Abby Nelson is the Program Coordinator of the Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota Law School. She advances the Center’s goals and agenda through coordinating strategic events and expanding visibility, communications and outreach efforts. She ensures the operations of the Center support students, faculty, staff, visitors and partners; and focuses on maximizing the impact of programs for the Center.
Prior to joining the Center, Abby earned her M.A. in Human Rights Practice from the University of Arizona, and her B.A. in Political Science from Iowa State University. She focused her studies on human rights of refugees and building resilience for marginalized groups within refugee camps. She comes to the Center after five years of working at a law firm where she specialized in supporting employment-based immigration processes. Within her professional and academic work, she has emphasized the need to create solutions for challenges that migrant and refugee communities face. She believes that the voices of impacted individuals must remain at the forefront, in order to foster effective outcomes for human rights issues and humanitarian crises.