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Law alumna starts group to end gender-based violence

November 22, 2016

Healing to Action, co-founded by NIU Law alum Karla Altmayer (J.D. ’12), is a public service organization whose mission is to end gender-based violence by cultivating worker leadership to improve community response, to unite labor and anti-violence movements, and to increase access to justice for low-wage workers who have been victimized.

Building on her NIU Law public interest coursework and subsequent career as an Equal Justice Works Fellow working at the LAF (formerly the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago), and as a staff attorney at the National Immigration Justice Center at the Heartland Alliance, Karla has always felt a deep-seated compassion for those most vulnerable in our society.  

Spotlighted in a recent story in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, Karla’s compassion and drive for public service, has led her to now be fully immersed in building and sustaining an organization to help low-wage workers and leaders create safe, just workplaces and stable economic futures, free from gender-based violence and discrimination. 

As the only public law school in northern Illinois, NIU College of Law has been named a top law school nationally for diversity, value and careers in public interest/government service. NIU Law prepares graduates for careers through in-depth core classes and extensive hands-on training in legal clinics, externship placements and specialized upper-level courses. Its graduates enter a variety of legal and public service careers, including over 90 alumni who are active or retired judges. In addition to practicing law, many graduates also choose careers as leaders in government and business where the J.D. degree is a recognized advantage.

These opportunities come without the high price associated with other law schools in, and around, Chicago – offering unique opportunities with highly-accomplished faculty members and programs designed to support the success of its graduates throughout their careers.