University of Kentucky students heard from a Fayette County Attorney who discussed how the start of her career pushed her advocacy for mental health in law.
The event was held by UK’s Public Policy Society on Wednesday, March 5 at the William T. Young Library which presented Fayette County Attorney Angela Evans.
Evans is the first African American county attorney in Kentucky, said she has always been aware of her identity as a Black woman in law.
According to Evans, there is a responsibility as a council member to be a role model for women of color.
“I have been able to see what it means and to have girls five, six years later come back and remember who I am and share their stories,” Evans said.
Amber Mustafic, a public policy sophomore at UK, said she respected the empathy and advocacy that Evans shared with being a first in the legal field.
“It’s such a big thing to have diversity because it brings so many different points of view and perspectives that you could have never even thought about yourself,” Mustafic said. “Being able to hear that from other people who are culturally different from me is also really important.
Mustafic said it was interesting to hear how Evans has impacted the Lexington community.
Evans also spoke to students about mental health and how it impacts the legal system.
Evans said once she realized how broken the health care system was when working in social work, she wanted to help others through law.
“Our goal is to do justice,” Evans said. “That’s why we take the oath . . .we understand that we have a duty, and justice does mean something to us.”
According to Evans, her duty to understand her clients as people is important as an attorney.
“People are people,” Evans said. “That (mental health support) led me to go to law school because I thought I would be in lobbying and helping better health care.”
Evans said she would have clients who would need mental health support, and advocating for them was crucial.
According to Evans, finding support for people is the reason she continues to advocate and be a “guardrail” to make sure things are done correctly in the legal system.
Evans said that family situations and support can affect clients’ situations in the legal system.
“I would have a victim that was very much my client, but still also understood that this was a part of a cycle that needed to be broken,” Evans said.
Evans said Kentucky has been progressive in the criminal justice field even with the current political controversies occurring in America saying she thought the system has been moving backward.
“I know I can speak for Lexington that we still understand that we can’t jail everybody and that we have a community that has lots of resources,” Evans said. “Maybe we can even prevent people coming into the criminal justice system to begin with.”
According to Evans, it is important to her to make sure that she has transparency in her work and knows about the resources made available to them.
“I’m just trying to do my best to be the best county attorney or best council member that I can be,” Evans said.
Samuel Thomas, president of the Public Policy Society, said Evans had previously spoken in one of his classes and wanted her to speak to the society.
“It gives me the drive that there’s still people out there who still want to do the right thing for their people, and who want to really protect them, give them the incentives to do better in life,” Thomas said.
According to Thomas, he was happy about hearing Evans share her story with the students and speak about the legal profession.
“We want to make sure that we put compassion first and foremost at the front of that mindset whenever you’re dealing with individuals,” Thomas said. “I feel like it’s a very strong message that she sends that she’s so compassionate about what she does.”
