Sophia Loughlin

Sophia Loughlin is a Senior Legal Assistant in the Baltimore office of Sanford Heisler Sharp, a national law firm with offices in the District of Columbia, New York, California, Tennessee, Maryland, and Georgia. She received her B.A. with honors from  Johns Hopkins University, where she majored in International Studies and History.

At Hopkins, Sophia’s academic interests included urban history, migration, and conceptions of citizenship. Her senior thesis, “An Elusive Promise: Baltimore School Reform in the 1990s,” won the 2021 Kouguell Memorial Prize for the best thesis in the History Department. Sophia’s thesis drew on archival research, oral interviews, and quantitative data to illustrate the necessity of prioritizing community voices in public education. Throughout her time at Hopkins, Sophia served as the Director of Research for the university’s Public Policy Consulting Group, leading a team of students in evaluating the social and economic implications of proposed federal policies. Sophia also volunteered as a GED tutor for returning citizens in Baltimore and advocated for programs to reduce recidivism.

Sophia previously interned at Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), a legal nonprofit that provides representation for unaccompanied immigrant children seeking asylum. She also worked in the Office of U.S. Congressman John Sarbanes and at the Bretton Woods Committee, a nonpartisan network that promotes international economic cooperation.

Sophia hopes to attend law school in the future and ultimately pursue a dual JD/MA degree in Law and Public Policy.