Amy Valor Meselson (December 4, 1971 – July 22, 2018) was the managing lawyer for the New York City-based Immigrant Justice Corps. She worked in the immigration law unit of New York's Legal Aid Society from 2002, helping then-high school student Amadou Ly and other migrant children. In 2016 she traveled to Greece to volunteer at a

Syrian Syrians ( ar, سُورِيُّون, ''Sūriyyīn'') are an Eastern Mediterranean ethnic group indigenous to the Levant. They share common Levantine Semitic roots. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend of both indi ...

refugee camp A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced peo ...

. She was managing attorney for the Immigrant Justice Corps when she died by suicide at home on July 22, 2018. In addition to the depression she had been battling since she was a child, '' The Independent'' wrote, "She had also recently been diagnosed with extreme anxiety and

attention deficit disorder Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise Development ...

, conditions that may have been exacerbated by the time she spent at the camp."

Family and education

Born in Boston to

Matthew Matthew may refer to: * Matthew (given name) * Matthew (surname) * ''Matthew'' (ship), the replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497 * ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith * Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Ch ...

and Sarah Page Meselson, she received her

Bachelor's A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ye ...

degree from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

and a Master's from Harvard University, both in

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

. She received her J.D. from Yale.

References

1971 births 2018 suicides 2018 deaths 2018 in New York City American people of Jewish descent 20th-century American women lawyers Deaths by person in New York City Harvard University alumni New York (state) lawyers Yale Law School alumni 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American women Suicides in New York City {{US-law-bio-stub