Q1: Why did you choose to volunteer with ALSC?
I grew up as the eldest of four children in a single mother headed household supported by government benefits. I worked hard to obtain the money for an education and began my career as a paralegal performing legal services work. I then worked doubly hard to attend law school, become a lawyer and then a district court judge. I am now retired after 25 years of judicial service. I believe that all people should return some service to their community, and I have gone back to my own roots by choosing to volunteer with ALSC. My life and work have shown me that poor people are more frequently involved in the justice system and less able to defend themselves when that happens. What is different now, unlike when I was younger and worked with legal services to expand the civil rights of the poor, is that our state government is broken. This is well evidence by the lengthy SNAP backlogs in Alaska. When government cannot deliver its essential duties to the people, those people who depend on it for literal survival are more vitally harmed than others. I believe it is now more important than ever for lawyers who have access to the legal system to advocate for those whose fundamental rights are being violated. ALSC does that work, and I am proud to volunteer.
Q2: What are some of your experiences with ALSC that have made a positive difference in the lives of others and/or the community?
In SNAP cases, clients told me that they were literally were out of food. Elders and disabled persons who could not get to food banks, rural subsistence residents who had run out of food and others who could not manage with what food they could locate, had to re-allocate housing funds and funds for other essentials to compensate for this governmental failure. The trauma and anxiety of possible eviction, the loss of phone service, and loss of other essentials to cover the months of food they were denied, was very hard to experience. Every client was so grateful when their benefits were approved and relieved, they would not lose everything because of this. Anchorage is a community that has little room to accommodate more people who become homeless. The homeless safety nets are full. ALSC’s commitment to SNAP cases prevented more people from falling directly into them.
Q3. How do you think your experiences with ALSC will benefit the community in the future?
I have volunteered in several ways with ALSC. I have done Wills Clinic and individual Wills, Attorney of the Day, and Family Law consults, and consults at Veteran’s Standdown, among other things. Every time a person does their Will, they care for their family and prevent future acrimony. In every consult there is a legal problem presented by a client that looms large in their lives. In one hour is it possible for a lawyer to analyze that problem and give the individual specific direction to solve it. Each consult leads to empowering the individual client with the education and training to self-advocate. Often that is all that is needed for them to reduce their anxiety and frustration and find the confidence to succeed. A person who comes to their legal problem with that mindset is a better participant in the dispute and that tends to lead to better resolutions. All of that is beneficial to the community.
Q4. What do you do when you are not volunteering with ALSC?
I run a non-profit that provides group and individual mentorship to women in prison reentry, I am a member of the Anchorage Reentry Coalition Steering Committee and I serve on the Board of Directors of the Retired Public Employees of Alaska. I try to exercise my old body regularly with two crazy dogs and one wild husband who help keep me on that task.
