UNITE HERE Local 33, served as a legal observer, and joined the boards of the National Lawyers Guild and Law and Political Economy student chapters. Zhao grew up in Baltimore and graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2016. Before law school, she was a teaching assistant and member of Student Workers of Columbia-UAW Local 2710, where she took collective action with her coworkers and was elected to the bargaining committee to negotiate her union’s first contract. 

The Peggy Browning Fund aims to educate and inspire the next generation of advocates for workplace justice. The nonprofit organization was established in memory of Margaret A. Browning, prominent labor attorney and member of the National Labor Relations Board from 1994 to 1997.