Legal Aid’s Demitrea Kelley does it all, and more

If anyone embodies the spirit of doing it all, it’s our colleague Demitrea Kelley. Named the Minnesota Association of Black Lawyers Scholar for 2025, she was also a finalist for the prestigious Bush fellowship, too.

If you ask, ‘how does she do it all?’ the 3L at Mitchell Hamline Law School — mother of a teenager, caregiver to her grandmother and a Legal Aid colleague in our Minnesota Disability Law Center — will tell you, “I don’t even know.”

“I’m up until 11 or 12 every night. I read 16 hours of the day, learning and researching. I love to learn! I’m always doing something. I wake up and wonder how can I help? What can I do?”

Astounding, as many might wonder how they might be the ones to help Kelley given her life challenges. “My first year in law school, my daughter had a stroke and I had to withdraw.” Before law school, Demitrea did the careful balancing act between worklife and life as mom of a teenager battling sickle cell anemia. “These days, she [her daughter] gets transfusions every three weeks. We’re there all day.” But that hasn’t stopped Demitrea. “[When it comes to academics] I never had much of a struggle, I learn very differently.”

In fact, she’s on track to get her J.D. in May. She made the Dean’s list fall semester and summer, too. She’s a certified student lawyer who worked with the Governor’s office to help pardon more than 30 individuals last semester. And last summer, she earned her global Arbitration Law and Practice Certificate in London.”

Kelley says she draws on her upbringing. “I was the first out of 12 siblings, to go to college. I grew up in North Minneapolis. We struggled, I have this fear of going back to a life of struggle, but I also have this space in which I have had to balance things.”

Focusing on what she can do, rather than on what she can’t, Kelley’s first job as an advocate has been for her daughter who is seeking a national donor match. Yet at the same time, she feels that same calling to help diverse people in the community. To better serve them, she dreamed up the position, wrote a proposal for and now occupies the position of Diversity Legal Advocate for Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid.

If you think you can’ t do enough or do it all. Kelley says that’s okay. Just do what you can. Don’t question it. “That’s all I do.”

Kelley’s daughter is registered with NMDP formerly Be the Match. Because she’s of mixed race, matches are historically difficult to achieve. But the more who register, the better the odds.