Luncheon Keynote | Francey Lim Youngberg
Francey Lim Youngberg is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Engagement for the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). She is responsible for strategic engagement between the Secretary of HUD and key stakeholders. Her office helps build support for HUD’s budgetary and departmental priorities and ensures that the public’s input is taken into account in the public policy making process. Her office also plays a coordinating role for the Secretary and the Department in activities conducted by the White House Office of Public Engagement. She also serves as the HUD representative to the White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islanders.
Prior to joining HUD, Francey Lim Youngberg advised clients on cultural competency, research into Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) issues, diversity management, minority recruitment, grant writing, grant management, and fundraising. She worked with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program, the D.C. Government, the Metro Police Department and federal agencies.
Prior to consulting, Ms. Youngberg was a tax attorney for Morgan Lewis & Bockius in Philadelphia, and Hogan & Hartson in D.C. After leaving private practice, she worked as an attorney in the international division of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington, D.C. and later became the founding Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS)) under the Honorable Norman. Y. Mineta. She graduated from Wellesley College and Harvard Law School.
Evening Keynote | The Honorable Fernande R.V. Duffly
Fernande R.V. Duffly was appointed to the Supreme Judicial Court By Governor Deval Patrick on February 1, 2011. She previously served on the Appeals Court, to which she was appointed by Governor Paul Cellucci on February 15, 2000, and the Probate and Family Court, to which she was appointed by Governor William Weld in 1992. After earning a B.A. from the University of Connecticut in 1973 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1978, she joined the litigation department of the Boston law firm then known as Warner and Stackpole (now K&L Gates).
Throughout her career, Justice Duffly has worked to ensure that justice is available to all who come before the courts and to advance women in the profession. As an attorney, she provided pro bono legal services to indigent clients through the Volunteer Lawyers Project. As a judge she continues to work toward promoting equal access to the courts and full diversity on the bench and the legal profession. She is a member of the National Association of Women Judges and served as NAWJ’s President for the term ending November, 2008. A member of the American Bar Association, she is NAWJ’s delegate to the House of Delegates and serves as NAWJ Liaison to the ABA’s Commission on the Status of Women in the Profession, where she is currently a Commissioner. Justice Duffly has served on the Boston Bar Association’s committees on pro se litigation and attorney volunteerism; the Massachusetts Probate and Family Court’s committee on pro se access to the courts; the ABA subcommittee on the representation of children; and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s Standing Committee on Substance Abuse. She has written articles, participated on panels, and taught seminars on a broad range of topics, including appellate decision-making, family law, trusts, parental rights, and gender, ethnic and racial bias, and often speaks on topics related to access to justice and diversity in the legal profession.
In 2001, Justice Duffly was part of a delegation of Massachusetts judges hosted by the Supreme People’s Court; there she promoted the rule of law in China; recently ABA ROLI sponsored her participation in a conference on Women and the Judiciary, in Kuwait. She has presented educational programs to visiting judges from a host of countries including China, Iraq, the United Kingdom, Egypt and others.
Justice Duffly has received the Distinguished Service Award from the Probate Judge’s Association; the Distinguished Jurist Award from the Massachusetts Association of Women Lawyers; and the Trailblazer Award from the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. She was recognized as a Diversity Hero by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, and was named a 2008 Woman of Justice, an award co-sponsored by Lawyers Weekly, the Women’s Bar Association and Massachusetts Association of Women Lawyers. She was the 2009 recipient of the Boston Bar Association citation for Judicial Excellence, and, in 2011, was recognized by the ABA section of business law for her contribution to advancing women in the legal profession. NAWJ’s 2012 Joan Dempsey Klein Honoree of the Year Award, named for the organization’s founding mother, will be awarded to Justice Duffly at NAWJ’s annual meeting.