Minnesota Law grads have a long and illustrious history of using their law degrees to make positive change for their communities. With the many challenges facing our world, the role of these changemakers is even more necessary and important.

Law School alumni are working to reform the criminal justice system, expand resources for marginalized populations, establish safer environments for children, improve access to healthy food in underserved neighborhoods, and promote corporate social responsibility, to name just a few endeavors.

Whether working for a small nonprofit, state government, or a global corporation, these changemaking alumni exercise leadership and tenacity, starting each day with a commitment to improve the well-being of individuals and whole communities.

“Our institutions and communities need capable professionals who think rigorously and model integrity in leading positive change,” says Dean Garry W. Jenkins, William S. Pattee Professor of Law. “This law school graduates lawyers with those skills and instills a deep sense of commitment to making our world a better place.”

While there are many alumni who are making a significant and noteworthy impact, we selected eight inspiring stories to highlight the diverse ways Minnesota Law graduates are effecting change for their communities.

Food as a Tool for Justice

Long before Michelle Horovitz ’05 came to Minnesota Law, she dreamed of attending culinary school. But her experiences in prosecution and defense clinics pointed her to a career in public interest law. She moved to Florida to work as a public defender in Miami-Dade County, where, she says, she got great training but also saw a lot of inequities and systemic injustice.

She chose to take a year off to pursue her dream of attending culinary school, but two weeks before she was set to start, she met Michelle Bernstein, a James Beard Award-winning chef who convinced Horovitz to get hands-on experience instead. Horovitz spent three months working for Bernstein as an unpaid prep cook, assistant to the pastry chef, and line cook, and was then hired full-time.

She eventually returned to the public defender’s office, where one day she noticed a food cart outside the courthouse that was run by teens who were on probation. “It sparked my interest in the social justice power of food,” she says. “I began to think that maybe a restaurant could be about building hope and careers.”

Horovitz returned to Minnesota in 2010, pondering how to combine her passions for social justice and food. She met two women who were equally interested in the topic and together they launched Appetite for Change, a nonprofit organization based in north Minneapolis. AFC offers community workshops, job training programs for youth, a cooperative commercial kitchen and business incubator for food entrepreneurs, and a restaurant that serves healthy, global food and provides jobs and a neighborhood gathering space. During the pandemic, AFC joined forces with the Minnesota Central Kitchen program to provide 8,500 meals per week to hungry families.

Horovitz, who serves as executive director, is crystal clear about the impact AFC seeks: “We want to promote health through accessible, affordable, and nutritious food, especially in areas that lack access. We want to create wealth through jobs and training. And we want to create social change by building connections and bridges between communities.”

Justice for Marginalized Populations

Andrew Gordon ’08 was on his way to becoming a doctor when his cousin was arrested and convicted of a drug and robbery offense in Florida. An undergrad at the time, Gordon was part of a forensics mock trial team, just learning his way around a courtroom. In that moment, he turned his focus to law. “I knew then that I wanted to be a lawyer because of my cousin and his experience with the criminal legal system,” Gordon says.

Today, he is deputy director for community legal services at the Legal Rights Center, a nonprofit law firm that seeks justice and promotes racial equity through criminal defense, restorative justice, advocacy, and community education. “We want to prevent that prison pipeline with youth and change the criminal legal system to recognize marginalized people as more than a number,” Gordon says. “I am privileged to be in a position that lets me have an impact every day.”

Gordon grew up in Jamaica and came to the U.S. to attend college. At Minnesota Law, his experience in the Misdemeanor Defense Clinic fueled his interest in public defense work. “It was one of the first experiences I had interviewing clients, and it taught me very early to be flexible, to understand where the client was coming from, and to talk to real people about real issues.”

After graduation, he moved to Boston and began work as a public defender with the Committee for Public Counsel Services. Six months later, his application to gain permanent residency was denied and his work permit expired. He chose to return to Minnesota and spent six months doing volunteer legal work for the Neighborhood Justice Center before the federal government admitted a mistake with his application to gain permanent residency. Shortly after it was approved, a position opened at the Legal Rights Center. He joined the staff and has spent the last decade advocating for individuals and communities who have been historically oppressed.

“I try to see every person as an individual with dreams and emotions,” he says. “My job is to empower them to make decisions and give them a voice. I’m a believer in building a community network that understands legal representation is one tool in your toolbox to advocate for change.”

Focusing Philanthropy on Native Communities

When Carly Bad Heart Bull ’11 looks at philanthropy evaluations of nonprofits, she rarely sees Native-led organizations in the rankings. “They are simply not on the radar of many funders or philanthropy-serving organizations,” she says. “Philanthropic organizations often have very little knowledge of and too few connections to Native communities.”

As executive director of Native Ways Federation, a group of seven national Native nonprofit organizations that advocates for investment in Indian country, she is out to fix that situation. “If we want Native people to be empowered and at the table, our systems have to change, and those systems are multi-layered. Philanthropy is one of those layers,” says Bad Heart Bull, Bdewakantunwan Dakota/Muskogee Creek and a citizen of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.

Bad Heart Bull began her legal career as an attorney in child protection, but soon started to feel the system disenfranchised Native people and was resistant to change. “I began to learn about philanthropy as another way to make progress, about how it could support big thinkers and new ways of looking at issues,” she says. She joined the staff of the St. Paul-based Bush Foundation, where she worked as a program officer for several years with Indigenous nations and communities. She joined Native Ways Federation in early 2020.

Bad Heart Bull has a keen understanding of the problematic systems that support Native people and communities. She and her identical twin sister, Kate Beane, dropped out of high school, dispirited by curricula and books that failed to mention their people or culture. She found her way back to college, studying and lobbying for funding for Indigenous languages at the University of Minnesota. “I knew how to talk about the importance of the work at a heart level,” she says. “But I also wanted to understand how to take a bill to tribal leaders and legislators, so I thought law school was a good idea.” Her legal education taught her to speak yet another language. “I come from a community whose voice is not often heard. The language of law, and how it helps you navigate systems of power, has been incredibly influential for me.”

Bad Heart Bull sees signs of progress. Last year, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation named her a fellow in a program for leaders working to create equity. She and her sister helped lead the restoration of Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis to its Dakota name, Bde Maka Ska, a place where her grandparents lived in a village many years ago. “People in broader society are asking more questions now,” she says. “They are asking for education and trainings around equity. They want to understand about investing in Indian country. We can help make those connections happen.”

Building Social Responsibility in Business

“Technology is amoral,” says Chad Jerdee ’94, global lead of responsible business, corporate sustainability, and citizenship for Accenture in Chicago. “Companies have to be the moral compass.”

Jerdee, helps businesses develop and embed responsible practices into their use of technology. In his previous job as general counsel and compliance officer for Accenture, he witnessed the rapid increase in risk as companies dealt with such issues as data privacy, artificial intelligence, automation, and the ability to manipulate behavior with social media. “I knew we needed to think forward about how businesses were going to function in this fast-paced world of technology,” he says.

His newly created position focuses on helping companies embed socially responsible thinking in their business models. “Good companies can cause a lot of harm if they aren’t careful,” he says. “Building a sustainable business is very much about thinking long-term about how to improve the way we work and live. We help people think ‘Is this right? Is it good? Could this result in something harmful? Does this put anybody at risk?’ This is a really important way for companies to think.”

Jerdee is also passionate about growing employment opportunities for persons with disabilities. In 2014, he lost his lower left leg when he was hit by a drunk driver. “I learned a lot in the aftermath of that experience,” he says. “It was personally enlightening time for me, and I discovered that the world makes big assumptions about disabilities.”

He joined the inclusion team at Accenture a year after his accident and introduced ways to move beyond a compliance mindset to a culture that significantly expanded disability employment opportunities. His work earned him the 2020 John D. Kemp Leadership Award from Disability:IN, a worldwide nonprofit focused on business disability inclusion. “I’m constantly thinking about the changes we need to make to be sure your whole self is appreciated when you get to work,” Jerdee says.

Driven by Civil Rights

Rebecca Lucero ’07 grounds her work as commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights in her intersectional identities as a queer woman of color.

Born and raised in New Mexico, Lucero developed a commitment to civil rights early in life when, while working alongside her father in grocery stores, she witnessed poor treatment of workers.

“I always wanted to be a lawyer,” she says. “I thought law school would be how I pursued justice, but I quickly realized that law and justice are very different.”

A graduate of Grinnell College in Iowa, Lucero is the only person in her family to earn a college degree. After graduating from the Law School, she worked as a civil rights lawyer for the Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis (now Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid) and as an administrative law judge for the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. During the home mortgage lending crisis, she took a position as a senior community representative in then-U.S. Congressman Keith Ellison’s office. This experience clarified for her the need for systems to work better.

“I wanted to fix the policies and practices that were causing harm to communities, particularly Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities,” she says. “It deepened my commitment to move from transactional to transformational work.”

She joined Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity to lead systems change work in housing policy and then moved to the Minnesota Council on Nonprofits to lobby on behalf of the entire nonprofit sector as policy director.

In January 2019, Governor Tim Walz and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan asked Lucero to lead the state’s civil rights enforcement agency, an opportunity that brings together her work in civil rights, policy, and leadership to make systems-level change.

“Our department’s vision is to create a world where everyone can lead lives full of dignity and joy, free from discrimination,” she says. “Minnesota has some of the worst racial disparities in the country in employment, housing, criminal justice, and education, so we must tackle this work strategically and boldly.”

This summer, following the killing of George Floyd, the department launched a civil rights investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department—the only investigation surrounding Floyd’s killing that focuses on the policies and practices of the MPD. Within a week of filing the charge of discrimination, the Human Rights Department also filed a temporary restraining order against the city of Minneapolis, requiring the police department to make immediate policy changes such as banning chokeholds and neck restraints.

Lucero says working closely with the community is vital. “We simply could not have done this so quickly without community members who have worked for these changes for decades.”

Keeping Kids Safe

Dev Gowda ’13 is passionate about safety in children’s products. As the assistant director for Kids In Danger, a small nonprofit based in Chicago, he wears many hats, but his favorite work focuses on developing public policy to keep children safe.

“We are pushing to make sure that products put on the market are safe and won’t hurt or kill a child,” he says. KID pursues legislation to strengthen product standards and government regulations and is working to ensure that designers and engineers keep safety top of mind in the product design process. Gowda also spends significant time building awareness of safety issues with parents and child care and medical providers.

KID was founded in 1998 by the parents of Danny Keysar, a baby who died when his portable crib collapsed around his neck. Gowda said the crib had been recalled five years earlier but the inspector who had reviewed the child care setting didn’t know about the recall. “Danny’s parents wanted to spread awareness of dangerous children’s products plus push for stronger standards,” he says. KID helped pass the 2008 Consumer Protection Safety Improvement Act, a landmark piece of legislation that mandates independent testing and bans lead and other harmful substances in children’s products.

Gowda now is at work on legislation to address dressers and bureaus that tip over onto children. The bill has passed the U.S. House and is pending in the Senate. He is also working with other groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics to ban hazardous crib bumper pads and inclined sleepers.

Gowda got interested in public policy after taking a clinics course where he worked on both litigation and public policy. After law school, he worked for an organization on toy safety issues. He moved to KID two years ago. “I’m really thankful I learned how to communicate about legislation with clarity when I was in law school, and how to speak in public,” Gowda says. “Both have been big parts of my job.”

Addressing the Racial Wealth Gap

Ten years ago, when Molly Porter ’10 began working at Wells Fargo, corporate social responsibility was a relatively new concept. “We were just dipping our toe in this area,” she says. “The division working on it needed a lawyer and I was interested.” One of her first tasks was to draft a human rights statement for the bank. “I was grateful for my legal training with that assignment,” she says. “Law school taught me to make every word count.”

A decade later, Porter is now senior vice president and co-head of community relations, leading a group of 140 people around the country who last year worked with community partners and elected officials to give away $444 million to nonprofits in all 50 states.

Porter has helped lead efforts to focus Wells Fargo’s giving in areas where the bank has expertise: housing affordability, small business growth, and financial education. The Wells Fargo Foundation now is one of the largest corporate foundations in the country in terms of annual cash gifts.

“We have been focused on paving a path to financial success in underserved communities for some time now,” Porter says. “We know that every person needs to have a safe and affordable place to live and access to high quality financial education and tools to build wealth. We also know that small businesses are the engine of the American economy, especially those businesses owned by entrepreneurs of color. Access to capital is a critical issue, so we are working to get capital for growth in the hands of businesses owned by people of color to impact their families and their communities.”

Porter is especially pleased to see a growing conversation nationwide about racial equity. “We know that our work must address systemic barriers to financial success for people of all backgrounds. We are always asking ourselves, how can our work help advance a more equitable economy for all?”

Impact Investing

Every day, as chief executive officer of the Bentson Foundation, Judi Dutcher ’87 contemplates how to deploy assets to improve people’s lives. “My job is to be mindful and respectful of the challenges people face and to understand ways we can have the most impact,” she says.

Last year, the foundation made $7 million in grants, primarily in the areas of arts and humanities, higher education, and mental health. “We look at the highest and best uses of the funds that reflect the passions of the board of trustees,” Dutcher says. “We rely on long-term relationships with community partners to set mutual goals. A great deal of my job is to figure out how far nonprofits can go to accomplish the impact we both want. We care most about impact.”

Dutcher brings diverse experience to her work. She practiced law in a small firm for the first few years of her career before then-Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson convinced her to run for state auditor. She was elected to that position in 1994 and reelected in 1998. She subsequently headed the Minnesota Community Foundation and the Museum of Russian Art, where she learned the challenge of fundraising. “That experience really shaped my perspective and understanding of how empowering financial resources can be,” she says.

She is especially pleased to combine a personal passion for the University of Minnesota with her professional work. She serves on the steering committee for the University’s Driven campaign. “I share the Bentson board’s commitment to the University,” she says. “We look for areas of need and where we think our investments can provide life-changing support for students.” The foundation has given nearly $40 million to the University of Minnesota over the past 10 years and recently announced a $15 million challenge grant to establish scholarships for Pell-eligible undergraduate students across the University system. The Bentson Foundation board also recently expanded a scholarship program established in 2003 for outstanding undergraduates to support students at the School of Nursing, the College of Education and Human Development, and the Law School.

“It’s a joy to have this job,” Dutcher says. “I get to meet with and learn from changemakers in the community. What could be better?”