Dianne Lake

Dianne Lake is a J.D. Candidate at Yale Law School originally from Freetown, Sierra Leone. Her family immigrated to the U.S. following the Sierra Leonean Civil War and has since been based in Los Angeles. She graduated with a B.A. in Political Science and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Yale College in 2016 where she completed her senior thesis on the transformative effects of women’s political participation in Liberia, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone, and the development paradoxes that hinder gender equality in post-conflict African nations. Before attending Yale Law School, she worked as a Woodbridge Fellow for the Yale Office of International Affairs and curated Yale’s Contemporary African Arts and Culture Festival, Africa Salon. At Yale Law School, she serves as the president of the Black Law Students Association and a Dean’s Advisor. She is also actively engaged in human rights work as a law student intern in the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic. Dianne’s research and academic interests include international law, African affairs, human rights, racial justice, feminist theory, transitional justice, and the intersections of art and social justice.