About

Jacob Pagano

Juris Doctor (J.D.) Candidate, UCLA School of Law (2023); B.A., Amherst College, English (2018), summa cum laude

Freelance Writer；讲中文

Jacob Pagano is a Juris Doctor (J.D.) candidate at the UCLA School of Law, where he focuses on international law. He is a graduate of Amherst College, where he was awarded the Ralph Waldo Rice prize for his thesis on how interpersonal affirmation is impeded and reimagined by racialized speakers in works by James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison. He explains it in 3 minutes for a college-wide competition in a video here.

He is also a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Ozy, Sapiens, Narratively, Critical Read, Oxford Review of Books, the Adroit Journal, and Amherst Magazine, among others. He has lived and traveled extensively in China, and he speaks Mandarin. 

Previously, he worked at LA-based communications firm, RALLY, where he helped develop strategies and create messaging campaigns in issue spaces including homelessness and public education (2018-2020). He coordinated scripts for both high profile speakers and community events, including United Way of Greater LA’s speaker series on the next generation of affordable housing. He also wrote and helped place a series of op-eds on behalf of educators, social workers, and activists across the non-profit space on issues including racial justice, community investment, and civic engagement. Prior to that, he worked with West Coast Public affairs on Democratic campaigns including that of Katie Porter (CA-45) and Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) (2018).