Culture & Inclusion
Committee
Ellie Walker - Chair
The Culture and Inclusion Committee oversees MSJDN’s commitment to represent and support all members regardless of background or limiting circumstance. This includes serving those in the military spouse attorney community who experience life with a variety of personal challenges, including competing responsibilities and (dis)abilities. Factoring inherent limitations due to changing military stations, spouse attorneys often experience professional hurdles such as job placement and advancement. The Committee’s goal is to remove common barriers to participation and enhance career opportunities. Non-profit organizations like MSJDN play an important role in the military and legal profession. You can read the MSJDN Culture and Inclusion Committee Mission Statement here.
Ellie is a social justice advocate and a seasoned active-duty Coast Guard spouse. She has dedicated her career to advancing racial equity, civic engagement, and inclusive public policy, especially for military and historically marginalized communities. She holds a B.S. from UNC-Greensboro and her Master’s in Diversity, Equity, and Social Justice from the University of Oklahoma, where she led the Military-Connected Affinity Group and conducted research on racial inequality, intergenerational trauma, disparities in veteran mental health access, and antiracist ideology. She is entering her 2L year at Vermont Law School’s Hybrid J.D. program, specializing in restorative justice as a tool for systemic policy change.
Her advocacy work includes serving as a Foreign Policy Fellow and Regional Organizer with Secure Families Initiative, where she focused on military voter access, demilitarization, and national security reform. She was a 2024 NAACP/The Groundwork Project Organizing Accelerator Fellow, where she expanded her grassroots organizing skillset through national movement-building. She currently serves as Chair of the Political Action Committee for the Gwinnett NAACP, sits on the Legal Redress Committee, and volunteers with the ACLU of Georgia as the Gwinnett County Lead for the Voter Access Project.
A proud mom of three, she enjoys family time and cheering on her kids’ sports teams.
Marissa Cummings - Vice Chair
Marissa is a Houston, Texas native who started her career in broadcast journalism.
Her passion to connect and tell the stories of those often overlooked continued to fuel her path towards advocacy and ultimately led to her legal career. After graduating from law school, she moved to North Carolina where she now works as an Assistant District Attorney while her husband serves in the U.S. Army.
Accomplishments
The Communications Team is responsible for publicizing MSJDN news and events through media outreach, keeping members informed via email and social media.
Goals/Projects
The Communications Team is responsible for publicizing MSJDN news and events through media outreach, keeping members informed via email and social media, and providing assistance with written content as requested by the Board and other committees.
Get involved on this committee
Accomplishments
The Committee has recently launched a DEI Book Club which will cover a selection of writings about DEI in the law and in the military over the course of a year. The Book Club events have included presentations by subject matter experts from both the military and legal fields.
Goals/Projects
Going forward, the Committee will be working on drafting DEI standards for MSJDN as well as the organization's hiring partners. The Committee will also be seeking to partner with various law firm DEI committee chairs on furthering DEI initiatives in the legal field as they affect MSJDN members.