Class of 2007-08 USAID Islamabad, Pakistan Email: acarra@usaid.gov

Profile:

Lacy graduated cum laude from Michigan Law, serving on the executive board of the Women’s Law Student Association. She interned for the Womyn’s Agenda for Change and Women’s Network for Unity in Cambodia, providing legal education for women garment workers and drafting a response to attempts to test anti-retrovirals (ARVs) on sex workers.  Previously Lacy worked as a health educator in the Peace Corps in Dominica, co-authoring a health education manual now in review for a third edition for Peace Corps use world-wide.  She also taught health education sessions, co-founded and coached her village’s first women’s soccer team, and helped design the nation’s first response team and protocol for sexual assault.  Lacy also worked in a refugee camp in Ghana on health education issues and training peer education teams. Additionally, Lacy has worked on sexual assault and domestic violence crisis response initiatives for the Kalamazoo YWCA and U of M Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center.

Lacy worked with Legal Momentum’s Immigrant Women’s Program during her Fellowship year.  She played a significant role in educating Members of Congress and their staff about various forms of discrimination and other problems faced by women and their families.  For example, she helped coordinate the successful effort to enact the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) and worked with an expert team to draft gender-based asylum language for the TVPRA.  Lacy also drafted a memo concerning the U.S. Department of Education’s postsecondary educational loans and grants for battered immigrants.  Legal Momentum provides information and resources to people calling with questions about immigration issues, and Lacy oversaw this initiative addressing questions from attorneys, advocates, and survivors across the country about immigration, family law, and the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) among other matters.  Lacy also wrote and edited chapters on a manual that Legal Momentum authored for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Violence Against Women on sexual assault and immigrant survivors.  She wrote chapters on gender-based asylum, jurisdiction and protection orders, and revised chapters on VAWA self-petitions and the introduction to VAWA and immigration issues.  Lacy also assisted in planning conferences on women’s rights by coordinating with to other legal organizations, organizing trainings and spearheading working groups.  She presented a paper analyzing the process of enacting the Violence Against Women Act at the Feminist Law Conference held at the University of Baltimore.  She attended the National Office on Violence Against Women Conference in Kentucky.  In addition, Lacy gave a presentation on “Women’s Rights and Political Involvement” for the U.S. Department of State World Visitor Program organized by World Learning for young Muslim political leaders from Africa.

Lacy currently works for USAID in Islamabad, Pakistan.