WILL Empower is pleased to announce MaryGrace Menner’s appointment as a WILL Empower Congressional Labor Law Fellow in Representative Andy Levin’s office (MI-9). As a WILL Empower fellow, MaryGrace is especially interested in exploring the ways labor and employment law can be used to create effective social change and justice for low-wage workers and marginalized communities. 

“I’m pleased to have MaryGrace Menner as my Congressional Labor Law Fellow as a part of the Kalmanovitz Initiative at Georgetown University,” said Rep. Andy Levin. “As a former union organizer, much of my work in Congress is focused on raising the standard of living for working people and guaranteeing economic justice for all. I’m excited to have MaryGrace on my team to help tackle the big problems that are keeping working families from prospering.”

As a WILL Empower fellow, Mary Grace will have two mentors: Chris Owens, former Executive Director of the National Employment Law Project (NELP) and Judy Scott, former General Counsel of SEIU.  

MaryGrace is a recent graduate of Northeastern University School of Law, where she earned her JD with concentrations in both Labor, Work & Income and Poverty Law & Economic Justice. Menner’s work in workers’ rights began while living in Immokalee, a small farmworker town in Florida. While there, she worked in the immigration department of Legal Aid, where she recognized the need for a multi-faceted approach to migrant workers’ rights. As a result, she also became involved with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. She continued her work at Metrowest Worker Center – Casa del Trabajador in Framingham, Massachusetts. At Casa, MaryGrace advocated alongside workers in low-wage, high-risk jobs like roofing and siding. In 2019, she was a Peggy Browning Fellow in the Employment Unit at Greater Boston Legal Services, and in 2020, a Peggy Browning Fellow at Migrant Justice in Burlington, Vermont. She has also interned for the Hon. Indira Talwani of the District of Massachusetts and in the Fair Labor Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office. 

“I am honored and excited to serve as a WILL Empower Congressional Labor Law Fellow in Representative Andy Levin’s office,” said MaryGrace Menner. “I am eager to learn from Congressman Levin’s lifelong commitment to worker justice and contribute to his office’s important work on labor law reform.”