The ABA Tax Section yesterday announced the winners of its two Public Service Tax Fellowships:

Anna Tavis, scheduled to earn her J.D. from the Boston College Law School in May 2011. After graduating, Tavis will be working on tax-related matters at the South Brooklyn Legal Services in Brooklyn, N.Y. … Anna Tavis will work with the Immigrant Workers’ Tax Advocacy Project to provide community education, outreach and representation to low-income immigrants in Brooklyn. Anna’s project will focus on Russian- and Spanish-speaking workers who encounter barriers to obtaining tax credits, and who are involved in controversies with the IRS. Anna is fluent in both Russian and Spanish. …

Sean Norton, currently a lawyer in private practice in Jenkintown, Pa. Norton will be returning to his native state of Maine to work with Pine Tree Legal Assistance, Inc. … to expand federal tax assistance in Maine and to implement an outreach program that will increase the organization’s panel of volunteer tax lawyers and allow the organization to offer services to the mentally ill. …

The Public Service Fellowships were developed in 2008 to address the need for tax legal assistance, and to foster an interest in tax-related public service among those individuals who participate. The fellowships provide funding for the Fellows’ salaries and benefits, as well as law school debt assistance, by means of charitable contributions to the sponsoring organizations. All applications were reviewed and the successful applicants selected by the Tax Section’s Public Service Fellowship Committee. The section plans to award as many as two fellowships each year.