Ella Gantman

Born in Hunan, China, and raised in Washington, D.C., Ella graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University in Spring 2023. During her time as an undergraduate student, she worked in various public service roles including internships at the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division; the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the District of Columbia; the U.S. House of Representatives; and the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies. Moreover, in 2020 Ella co-founded The Poll Hero Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit that mobilized over 37,000 young people to sign up as poll workers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative (SINSI) Graduate Scholar, she completed a summer internship with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, Special Litigation Section in Washington in 2024. Through all her work, Ella aims to advance racial equity with a focus on carceral reform and democracy building. Upon graduation, Gantman looks to work in the criminal legal reform advocacy space. Gantman is a former Division-1 athlete and enjoys finding new bubble tea spots.