Current Fellows

CLASS OF 2011

Derek Tripp

Derek Tripp was born and raised in Northern California. He attended the University of California at Davis, receiving a B.A. in both English and Political Science. During his senior year, Derek interned with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in Washington, D.C. His time at the Task Force is where he first learned about Hofstra's LGBT Rights Fellowship and helped solidify his decision to attend law school. After completing his undergraduate education, Derek spent a year in Sacramento working on a local campaign and with an environmental lobbyist. He has now finished his first year of law school at Hofstra as one of their 2011 LGBT Rights Fellows. This summer Derek is interning with Global Rights on their LGBTI Initiative focusing on, among other things, violations against LGBTI people under international human rights law.

Eric Lesh

Originally from Largo, Florida, Eric graduated from The Boston Conservatory of Music with a B.F.A in Musical Theater. He is a member of the Actors Equity Association, appearing in plays across the country including the original workshop of the Tony Award winning Broadway musical Spring Awakening. In 2005, Eric co-founded the Sturm and Drang Theater Company which produced original and established plays by gay playwrights and featuring gay and lesbian characters.

Shortly after Hurricane Katrina, Eric relocated to New Orleans where he worked as a director for a non-profit group that teaches violence prevention to students in the city’s public schools. Eric has also spent the past five summers in the Berkshires at a fine arts camp teaching classes in Musical Theater and Shakespeare. In addition to teaching, Eric is interested in politics and has worked as a political consultant for an international polling firm. There he had the opportunity to work on projects on behalf of candidates such as Michael Bloomberg and Hillary Clinton. Eric’s desire to attend Hofstra Law School stemmed from both his interests in politics and teaching.

Kelly McNamee

Kelly graduated from the University of Rochester with a major in Philosophy and Women’s Studies and a minor in Comparative Literature. During her sophomore year, she was named Education Chair of The Pride Network, the University of Rochester’s LGBT advocacy group. After a year serving in this position, Kelly was elected as Director of The Pride Network. Kelly lead the group in an effort to convince the campus community that it was necessary to add the phrase “gender expression and identity” to the University’s Student Organization Constitution: Section on Discrimination. It was this experience that first inspired Kelly to become a legal advocate on behalf of sexual minorities. While at the University of Rochester, Kelly also sat on the board of the Diversity Roundtable and Philosophy Colloquium.

For the past two years Kelly has worked at Levy Phillips & Konigsberg LLP, a Manhattan firm specializing in plaintiff personal injury matters. During her employment there, Kelly had the opportunity to serve as lead paralegal in a jury trial resulting in a $2.25 million verdict for the plaintiff.