2024-2026
Wenrui Chen earned her law degree from CUNY School of Law in 2024. She also received her B.A. in anthropology from the University of Chicago (2007) and her M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from NYU (2015), where her research focused on cross-cultural health, therapy, and family relationships. Over the summer of 2023, Wenrui interned at the New York City Commission on Human Rights, where she assisted in investigations of allegations of violations of the NYC Human Rights Law, focusing on issues involving employment and disability discrimination and public accommodations. Wenrui also completed CUNY Law's Health and Environmental Practice Clinic during her fall 2023 semester, which included a placement with the Elder Law Practice/Public Benefits Unit at the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG). As a legal extern at NYLAG, Wenrui prepared argument outlines for Fair Hearings and assisted in preparing and drafting advance directives for older, low-income New Yorkers. Prior to law school, Wenrui was a fellow at the India China Institute at the New School and an adjunct instructor at Brooklyn College. She has published articles in Culture, Medicine & Psychiatry, The Family Journal, and The Conversation.
As a 2024-2026 Borchard Fellow, Wenrui will be hosted by the Evelyn Frank Legal Resources Program (EFLRP) at NYLAG, where she will lead a project representing and expanding English and Mandarin legal services related to Medicaid and Medicare for older Chinese American New Yorkers and their caregivers, seeking to address the current justice gap in civil legal services for the Chinese American New York community. As part of the project, Wenrui will conduct a multi-borough assessment of the unmet legal services needs of older Chinese American adults, strengthen and build community partnerships between EFLRP and the Chinese American community, provide direct representation to older Chinese American adults in NYC to meet care-recipients and caregivers' Medicare and Medicaid long-term needs, and engage in other services such as bilingual Medicaid and Medicare related trainings for Chinese speaking medical professionals, NYLAG's multilingual advance planning clinics, and providing appropriate referrals to existing citywide programs run by community partners.
