Nekima Levy-Pounds, a civil rights activist, preacher, attorney and former St. Thomas School of Law professor, announced on Nov. 15 that she will be running for mayor of Minneapolis in 2017.

Levy-Pounds resigned from the School of Law in July after 13 years of teaching. She has also been a practicing attorney for the past 15 years, as well as the president of the Minnesota NAACP for a year before stepping down in October.

Rob Vischer, dean of the School of Law, has great respect for his former colleague.

“She brought a lot of passion and energy to her work on our faculty, and she brought students along with her on her mission of living out her core commitments,” Vischer said. “She was a wonderful colleague to have.”

Levy-Pounds has been actively protesting the death of Jamar Clark, an African-American man who was shot to death by two Minneapolis police officers, over the past year. The day after Clark was killed, she was arrested during a protest on Interstate 94. In Dec. 2014, she was charged for organizing a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mall of America. The charges were later dropped.

She chose to announce her candidacy on the one year anniversary of Clark’s death to emphasize the need to close the racial divide in Minneapolis, which will be a major focus of her campaign, stressing that the city “can no longer afford business as usual.”

“It’s not surprising that her launch of the campaign is focused on the issues that she’s been passionate about for several years,” Vischer said.

Standing outside of the Fourth Precinct police station in Minneapolis, the same place protesters gathered a year ago to grieve Clark’s death, Levy-Pounds delivered a speech of unity to announce her run for mayor.

“While we face a tragedy as a city, rather than operate out of a spirit of hate, we operated out of a spirit of love and togetherness,” Levy-Pounds said. “We have an opportunity in the city of Minneapolis to demonstrate what racial solidarity really means.”

Levy-Pounds also highlighted her intentions to create more affordable housing, overhaul the criminal justice system and lower the unemployment rate.

Vischer feels that her experience as a lawyer will be a strong asset to her campaign.

“In law school, we tend to focus on critical thinking and analytical skills and figuring out how to apply them to help solve pressing social problems,” Vischer said. “I think she has already tried to emphasize that in her candidacy.”

Mayor Betsy Hodges is planning on running for re-election, and others are expected to join the race as time goes on. Levy-Pounds is running as a member of the DFL party, but has not yet decided if she will seek the party’s official nomination.

Despite rising racial tensions, her goal is to unite the city of Minneapolis in order to make a difference.

“We are united, we are powerful, we are one, and we are standing in solidarity, demanding change,” Levy-Pounds said.

Mary Brickner can be reached at bric0029@stthomas.edu