Mikaylah Ladue

Mikaylah (she/her) graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University with a bachelor’s degree in legal and political anthropology and certificates in Latin American studies and gender and sexuality studies. After graduation, she was a fellow with the Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative (SINSI) at Princeton, where she received a master’s degree in public affairs, with high distinction.

During undergraduate, Mikaylah was involved with several community and student organizations, focusing on issues such as providing education in prisons, addressing homelessness within the local community, and advocating for human-centered drug policies and harm reduction. She also interned with the Women’s Law Project and was a legal assistant to a local attorney, focusing on domestic and sexual violence, drug-related offenses, and child abuse cases.

Mikaylah began her SINSI fellowship at the U.S. Institute of Peace, where she focused on atrocity prevention and conflict-related sexual violence. During a secondment period, she provided research and drafting support to the United Nations Framework for the Prevention of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence. Mikaylah continued this work with the Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, including authoring a report on atrocity prevention and sexual and gender-based crimes in the criminal legal system. With the Department of State Office of Global Criminal Justice, she developed and executed three functional portfolios addressing gender identity and sexual orientation, as well as sexual, reproductive, and gender-based violence. Lastly, with the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Special Litigation Section, she focused on sexual and gender-based crimes and use of force analysis.

Mikaylah currently works for the Princeton University Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, where she is authoring a series of reports for joint publication with the United Nations Office of Children and Armed Conflict on gender-inclusive and child-responsive release and reintegration processes. She is interested in continuing her work on sexual violence and violence against children, particularly as this violence interacts with the criminal legal system, both at home and abroad.