Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Not Just Words

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Mary L. Milano is the Executive Director of the Illinois Guardianship and Advocacy Commission, a position she has held under four governors since 2005. It is the largest public agency of its kind in the country, and an agency of the Governor which serves wards, clients and constituencies throughout Illinois as guardian of last resort, and advocate and resource for persons with disabilities in the courts, in the legislature and in the community. Previously, she served as Associate Director of the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, on the Executive Staff of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as Director of Hunger Education, as Professor and Chair of Theology at Saint Mary of the Woods College and as Counsel to the firm of Baker & McKenzie.

 She is a graduate of Mundelein College (Now, Loyola University – AB, scl, 1973), McCormick Theological Seminary (M.Div, 1977), Northern Illinois University College of Law (mcl, 1978), the Graduate Theological Foundation (D.Min, 1994) and the University of Leicester (PGDip, European Union Law, 2001). She has held fellowships at Northwestern University School of Law, Universite Libre de Bruxelles and Istituto Superiore di Scienze Criminali (Siracusa, Italy) as well as being a Fellow of the Society for Values in Higher Education and a Danforth Foundation Graduate Fellow.

She is co-chair of the Special Committee on Racial Inequality of the Illinois State Bar Association, a member of the ISBA Assembly and has served as an officer and member of a number of ISBA and CBA substantive and service committees and councils in a wide range of areas from Agribusiness to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, and has spoken for the CBA, ISBA and ABA both here and abroad on topics related to foreign investment, international issues and to legal ethics.

She has been a member of the Justinians since graduating from law school in 1978 and credits the Society and its members with being formative in her view of the profession, society and our responsibilities to and for each other.