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IU McKinney Vice Dean Karen E. Bravo has been selected to lead the new Race and the Legal Process Working Group, which was created by the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee (GIPC). The group will work to combat racism and bias in Indianapolis, as well as the disparate impact of pandemic-related events on the Black and other traditionally underrepresented minority communities.

"I am honored to have the opportunity to lead this important effort," Vice Dean Bravo said. "We can each play a role in combatting both bias and systemic racism. This Working Group is a tangible way for me to help to make a difference in our community."

The group will research and make recommendations on changing policing and police governance; and will create a pro bono "surge" team of lawyers to address the urgent needs of Black and other disadvantaged residents arising out of COVID-related economic hardship. It is comprised of two teams: the Structural Reform Team, which is co-chaired by John Gaidoo, '07, Assistant General Counsel at Cummins, and Joseph Smith, partner at Faegre Drinker Biddle and Reath; and the Pro Bono Legal Services Team, chaired by Myra Selby, former Indiana Supreme Court Justice and partner at Ice Miller.

The Structural Reform Team will collaborate to provide research, policy recommendations, and education on best practices, primarily in policing focused on treating Black Indianapolis residents equitably and with dignity. The Pro Bono Legal Services Team will create urgent surge capacity for pro bono legal services providers from the private-sector legal community. This team will focus on the projected surge of housing evictions that are expected to hit when the state's moratorium on such actions is lifted.

GIPC is composed of private sector corporate and community leaders and has engaged for over 50 years to improve Indianapolis. Founded in 1965, it is a private, nonprofit, and non-partisan organization that provides a forum in which leaders of the public and private sectors of Indianapolis can work as partners to study, discuss, and address issues of concern and areas of opportunity which affect the progress of the city.

Dean Bravo was interviewed about the new GIPC working group by the Indianapolis Recorder in an online article ("Relationship between race, law to be examined," Breanna Cooper, June 25, 2020).

Vice Dean Bravo was named dean of the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in February 2020. She takes over as the 13^th dean of the law school on July 1. She will also be the first person of color and the second woman in the school's history to lead the urban-based institution. Vice Dean Bravo joined the faculty at IU McKinney in 2004 as an assistant professor of law. Since then, she has served as associate dean for international affairs, associate dean for graduate studies and international affairs, and most recently as vice dean, and director of the master of jurisprudence program for the school.