Colorado Law alumni at the forefront of human rights work and advocacy reflect on their proudest professional moments.
Janet Drake (鈥�96)
Deputy attorney general of the Criminal Justice Section, Colorado Attorney General鈥檚 Office / Denver, Colorado
"I had the opportunity to work on anti-human-trafficking legislation in 2014. The new human-trafficking statutes strengthened Colorado鈥檚 criminal laws and created a statewide Human Trafficking Council, which I chaired for two years. Those developments have substantially helped prosecutors hold human traffickers accountable and empower survivors."
Velveta Golightly-Howell (鈥�81)
Attorney / Broomfield, Colorado
"Colorado was one of several states selected to participate in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded Turning Point Initiative, which required grantees to assess and enhance their health care infrastructure. I was appointed to the executive steering committee established by the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (CDHPF) to meet this mandate. At our first meeting, I noted the access and quality-of-care challenges Coloradans face with racial, ethnic, and geographic health disparities. Subsequently, CDHPF鈥檚 executive director and my colleagues, representing the state鈥檚 health care community, accepted my recommendation to focus on this critical issue. Our executive steering committee鈥檚 efforts resulted in creation of the Colorado Office of Health Disparities (COHD). Colorado made history when it became only the second state to have such an entity. Approximately two years after COHD鈥檚 establishment, the Colorado legislature passed legislation that then-Gov. Bill Ritter (鈥�81) signed, under which COHD became a statutory entity."
Harry Budisidharta ('07)
Executive director, Asian Pacific Development Center (APDC) / Denver, Colorado
"Creating a diverse and inclusive environment at APDC. Our staff speaks over 20 different languages, and the majority of our board members are immigrants and refugees. We also serve immigrants and refugees from all over the world, regardless of their ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation, or immigration status. In 2016, we partnered with the Colorado Center on Law and Policy to convince the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing to change its Medicaid eligibility rule so that refugees, asylees, and other protected-status immigrants could maintain their Medicaid eligibility even after they had been in protected status for seven years. This policy change had substantial positive impacts on the communities we serve and allowed them to maintain access to much-needed medical services."
Adam * (鈥�11)
Rescue manager and legal liaison / Phnom Penh, Cambodia
(*Full name and photo have been omitted for confidentiality)
"Signing our MOU with the anti-trafficking police so that we officially had the legal authority to work on investigations and raids together. Prior to my arrival in Cambodia, my NGO had only done 鈥榮oft rescues鈥� (building relationships with victims in order to covertly and voluntarily remove the victim from the establishment) because it is extremely difficult to obtain an MOU with the police, and, despite numerous attempts, none of my superiors or predecessors ever came close to making it happen. Fortunately, through judicious use of my legal skills and a tremendous amount of patience (the MOU process took nearly three years from start to finish, if you include the time it took me to find the right government official to get a foot in the door), I was able to obtain the investigations MOU and usher in a new era for our rescue program."
Stanley Pollack ('78)
Assistant attorney general, Water Rights Unit, Navajo Nation Department of Justice (retired) / Window Rock, Arizona
"Securing the Navajo Nation San Juan River in New Mexico Water Rights Settlement, ratified by Congress in Public Law 111-11, which authorized the construction of the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project. When completed, this project will have the capacity to provide water to a quarter of a million, mostly Navajo, residents in northwestern New Mexico and northeastern Arizona. Almost 40 percent of the Navajo people lack indoor plumbing with running water and live in severe poverty. The development of potable water infrastructure will have significant public health benefits and is an important step toward the economic development of these impoverished communities."
Aaron Hall (鈥�08)
Partner, Joseph Law Firm, P.C / Aurora, Colorado
"Any time we are able to keep a family together, help a client become a citizen of the U.S., or get a client immigration status is a proud moment. One of my favorite cases was where the government had charged that our client was ineligible for a green card due to an allegation of a decades-old deportation order. Due to that supposed order, our client, his wife, and two children were all ordered to be deported again. We were able to challenge the existence of the alleged decades-old deportation order in federal district court and eventually convince an immigration judge to approve every member of the family for green cards. Being part of a case where we take a family from the brink of a devastating deportation to permanent stability in the United States is extremely gratifying."
Ashley Harrington ('10)
Managing attorney, Children鈥檚 Program, Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN) / Denver, Colorado
"Unlike in the criminal law system, there is no government-appointed counsel in immigration proceedings, even for children. This means that each day, individuals, including children, are forced to defend themselves against deportation without an attorney. Throughout law school it was my dream to work at RMIAN, where we provide legal information and representation to vulnerable immigrants who are unable to afford private counsel to ensure they have access to justice and protection under our laws. What I am most proud of in my professional career is now having the opportunity to lead a team of dedicated attorneys and staff at RMIAN who work tirelessly to help immigrant children and families each and every day."
Adam Severson (鈥�11)
Robert. J. Golten Fellow of International Human Rights, University of Wyoming College of Law / Laramie, Wyoming
鈥淚n Egypt and Thailand, I helped secure refugee status for more than 100 political dissidents, land and聽labor rights activists,聽survivors of gender-based violence and torture, and religious and ethnic聽minorities. I also successfully defended asylum seekers and refugees accused of war crimes and聽serious nonpolitical crimes.
In 2015, I worked with Cairo鈥檚 St. Andrews Refugee Services to establish a legal services program to assist asylum seekers within the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees refugee screening process in Egypt.
At the University of Wyoming College of Law, I have supported ongoing litigation in Uganda's Constitutional Court over access to basic maternal health care. An estimated 17 Ugandan women per day die in聽childbirth because they cannot access lifesaving medicines, adequately skilled health workers, or emergency obstetric care. Talented lawyers and health experts in Uganda and the U.S. have contributed to the litigation, which I am optimistic will ultimately lead to better health care for expectant mothers.鈥�
Jean Pfleiderer (鈥�81)
Advisor, Human Rights Office, Queen鈥檚 University / Kingston, Ontario, Canada
"It has been my privilege to facilitate for the last decade the Queen鈥檚 Positive Space program, celebrating sexual and gender diversity at Queen鈥檚. Program participants have contributed to the removal of many barriers to full participation at Queen鈥檚 for those identifying in the queer community, and have helped to improve resources, particularly for those who are trans-identified, both at Queen鈥檚 and in Kingston, and I am very happy to be a part of this work."
Ryan Haygood (鈥�01)
President and CEO, New Jersey Institute for Social Justice / Newark, New Jersey
"Joining President Obama and civil rights legends in the 50th anniversary reenactment of the iconic Bloody Sunday march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. After reaching the top of the bridge, Congressman John Lewis led us in a moment of reflection and prayer. I reflected on the way in which the march over this bridge, named after a grand wizard of the Alabama KKK, gave birth to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), which is widely recognized as the crowning achievement of the civil rights movement. I twice defended the VRA in the U.S. Supreme Court with a team of NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) lawyers. I represented black voters in one of those cases, Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, in which the Supreme Court struck down the VRA鈥檚 coverage provision as unconstitutional, leaving millions of voters of color vulnerable to voter discrimination. Within days of the decision, Texas implemented the strictest photo ID law in the nation. I led LDF鈥檚 successful legal challenge to the photo ID law, arguing during a two-week federal trial that the law was racially discriminatory and imposed substantial and unjustified burdens on voters of color in Texas. In the first ruling of its kind, the district court found that Texas鈥� photo ID law, which prevented more than 600,000 mostly black and Latino registered voters from voting, was intentionally racially discriminatory, violated the VRA, and was an unconstitutional poll tax."