Meet These LGBTQ Student Trailblazers: 2026 Markowski-Leach Scholarship

Hello! My name is Layne Fajeau (he/him), and I am a queer, incoming 1L at UC Law San Francisco. I grew up on the outskirts of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta estuary, and I have centered my studies and career around protecting the species, ecosystems, and communities that depend upon it. I carried this passion to UC Berkeley, where I earned a B.S. in Society and Environment and a B.A. in Political Economy, with a concentration in California Water. Throughout my time at Berkeley, as a student, campus environmental organizer, and marching band leader, I wore my queerness with a deep sense of pride and responsibility. Since graduating, I have worked as a water policy advocate with Sierra Club California, where I fight for water justice and equitable environmental policy across the state. I now live in the Castro and have become deeply connected to San Francisco’s queer community, inextricably tied to the generations of LGBTQ advocates and organizers whose legacy continues to shape the city.

As I begin law school, I am thrilled to continue my journey as an environmental advocate by learning to apply the law for the protection of people and ecosystems. I am incredibly grateful to the Markowski-Leach Scholarship Foundation for supporting both my education and my commitment to public-interest advocacy. As I move forward in my career, I carry with me a commitment to being an out, visible, and proud queer person wherever I go.

My name is Savi Ghoriwala, and I am a transgender woman from India, a first-generation college student, and the founder of Paradigm Shift, a nonprofit that has helped over 5,000 transgender women living below the poverty line.

Before Stanford, I was the first transgender woman to publicly come out at PwC India, a firm of 25,000 people. In the months that followed, over 50 colleagues came out. I wrote The Rainbow Economy, a financial guide for Indian LGBTQIA+ individuals, because I wanted queer people to see themselves as capable of building wealth, not just surviving.

At Stanford GSB, I will study how capital markets can be redesigned to serve the founders they currently overlook. My goal is to build a technology-led incubator for queer founders in the Global South, where LGBTQIA+-founded startups receive less than 0.5% of total startup funding.

Receiving the Markowski-Leach Scholarship means much more than financial support. 

Tom and Jim built something for people who want to make the world better because they knew what it costs when it isn't. I hope to carry their legacy forward by ensuring the next generation of queer leaders knows that a seat at the table was always meant for them, too.

My name is Anderson Junjie Lu, and I am a physician and PhD candidate in Epidemiology at Stanford University. Before coming to the United States, I trained as a physician in China and cared for patients from many walks of life, including members of the sexual and gender minority (SGM) community, where I witnessed how stigma and silence shaped people's health. Those experiences led me to Harvard for an MPH and now to Stanford, where my research investigates the multilevel determinants of SGM mental health — from individual identity to the policies that shape entire populations. I also serve on the China Rainbow Network Scholarship committee, supporting the next generation of LGBTQ+ Chinese students.

Receiving the Markowski-Leach Scholarship is a true honor. I am deeply grateful to the Selection Committee and to the legacy of Tom Markowski and Jim Leach, whose vision continues to support emerging LGBTQ+ leaders today. I look forward to carrying that legacy forward through my research and service.

Thank you again for this honor.

Hi everyone! I’m an incoming law student at UC Berkeley School of Law committed to reimagining public safety by addressing the root causes of harm. As a prison abolitionist, I’m inspired by the leadership and teachings of communities most targeted by state-sanctioned carceral violence—especially Black, queer communities—which challenge us to envision justice beyond punishment and incarceration.

My interest in the law is grounded in my organizing with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, an organization that challenges abusive conditions in California women’s prisons and advocates for the release of incarcerated women and trans people. Through this work, I’ve helped amplify the voices of people incarcerated in the San Francisco County Jail and supported participatory defense efforts that engage those most impacted by the carceral system in the criminal defense process. This model works to demystify legal knowledge while centering community-led advocacy and collective power.

As a recipient of the Markowski-Leach scholarship and JD candidate, I will continue to fight for criminalized people in California while forwarding visions for structural change in our criminal legal system. 

My name is Daria Rego (she/they) and I am a graduate student at San Francisco State University completing my Master's in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. Outside of my Master's I am also a Board Certified Patient Advocate and work to advance accessibility of mental and physical healthcare for the LGBTQ+ community. Having personally experienced the impact that affirming healthcare can have on LGBTQ+ lives, I hope to work in that field following the completion of my degree. In my work, I strive to create spaces where clients feel seen, respected, and safe to explore their identities without judgment. I draw on my own experience and  training to meet people where they are, knowing healing looks different for everyone. I am passionate about reducing the barriers that keep marginalized communities from quality care. Ultimately, I hope to bring my counseling and patient advocacy experience together to build a more inclusive, affirming healthcare system, one person at a time.

Hi! My name is noon sharfeldin (they/she) and I’m a medical student and PRIME-US Fellow at UC San Francisco School of Medicine, a musical theater performer, and a trans-queer Afrikan Muslim community healthcare worker. Originally born in Cairo, I immigrated to Lenapehoking (so called ‘South Brooklyn’) in 2007. As a first-generation working-class student at Pomona College, I completed my bachelor’s degree in Gender and Women’s Studies and Middle Eastern Studies focusing on trans primary care in Lebanon and Black and Latiné hereditary breast and ovarian cancer education. After, I returned to Egypt working on providing housing and medical support for forcibly displaced Sudanese families. This past year, I’ve been working with the Muslim Alliance for Gender and Sexual Diversity (MASGD) as the Community Health and Communications Director. At UCSF, I’m excited to explore how preventative medicine can exist in “third spaces” beyond traditional clinics, including community centers, cafés, cultural events, or patients’ homes, where Black & Brown trans and gender-diverse people already find home. With the support of the Markowski-Leach Scholarship, I hope to further my studies on the prevalence, screening, and root-cause care for chronic inflammatory diseases among the most marginalized of the most marginalized in our society.

thank you!  deepest gratitude

Val Suarez is a queer migrant student organizer from Lima, Peru. Val is a second-year student at UC Berkeley’s Master of Social Welfare. Val has a decade of expertise in immigrant and LGBTQ+ rights advocacy, particularly in community organizing, facilitation, and program coordination. Before starting the MSW program, Val worked as the DreamSF Coordinator at the San Francisco Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs (OCEIA) for six years. During their tenure, Val mentored and case-managed over 120 undocumented young people. With a passion for migrant youth’s wellness and empowerment, Val completed their foundational placement at the Oakland Unified School District as a Behavioral Health Intern, where they provided individual and group therapy for newcomer youth. Upon completing their master’s program, Val plans to become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. In the future, Val hopes to create healing and wellness spaces for undocumented queer youth to receive culturally relevant, trauma-informed care. 

Hello! My name is Ray Oxalis Williams (they/them). I’m an Oakland native raised by public-school history teachers and I am privileged to currently study Molecular and Cell Biology & Japanese at the University of California Berkeley. 

For the past 3 years, I have run the Trans Tween group at Berkeley’s Pacific Center, where I mentored elementary and middle school-aged trans youth. During my first internship in high school at Aspen Institute, I completed a research project regarding the history of modern gynecological knowledge and its roots in slavery, something I find a bit ironic, considering the fact that I would later be diagnosed with endometriosis and experience poor medical care. 

These experiences, along with many others, have led me to pursue a career in medicine as an OB-GYN or Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner. Last year, I started my medical career after graduating from the Bay Area Training Academy as a certified EMT. As a medical provider, I intend to utilize my own personal experiences to serve my community, preventing harm and truly prioritizing the patients that I serve.  

Thank you again.