OPICS Public Interest Leaders in Residence Program 2026 Class

John Cusick

Residency Dates: Wednesday, September 30 – Friday, October 2, 2026

John Cusick serves as Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF). In this role, he has litigated voting rights cases nationwide at the trial and appellate levels, including challenges to penal disenfranchisement, voter-registration restrictions, limited early-voting opportunities, discriminatory voter challenges, and other racially discriminatory barriers that impede access to the ballot box. Among his active cases, John is part of the litigation teams in League of Women Voters v. Trump, challenging the President’s unlawful executive order mandating a documentary proof of citizenship requirement on the federal voter registration form; League of Women Voters of Massachusetts v. Trump, challenging the President’s unlawful executive order restricting mail-in voting; and NAACP v. USPS, monitoring the USPS’s compliance with a settlement agreement to ensure it timely delivers election mail. During the post-2020 redistricting cycle, John has worked on several cases challenging racially discriminatory maps in Arkansas, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Tennessee, including cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

John has also spearheaded LDF advocacy efforts at the state and county levels to combat racial voter suppression, including fighting cuts to early voting access, mass voter challenges, polling place closures, and voter intimidation. He has led or co-led LDF’s election protection efforts in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas during recent elections. And he continues working with community members in many jurisdictions to adopt fair and non-discriminatory redistricting maps.

He is also an Adjunct Professor of Clinical Law at New York University School of Law, where he co-teaches the Racial Equity Strategies Clinic, and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, where he teaches an election law seminar.

He received his J.D. from New York University School of Law and his B.A. from CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Madeline Meth

Residency Dates: Wednesday, October 14 – Friday, October 16, 2026

Madeline (Maddie) Meth joined Boston University School of Law’s faculty in 2023 as a Clinical Associate Professor with the Civil Litigation & Justice Program. In 2024, she founded BU Law’s Appellate Clinic. She was previously the Deputy Director of Georgetown Law’s Appellate Courts Immersion Clinic (ACIC) where she supervised students working on public-interest cases in federal and state courts of appeals and the Supreme Court. Maddie has litigated dozens of public-interest cases before appellate courts around the country on behalf of under-dog clients. Her cases have involved a range of issue areas including consumer law, labor and employment law, student civil rights, prisoner rights, and immigration law. While at Georgetown, Maddie also volunteered with the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless where she provided legal assistance to clients experiencing homelessness or the threat of homelessness. Before returning to Georgetown Law (her alma mater) to teach, Maddie worked at AARP’s Legal Counsel for the Elderly, providing legal services to low-income seniors living in the District of Columbia. She also clerked for the Honorable George J. Hazel on the U.S. District Court in Maryland and for the Honorable Jane B. Stranch on the Sixth Circuit.

Yunie Hong

Residency Dates: Wednesday, October 21 – Friday, October 23, 2026

Yunie Hong is the Supervising Attorney for the Immigration Unit at the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center (APALRC), where she leads the provision of legal services for low-income immigrants seeking humanitarian immigration relief in the Washington, D.C. region. Throughout her career, she has combined direct representation, policy advocacy, and program leadership to advance access to justice for low-income immigrants and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities.

Prior to joining APALRC, Yunie served as a Trial Attorney in the Immigrant and Employee Rights Section of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, where she enforced federal laws protecting workers from discrimination based on citizenship, immigration status, and national origin. Earlier in her career, she represented low-income immigrants at Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County and the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, including individuals in immigration detention, survivors of torture and abuse, and others seeking humanitarian forms of immigration relief. She later served as Director of Policy Advocacy at Hmong National Development, leading national advocacy efforts with Congress and federal agencies to address barriers facing low-income, limited English proficient Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Her experience also includes serving as a Pro Bono Coordinating Attorney with Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), mentoring attorneys representing unaccompanied children in immigration proceedings, and as Program Manager at the Gilchrist Immigrant Resource Center in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Yunie earned her B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles and her J.D. from Berkeley Law. She was selected as a 2013 Community in the Capital Fellow in recognition of her work on behalf of low-income AAPI communities. She is admitted to practice law in California and the District of Columbia.

Quiana Harris

Residency Dates: Wednesday, October 28 – Friday, October 30, 2026

Quiana Harris is a Supervising Trial Attorney at the D.C. Public Defender Service. She began her career in public defense as an E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow of the Georgetown Law’s Juvenile Justice Clinic. Here, she defended children and adults facing criminal charges while supervising student attorneys in the DC Superior Court. From Georgetown, Quiana went on to join DC PDS, where she has tried several criminal cases while also serving on the faculty of Harvard Law School’s Trial Advocacy Workshop and University of Baltimore School of Law’s Clinical Law Program.

Quiana is a member of the Black Public Defender Association and has led trainings across the country focused on trial advocacy and client-centered representation. She is the proud native of Rich Square, North Carolina and graduate of Howard University School of Law. She received her Bachelors of Arts in Political Science from Winston-Salem State University.

Taryn Null

Residency Dates: Wednesday, November 4 – Friday, November 6, 2026

Taryn Wilgus Null is a Senior Counsel at Democracy Defenders Fund where she litigates cases to protect democracy and the rule of law. Before joining DDF in March 2025, she spent nearly a decade as a Senior Trial Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Employment Litigation Section, where she litigated Title VII and USERRA cases. Before her time at DOJ, Taryn was an Associate at Mehri & Skalet, PLLC, a small, public-spirited law firm where she represented plaintiffs in employment, fair housing, and consumer protection cases. She also completed fellowships with Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the National Women’s Law Center, and clerked for Judge Noel Anketell Kramer on the D.C. Court of Appeals. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and Stanford University.

Emily Barth

Residency Dates: Wednesday, November 18 – Friday, November 20, 2026

Emily has spent the last fifteen years committed to public interest law – first as a public defender at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia representing indigent juveniles and adults, then at the Federal Defender Services Office, focusing on legislative and policy issues that impact federal defender and appointed panel attorneys, and now as an Assistant Attorney General at the DC Office of the Attorney General (OAG), focused on affirmative public advocacy litigation. Since February 2026, Emily has also served as the Director of OAG’s Consumer and Tenant Response (CTR) Program, which tries to resolve consumer and tenant complaints outside of court. Emily’s current work focuses on consumers and tenants in the District of Columbia, particularly underserved residents.

Emily graduated from Denison University with a degree in Cinema and East Asian Studies. After college, she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Bangladesh, teaching at an all-girls school and focusing on public health issues, such as reproductive rights and HIV/AIDS prevention practices. Before law school, Emily worked at the Ohio Justice and Policy Center serving as the monitor for a statewide prison healthcare class action to restore access to healthcare to incarcerated individuals. Emily graduated from the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Emily is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia.