Kate Vengraitis
Katie Vengraitis (LAW ’15)

The Stoneleigh Foundation has named Kate Vengraitis LAW ’15 as the recipient of an Emerging Leaders Fellowship. She is one of three young professionals chosen by the Foundation as 2016-2017 Fellows.

Vengraitis is currently completing a yearlong clerkship on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. She is a 2015 graduate of Temple Law, where she represented clients through the Medical-Legal Partnership at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, the Mazzoni Center, and the Temple Legal Aid Office. While in law school, Vengraitis also completed internships at Community Legal Services, Community Legal Aid Society, Inc., and the Institute on Disabilities. As a law student, Vengraitis served on the Boards of the Student Public Interest Network, the Women’s Law Caucus, and the Health Law Society; she also served as the Executive Editor for the Temple Law Review.

The Emerging Leader Fellowship provides a dynamic, hands-on experience for young professionals interested in addressing the needs of Greater Philadelphia’s most vulnerable youth through policy analysis, research, or advocacy.  Fellows work collaboratively with a host organization to execute projects that simultaneously advance the mission of the organization and allow the Fellow to gain new skills.

The Fellowship will support Vengraitis’ work at the Defender Association of Philadelphia, where she will work with that organization’s Juvenile Unit, along with experts at the Education Law Center and the Disability Rights Network, to strengthen attorneys’ ability to provide holistic representation and educational advocacy for dependent and delinquent clients with special education needs.