Six Yale alumni, including a member of Yale College’s Class of 2026 and another Yale graduate who is also now pursuing a degree at Yale Law School, are among 87 scholars from 31 countries recently named Knight-Hennessy Scholars at Stanford University. The scholars were selected for their independent thought, leadership, and civic mindedness.The cohort will pursue graduate degrees in 45 programs across Stanford’s seven graduate schools.Knight-Hennessy Scholars is a multidisciplinary graduate scholarship program that helps develop future leaders. The scholars receive up to three years of financial support to pursue graduate studies at Stanford while also engaging in experiences that prepare them to tackle global challenges.More information about the six Yale alumni follows.Sam Brakarsh ’21, who is from Harare, Zimbabwe, is pursuing a J.D. at Stanford Law School. Brakarsh, who graduated from Yale with a bachelor’s degree in social psychology and global health, also holds an M.Sc. in African studies from the University of Oxford. For the last three years, he has served as the Africa regional representative for Artists at Risk Connection, advancing legislative reform across 11 countries and coordinating emergency response for artists persecuted for their expression. He recently authored and passed the African Union Resolution on the Promotion and Protection of Artistic Freedom and chaired the Pan-African Summit on Artist Freedom in Zanzibar (2025) and Ethiopia (2026). He has also worked with the Clinton Health Access Initiative to strengthen community health systems, contributed to the expert group on digital governance for the Scottish Parliament, and currently sits on the Social Prescribing Design Team for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.Leah Clayton ’24, from Evergreen, Colorado, is pursuing a Ph.D. in earth system science at Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. At Yale she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in earth and planetary sciences and certificates in climate science and solutions and energy studies. She aspires to help mitigate anthropogenic climate change by first understanding earth-system resilience to disturbances and then identifying context-specific, responsible, and durable solutions that focus on hydroclimate and wildfire. As part of the NASA Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment, Clayton researched how climate change is altering permafrost ecosystems and intensifying wildfires, which in turn increase greenhouse gas emissions. Motivated to address these impacts in the Arctic, she switched her focus to bring earth-science approaches to emerging climate solutions at the Carbon Containment Lab, an interdisciplinary nonprofit. She led projects across the western United States that combined wildfire mitigation with biomass carbon removal and storage.Kaley Pillinger ’21 B.A./M.A., who is from New York City, is pursuing a master’s degree in business administration from Stanford Graduate School of Business while concurrently earning a J.D. at Yale Law School. She also graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Yale with a double major in economics and history and a master’s degree in history. Her career focuses on affordable housing and equitable urbanism. At Yale Law, she served as the first employee of Oak Point Capital, an affordable housing investment platform, and as an advisor to the National Housing Crisis Task Force. Prior to graduate school, Pillinger worked in real estate at Blackstone and in affordable housing development at Fairstead, where her responsibilities included a $600 million renovation of an 87-building portfolio in Brooklyn. At Yale, she was awarded the Porter Prize in American History. She is a recipient of the Samvid Scholarship and Goldie B. Wolfe Miller Scholarship.Andrew Rice ’19, from Glendale, Arizona, is pursuing a master’s degree in business administration at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He received a bachelor’s degree in physics and mechanical engineering from Yale University, and a master’s degree in applied and computational mathematics from Johns Hopkins University. He aspires to found ventures that build advanced computational systems to enhance foresight and support high-level strategic decision-making. Rice served seven years in the U.S. government, where he led multiple foreign-based strategic initiatives that significantly expanded operational capabilities. As a result, he was chosen to brief select Cabinet members on the National Security Council and multiple Congressional Committees on the impact of his team’s work. Andrew is a QuestBridge Scholar and recipient of several distinguished awards for his government service.Veer Sangha ’23, who is from Columbia, Missouri, is pursuing an M.D. at Stanford School of Medicine. At Yale, he received a bachelor’s degree in computer science. As an undergraduate, he conducted research with the Cardiovascular Data Science Lab, developing novel AI-enabled technologies to make the detection of heart disease more accessible in resource-limited settings across the world. He then attended the University of Oxford, pursuing a D.Phil. in engineering sciences with the Computational Health Informatics Lab. There, he developed multimodal models to improve diagnosis and track disease progression. Sangha’s research has been published in leading journals including Circulation, the European Heart Journal, and Nature Cardiovascular Research. He co-founded Ensight-AI, which received a Breakthrough Device Designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in recognition of the company’s ability to diagnose structural heart disease. He is a recipient of the Rhodes Scholarship and the Elizabeth Barrett-Connor Early Career Research Award.Christian Thomas ’26, from Baltimore, Maryland, will be pursuing a master’s degree in policy, organization, and leadership studies at Stanford Graduate School of Education and a master’s degree in public policy from Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences. He recently graduated from Yale College with a bachelor’s degree in political science and certificates in education studies and Spanish. He is interested in education policy, focusing on equitable school choice, whole-child approaches, and comparative international education. Before matriculating at Yale, he represented 111,000 constituents on the Baltimore County Public Schools Board of Education. He has since worked in three congressional offices in the Maryland and Connecticut state legislatures and served as president of the Yale College Democrats. His research examines implementation of the community school model in urban settings. At Yale, Thomas received the Class of 1960 John Heinz Government Service Fellowship and the John C. Schroeder Public Service Award. He enjoys writing poetry.