Northeastern University School of Law presents the inaugural year of the
Daynard Public Interest Visiting Fellows Program

Inaugural Fellows
Mary L. Bonauto '87
Civil Rights Project Director, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD)

D. Milo Mumgaard
Executive Director
Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest

Northeastern University School of Law is pleased to announce the Daynard Public Interest Visiting Fellows Program, which will bring two distinguished practitioners of public interest law to the Northeastern campus each academic year for a three-day visit. The fellows, nationally recognized public interest leaders, will serve as role models for students, demonstrating how legal skills can be used effectively and creatively to make the world a better place. The Daynard Fellows will each deliver an address that focuses on the strategic use of law to promote public interest goals, participate in classes, consult about professional opportunities for students and graduates, and meet individually with interested faculty, administrators and students.

This vibrant new program is made possible by a donation from Professor Richard A. Daynard and his wife, Carol Iskols Daynard. Professor Daynard is an expert on legal approaches to dealing with the epidemics of tobacco- and obesity-related disease. He chairs the Tobacco Products Liability Project, is president of the Tobacco Control Resource Center and directs the Law and Obesity Project of the Public Health Advocacy Institute.

The New York Times Magazine has called Mary Bonauto the Thurgood Marshall of the gay rights movement. Bonauto rose to national prominence in 2003 as lead counsel in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, which resulted in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declaring same-sex couples are entitled to marry in the commonwealth.

While Goodridge was her greatest triumph, Bonauto has distinguished herself repeatedly since joining GLAD in 1990 as civil rights project director. Bonauto's practice concentrates on impact litigation for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, as well as people living with HIV or AIDS. She has litigated widely in the state and federal courts and agencies of the six New England states, and in 1999, she and two Vermont co-counsel triumphed in Baker v. State of Vermont, which gave same-sex couples all of the benefits and protections of civil marriage. This ruling prompted the Vermont Legislature to enact the nation's first "civil union" law for same-sex couples.

Bonauto is vice chair of the ABA's section on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, serves on the Family Law Steering Committee of the Boston Bar Association and is the North American co-chair of the International Lesbian and Gay Law Association. She is a graduate of Hamilton College and Northeastern University School of Law.

Milo Mumgaard is executive director of the Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest, a nonprofit, nonpartisan law project committed to equal justice for all Nebraskans. Under Mumgaard's leadership, Nebraska Appleseed has played pivotal roles in securing the Living Wage Ordinance for Omaha, the Meatpacking Workers Bill of Rights, demanded fair and decent treatment for welfare recipients and ensured legal assistance for the poor where none existed. In 2003, he was profiled as a voice for justice in the heartlands on the PBS weekly news show "NOW with Bill Moyers."

Prior to joining the Nebraska Appleseed Center, Mumgaard served as a staff attorney for the Texas Rural Legal Aid Farmworker Division, as a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Omaha, Farm Desk, and as director of the Nebraska Center for Legal Services.

In 2001, the Ford Foundation honored Mumgaard with its prestigious Leadership for a Changing World Award in recognition of his strong advocacy in tackling tough social problems. He is a graduate of the University of Nebraska­Lincoln and New York University School of Law.