Paula Haley imagined she would spend her life living somewhere like Washington, DC, but like many other Northeastern law school graduates, she couldn’t resist the opportunity to chart the legal landscape of the 49^thstate. “The place just stuck,” recalls Paula, who was drawn by the opportunities to work with both grassroots campaigns and government agencies that focused on ensuring the safety of children and women.

“When I first arrived in Alaska, the opportunities were amazing,” says Paula, one of about 100 Northeastern Law grads who have gravitated to the state as co-op students or in post-grad positions. In 1988, she took over as head of the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights. “Alaska is very much like the rest of the country in terms of civil rights violations,” says Paula, now retired. “In many ways, we’ve been legal pioneers, but there is still work to be done.”