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Officers
Click on an officer's picture to view her bio.
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President
Tracy A. Campbell
Tracy is a partner at the law firm of Schiff Hardin LLP. Tracy concentrates her practice in the areas of insurance coverage counseling and general commercial litigation. She has extensive experience representing corporate policyholders in a wide variety of insurance coverage disputes. In addition to litigation, Tracy regularly counsels her clients on risk management issues. Tracy was recently recognized by the Chicago Lawyer Magazine as a " Top 40 Under Forty" Lawyer to Watch in Illinois. She was also named a 2011 Illinois Rising Star by the Illinois Super Lawyers magazine. She is a member of her firm’s Diversity Committee and devotes significant time to mentoring diverse lawyers, inside and outside of her firm.
Tracy received a B.A. in Political Science from Yale University in 1996 and her Juris Doctor from University of Illinois in 1999. In addition to being the President of BWLA, Tracy is also the Vice President of the Yale Club of Chicago, National Treasurer of the Yale Black Alumni Association, a member of the Auxiliary Board of the Community Mental Health Council and a Director and Secretary of the Illinois African American Coalition for Prevention.
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Vice President
Mary A. Melchor
Mary Melchor currently serves as the Inspector General for the Clerk of the Circuit Court under the auspices of the Honorable Dorothy Brown, where she was appointed in 2005. Mary supervises the departments that investigate complaints from employees, customers, outside agencies and the public in general as they relate to the Clerk’s Office, as well as proper file integrity.
Mary has been an active member, board member and officer of the Black Women Lawyers’ Association of Greater Chicago since 1992, serving as board member-at-large, secretary, treasurer (5 years), vice-president, and president in 2008. Mary is also a member of the WBAI, CCBA, CBA, ISBA, AABA, Treasurer of the Women’s Bar Foundation and Treasurer of the National Bar Association/Region VII (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin). Mary earned a B.A. from Illinois Wesleyan University in French/Education. She also has two master degrees: M.S. from Chicago State University in Special Education and M.B.A. from Roosevelt University in Management. Mary earned her J.D. from IIT/Chicago Kent College of Law in 1992.
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Treasurer
Abosede Odunsi
Abosede Odunsi is the founder and principal of Infinity Strategic Group, a full service estate planning firm. Abosede counsels individuals and businesses on estate, tax and disability planning, asset protection, charitable planning and estate administration matters. She regularly lectures before non-profit companies and civic groups on estate and financial planning issues. Abosede has held several leadership positions within BWLA, including most recently, as Treasurer, Acting Vice President and Co-chair of the Spring Luncheon Fundraising Committee. Abosede received her B.A. from University of Illinois and her J.D. from the University of Wisconsin.
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Recording Secretary
Suheily Natal
Suheily is an associate in the Chicago office of Ford & Harrison LLP where she practices Labor and Employment Defense. This year she will be serving as BWLA's recording secretary, a position she held during the 2010-2011 bar year as well. She has been a BWLA member since she was a student at DePaul law. Since that time, she has chaired the Scholarship Committee, co chaired both the Young Lawyers' Committee and the law student outreach committee. Suheily received the Black Women Lawyers' Association's President's service award in 2009 from BWLA's past president, Mary Melchor. This year Suheily will also be co chairing the Judicial Evaluations Committee. In addition to her work with BWLA, Suheily sits on the board of the Puerto Rican Bar Association and on the Auxiliary Board of the Community Mental Health Council.
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Corresponding Secretary
Jamila S. Covington
Jamila is currently Senior Counsel at Navistar Financial Corporation - specializing in secured lending, creditor’s rights and commercial transactions and handling a variety of other corporate and transactional matters. Prior to joining Navistar, she was an associate in Quarles & Brady, LLP’s Corporate Services Group in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Jamila attended Northwestern University and obtained her Juris Doctorate from the University of Wisconsin Law School. Jamila has previously served as a BWLA Board Member-at-Large, has co-chaired the Mentoring Committee and the Law Student Outreach Committee -- designing programming to meet the needs of all of our members and coordinated the “Spotlights” section of the BWLA EBlast.
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Parliamentarian
Ngozi C. Okorafor
Ngozi has recently been appointed Assistant Chief Counsel for the Illinois Department of Transportation, where her practice includes resolution of labor relations disputes, litigation before the Illinois Commerce Commission, and other legal work as needed. Ms. Okorafor has served as BWLA Parliamentarian since 2000, where she has overseen BWLA annual elections and responded to parliamentarian issues that have arisen. During the 2010-2011 bar year, Ms. Okorafor commenced the process of updating and consolidating BWLA’s governing documents and intends to complete the process during the 2011-2012 bar year. She was awarded the BWLA Distinguished Service Award (2009 and 2007) and President's Award (2006 and 2004) for exceptional service to the bar association. Ngozi received her B.A. from Yale University in 1995 and both J.D. and MBA degrees from University of Illinois in 1998.
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Board Member at Large
Dalila P. A. Bentley
Dalila P. A. Bentley is an Assistant Attorney General with the Office of the Illinois Attorney General in the Special Litigation Bureau. Her practice includes False Claims Act investigations, litigation, and arbitration. Dalila has been practicing law and has been a proud member of BWLA since 2006. In 2010-2011, Ms. Bentley served as one of the co-chairs of the BWLA Service Committee. She collaborated with various service, educational and community agencies, providing opportunities for BWLA members to share resources through donation drives, and to make educational presentations to children and young women. Dalila is a former licensed clinical professional counselor. She provided counseling services to elementary school students through Youth Guidance, and to children and families while at Bethany Christian Services, an adoption agency.
Dalila is a graduate of Spelman College (B.A. in Psychology), Georgia State University (M.A. in Community Counseling), and the University of Illinois College of Law. She is a member of the American Bar Association.
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Board Member at Large
Jamie Manning
Jamie is an Assistant Attorney General in the Antitrust Bureau of the Office of the Illinois Attorney General where she litigates violations of the Illinois Antirust Act. In 2002 she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. In 2006, she received a J.D. from the Chicago-Kent College of Law.
Jamie joined BWLA as a law student member in 2004. This year, she will serve as co-chair of the Judicial Evaluations Committee. Jamie is active in several other bar associations including the American Bar Association and the Illinois State Bar Association where she serves as the Chair of the Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section.
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Board Member at Large
Tiffany R. Redding
Tiffany is an attorney at Navistar Financial Corporation specializing in bankruptcy, secured lending, commercial transactions, employment litigation and general corporate matters. Tiffany graduated from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis in 2008 and is an alumnus of Dartmouth College.
Tiffany has been an active member of BWLA since 2008 and had a number of leadership roles within the organization during the past year. Tiffany co-chaired two BWLA committees, the Young Lawyers’ Committee (YLC) and the Judicial Evaluation Committee (JEC), assisted with the fundraising efforts for the 2011 Spring Luncheon and facilitated the Fall Writing Workshop with BWLA’s Law Student Outreach Committee.
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Board Member at Large
Anastasie M. Senat
Ms. Senat is a 2003 graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School. Prior to graduation, she secured a position via the Department of Justice's Attorney General’s Honors Program to work for the former Immigration and Naturalization Service in December 2002. However, in March 2003, that agency dissolved and she was given the privilege of working for the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Miami, Florida beginning in October 2003. After being in sunny Florida for two years, she transferred to the Chicago Office of the Chief Counsel where she has been stationed since November 2005. Although, her primary responsibility at work is the prosecution of immigration violators, she is a firm believer in balancing her time with a commitment to serving the community when and where she can.
She served the legal community in Miami, Florida as an active member of the Gwen S. Cherry Black Women Lawyers Association (GSCBWLA) but now she serves the greater Chicago area as Co-Chair of both the Community Service and Roundtable Committees of the Black Women Lawyers Association of Greater Chicago, Inc. (BWLA) and is in her second term as an elected Board Member-at-Large for BWLA as well. As a leader in BWLA, she has help to launch a new pilot Youth Lecture Series called Building Wisdom through Legal Awareness which provides "street law" presentations to youth in grades 6 to 12 by various members of BWLA. Now, despite being an active member of BWLA since 2006, she is also an active member of other community based organizations including Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and the Haitian-American Lawyers Association of Illinois. Ms. Senat also holds licenses with the Wisconsin State Bar Association (2003), the Illinois State Bar Association (2011), the General Bar of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (2008), the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (2008), and the United States Supreme Court (2009).
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Ex Officio
Tonya Wilkes Moore
Tonya is Employment and Benefits Counsel at Orbitz Worldwide (the online travel company), an adjunct professor at The John Marshall Law School (JMLS) in the school's Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits, and is the immediate past President of BWLA. She has served BWLA in many different capacities. Tonya attended Depaul University, received her Juris Doctorate from the University of Wisconsin Law School and an LLM in Employee Benefits from JMLS.
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