BLAPA Honors Dutt, Lopez, and Welters

This year’s Black, Latino, Asian Pacific American Law Alumni Association (BLAPA) Spring Dinner celebrated the accomplishments of Mallika Dutt ’89, Professor of Clinical Law Gerald López and Law School Trustee Anthony Welters ’77, who were each honored for their work on behalf of diverse communities.

As the founder and executive director of Breakthrough, Dutt uses technology and pop culture to promote human rights, particularly among young people, in the U.S. and India. Case-in-point: Breakthrough’s blunt, even confrontational current ad campaign, “What kind of man are you?” informs Indians that married women are becoming infected with HIV by their husbands at alarming rates. Dutt is also the author of With Liberty and Justice for All: Women’s Human Rights in the United States (Center for Women’s Global Leadership, 1994).

López has pioneered the idea of the progressive practice of law. He teaches the Community Economic Development and Community Outreach, Education and Organizing clinics and founded the Center for Community Problem Solving, which in 2005 released a groundbreaking study on the health and welfare of Mexican immigrants. The center aims to help solve the social, economic and legal problems that low-income and immigrant communities face.

Welters began his distinguished career as a staff attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission and eventually rose to become president and CEO of AmeriChoice Corporation, a leading provider of public sector health care in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. A trustee of the Law School, Welters and his wife Beatrice created the AnBryce Scholarship, which provides full tuition to J.D. students who are the first in their families to attend graduate school.

This year, BLAPA awarded four new $1,000 clinical law and public interest graduation prizes to students Jennifer Turner ’06, Susan Shin ’06, Cyrus Dugger ’06 and Andre Segura ’06, as well as a $10,000 public interest scholarship to Alexis Hoag ’08.