Elizabeth’s entire law career has been in public service. After graduating from high school in St. Paul, she attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison and received her B.A in History. After college, she began exploring her passion for community service, first participating in a service corps in New York City, where she lived in a community with eight other individuals working in various nonprofits. After working in a battered women’s organization helping survivors of domestic violence to navigate the legal system, Elizabeth decided to go to law school and pursue a career in the criminal justice system to ensure victim safety.

Elizabeth has been a frontline prosecutor for over sixteen years handling thousands of criminal cases and trying complex homicides, shootings, assaults, and other serious felonies, and has come to realize that many aspects of the criminal justice system do not increase community safety and are not economically sustainable. Elizabeth is currently leading a coordinated response with law enforcement, community members, religious community leaders, and youth outreach workers to proactively work with youth involved in committing auto thefts by providing services such as mentoring and mental health resources as well as developing a strong communal moral message against committing crimes. In addition, over the past several years Elizabeth worked with victims and their families who have been victims of crimes to form restorative justice circles to help communities heal.