Ellen Van Iwaarden, Development & Communications Director, joined The Advocates in January 2011.  She brings over 20 years of professional and volunteer development and communications experience, including working as the Fund Director for The Fund for the Legal Aid Society.  Prior to working in development professionally, Van Iwaarden practiced law in her own ethics practice, as in-house counsel at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, as a clerk for former Justice Sandra Gardebring of the Minnesota Supreme Court, and at Lindquist & Vennum PLLP.  She is a graduate of Smith College and the University of Minnesota Law School, where she was the Articles Editor for Law and Inequality: A Journal of Theory and Practice.