Read the full story, published by The Call to Lead: a Campaign for Dartmouth.

Becca Heller ’05 is a human rights lawyer and director and co-founder of the International Refugee Assistance Project, which provides legal services to individual refugees as they navigate application, appeal, and resettlement processes under U.S. and international law. In 2017, Heller spearheaded the lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s executive order instituting a travel ban on seven predominantly Muslim countries. She was named a 2018 MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellow.

Explaining her work with refugees and others, she says, “Life is really short, and I want my time on Earth to mean something. The best way I see to do that is to try to be a good mom to my kid, a good partner to my husband, a good friend to my friends, and a good citizen to society. That’s why I do what I do.”