Jamila Beesley of Bethlehem, New York graduated from Brown University with a Bachelor's degree in American Studies and International and Public Affairs. Jamila wrote her senior honors thesis on intra-community caste discrimination in South Asian American diasporic spaces through a gendered lens. During her time at Brown, she earned numerous accolades including: the Department of American Studies Thesis Prize, the Ruth Simmons Thesis Prize in Gender and Women’s Studies, the Center for Contemporary South Asia Thesis Prize in South Asian Studies and Alfred H. Joslin Award for her contributions to campus student life as the Lead Coordinator of Sexual Assault Peer Education (SAPE). The SAPE program facilitates workshops on sexual, relationship, and gender-based harm prevention. She is currently employed as a Senior Legal Assistant at national civil rights law firm Sanford Heisler Sharp, LLP, where she assists on civil rights litigations and settlement negotiations.

As a Marshall scholar, Jamila plans to study at Oxford University to pursue an MSc degree in Migration Studies followed by an MSc in Digital Sociology at the University of Edinburgh.