Julie Brown

Special Counsel

As Impact For Equity’s Special Counsel, Julie serves as co-counsel in the historic Gautreaux v Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) public housing desegregation litigation and oversees the implementation of the 2019 Gautreaux Settlement Agreement.  As class counsel for Gautreaux, Julie participates in CHA’s mixed-income stakeholder working groups, supporting the vision of CHA resident leaders and community residents as former CHA high-rise developments are reimagined and redeveloped as mixed-income communities. She was a founding member of the Ida B Wells Commemorative Art Committee and played a key role in the creation of the Ida B Wells Monument by world-renowned Chicago artist Richard Hunt in the heart of the Oakwood Shores community, on the former site of the Ida B Wells public housing development.

In her prior role as Director of Impact for Equity’s Housing and Community Development Program, Julie helped steer the development of Impact for Equity’s housing policy efforts and the creation of new housing programs, designed to enhance housing choice in Chicago and throughout the region, especially for those who lack meaningful access to quality affordable housing. 

In addition to her housing and legal work, Julie played a leading role in creating Impact for Equity’s Polikoff-Gautreaux Fellowship program, which provides an opportunity for recent law or policy school graduates to work for two years at IFE. She continues to provide leadership for the program to build and train the next generation of social justice leaders.

Prior to Impact for Equity, Julie began her career as Assistant Corporation Counsel with the City of Chicago Law Department. She holds a BA from the University of Wisconsin and a JD from the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she was a member of the Law Review and an editor at the International Law Journal.

Julie’s family’s history includes a long line of social justice activists, and she sees her legal and policy work at IFE advancing racial and social justice as engaging in the “family business.” Being able to work with and support people as they repair and improve their communities and the world keeps her in the fight and motivates her year after year.