Tatyana Hopkins

Social Justice Cannabis Fellow

Tatyana Hopkins has long been a dedicated advocate for social justice. Through her professional background as a journalist as well as a legal scholar, she has worked to amplify the voices of Black communities seeking equitable remedies for systemic harms. Currently, Tatyana serves as a cannabis policy and social justice fellow with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, where she aims to continue advocating for fair inclusion of Black people in the growing legal cannabis industry.

Prior to law school, Tatyana wrote for member newspapers of the National Newspaper Publishers Association—a national association of Black-owned newspapers. As a journalist, she covered the Flint water crisis and the efforts of CBC members to call attention to the ongoing crisis, issues of concern to Black residents in Washington, D.C., as well as recovery efforts in Puerto Rico post-Hurricane Maria.

Having a legal education rooted in system change and social justice, Tatyana’s legal scholarship called for responsiveness to a broad range of issues affecting marginalized communities. Often with a strong focus on how institutional systems and structures disproportionately impacted Black communities, her work included policy and direct-impact projects as well as publications centered on juvenile, economic, voting, and environmental justice. Tatyana completed her Bachelor’s of Arts in Journalism at Howard University, and received her Juris Doctorate from the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law.