Alexa Johnson-Gomez ’24 came to Minnesota Law with her sights set on a career in public interest work. She balanced traditional courses with experiences in a Law School clinic, a law journal, internships and externships, and legal-centric volunteer work during school. Each opportunity fueled her desire to apply her legal education to advocate for justice.
During a summer internship at the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, Johnson-Gomez’s boss told her about a Minneapolis nonprofit that might suit her interests. When she ultimately met with co-founder Julie Matonich and learned more about Children of Incarcerated Caregivers (CIC), Johnson-Gomez knew she just had to pitch in.
The organization champions the best interests of children whose parents are incarcerated, facing incarceration, or are otherwise involved in the criminal legal system, promoting legal and policy changes and research-based programs. In Minnesota, one in six children experience parental incarceration.
At the suggestion of Barbara Frey, former University of Minnesota Human Rights program director and a CIC co-founding advisory board member, Johnson-Gomez and Matonich co-authored an article that will be published in Columbia Law School’s Journal of Gender and Law. This opportunity eventually opened even more doors for Johnson-Gomez.
The more Johnson-Gomez worked on issues related to incarceration, children, and human rights, the more she wanted to explore the legal and societal impacts on individuals and families worldwide. As she neared graduation, she sought to keep her momentum going with this work. She asked Matonich if CIC would host her for the Minnesota Law Robina Postgraduate Fellowship.
Matonich considered the request a compliment and gift for her small organization. She already recognized Johnson-Gomez’s talents and knew that having her continue working for CIC would help the organization make a greater impact. Three months into having Johnson-Gomez on board as a full-time legal fellow, Matonich notes that the nonprofit is seeing significant results from her work.
“Alexa is exceptionally intelligent, self-motivated, and visionary,” Matonich says. “Having her dedicate her considerable skills to our small nonprofit has been transformational because she has been able to both help us determine the impact we want to have as an organization in the future and do work to help us reach those goals. It will be exciting to see what she can help us accomplish in the next nine months.”
Minnesota Law offers the Robina Fellowship to one student a year who works full-time in a legal or policy role at a nonprofit or government agency. The fellowship's mission is to help alumni pursue careers in public interest or human rights work. It provides a one-year stipend for a new graduate who starts in the fall.
In addition to co-authoring the journal article, Johnson-Gomez has been involved in diverse work for CIC. The heart of her efforts has been expanding its focus into global outreach, including finding ways to advocate for children at different United Nations agencies. Her other work involves gaining an understanding of how different countries treat children who are incarcerated with their caregivers. The varied approaches range from operating prison nurseries to having children live with their mothers among a prison’s general population and requiring the women to share their food and other resources with their children.
Johnson-Gomez helped coordinate a symposium in New York in November. It included a panel focused on ensuring adequate due process and protecting the human rights of children who live in prisons with their parents globally. Johnson-Gomez, along with Frey, Matonich, and a team of CIC’s student research fellows, is working with other nonprofit partners, academics, and experts to make and implement recommendations on how to improve children’s access to justice when incarcerated. The recommendations are guided by the international treaty the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
“There are so many instances where no one is thinking about the best interests of the child, and they are an afterthought in the process of imprisoning the mom,” Johnson-Gomez says. “We are exploring the minimum obligation from an international human rights perspective and making low-threshold recommendations of what countries need to do to comply with the Convention.”
Originally from California and Idaho, Johnson-Gomez gravitated to Minnesota Law, in large part because of the depth and breadth of its clinical offerings. She knew she wanted to get involved with the Innocence Clinic, which she did as a 2L and then 3L student director. She had the opportunity to work on one case during both years, including strategizing with the clinic professor and formulating the post-conviction petition — “some of the coolest legal work I could do at law school,” Johnson-Gomez says.
Another experience that whetted her appetite for research and writing was serving on the Journal of Law, Science & Technology, where Johnson-Gomez published a 5,000-word student note exploring the use of neuroscience in death penalty cases. As a Robina Fellow, Johnson-Gomez continues to apply the many legal skills she learned at Minnesota Law. She believes they will power a long career in public interest work, whether on behalf of individuals or big-picture initiatives.
“It’s been incredible that I get to do this work, and I feel really lucky,” Johnson-Gomez says. “For me, it’s always been about helping people. I find that the thing that gets me out of bed in the morning is knowing I’m going to do work that has an impact. I always hoped I would find that by being a public interest lawyer.”