TCDIP and WILD Staff
Summra Mohammadee Shariff
Executive Director and President
In 2004, Summra Shariff learned the true meaning of the word “cold” when she moved from Los Angeles to Minneapolis, excited to start law school. She was amazed to learn that humans can live, thrive, and have fun in temperatures well below zero. She also learned that to survive in Minnesota, you have to wear layers, find community, and make friends.
When she is not walking on frozen lakes, cooking spicy food, and spoiling her niece, Summra serves as the Executive Director and President of Twin Cities Diversity in Practice (TCDIP). Since taking on the position in 2018, Summra has built on the organization’s past successes by re-energizing and revamping programming at all levels to maximize TCDIP’s ability to attract, recruit, advance, and retain attorneys of color in the Twin Cities. For example, she restructured the Emerging Leaders Group (ELG) to better reflect its mission to create a stronger community of early-career diverse lawyers. The renewed ELG provides rising lawyers of color with expanded opportunities for business development, mentorship, networking, and leadership positions. Summra has worked with the Board and all the committees to review and refresh TCDIP programs, initiatives, operations, and relationships among stakeholders at all levels of the organization. She looks forward to continuing to strengthen TCDIP’s work and relationships in the community.
Prior to her work with TCDIP, Summra worked with underrepresented groups, including with communities of color. For close to five years, she served as Diversity and Inclusion and Pro Bono Coordinator for a national law firm. She is a former long-term member of the Minnesota Justice Foundation’s Board and Executive Committee and a former board member for the Housing Justice Center. She also formerly held a leadership role with the Minnesota Asian Pacific American Bar Association. Summra continues to be active in the legal community by serving as Vice-Chair for The National Association for Law Placement (NALP) Diversity and Inclusion Section and by serving on the board of Gender Justice and on the Minnesota Supreme Court’s Legal Services Advisory Committee.
Liz Niemer
Programs and Communications Manager
Liz Niemer began her program development and communications career by organizing workshop weekends in the lindy hop/swing dancing scene. She brings this enthusiasm for planning and executing events to her work at TCDIP. Liz started with TCDIP in November 2018 as the Programs and Communications Coordinator. Prior to TCDIP, she worked for a national law firm and gained an understanding of the internal workings of the legal industry and the challenges attorneys face.
To stay up-to-date on developments and trends in the legal industry, she is also involved with the Minnesota chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA) and the Minnesota Legal Career Professionals (MnLCP) group. Liz enjoys developing TCDIP events that build a community with deep roots and real connections. She appreciates being a part of and supporting the TCDIP community where she sees so many people truly dedicated to creating a more vibrant and diverse legal profession. Outside of TCDIP, Liz is also involved with various local organizations dedicated to social justice work, including Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL), Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), Our Justice, Grease Rag Ride & Wrench, and Resource Generation. Liz’s favorite way to see the Twin Cities is on two wheels – riding on a tandem or her all-weather light-up “party bicycle,” or zipping by on her road bike.
LaLinda Xiong
WILD Program Manager
LaLinda Xiong is the youngest of nine children, was raised in an intergenerational, multi-lingual home. Daughter to Hmong refugees, she was one of the two children born in the United States. It was growing up in a full household with beds packed like sardines, where she learned the meaning of community. Her family may not have had a lot, but when they banded their resources together, they were able to live a full and meaningful life. Although immigrating to the US meant a host of new opportunities for the Xiong family, it was also met with commensurate challenges. Systemic racism plagued the institutions that provided support to refugees and families of lower socioeconomic classes. However, this experience was not specific to the Xiong family. Growing up in an over-policed, under-funded community in the Southside of Milwaukee taught LaLinda that collective action was the basis for combatting institutionalized racism. This firsthand experience brings LaLinda to public policy and to now the Twin Cities Diversity in Practice (TCDIP) to lead the new anti-racism initiative, Wanton Injustice Legal Detail (WILD).
LaLinda began her policy career at the Wisconsin Policy Forum where she co-authored A Fresh Start – Wisconsin’s Atypical Expungement Law and Options for Reform. This analysis of Wisconsin’s outdated and inaccessible expungement laws helped introduce Wisconsin’s 2021 Assembly Bill 69. Turning large data sets into digestible charts and policy analysis then brought LaLinda to graduate school. Although reluctant to leave her family, LaLinda took the lonely five hour drive from Milwaukee to Minneapolis to attend the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School for Public Affairs. Moving to Minneapolis gave LaLinda the opportunity to work in the newly established Division of Race & Equity for the City of Minneapolis. Through this role, LaLinda facilitated a youth participatory budgeting process, oversaw the City’s Strategic Racial Equity Action Plan, and supported community engagement at George Floyd Square. This work then led LaLinda to continue her passion fighting for equity and combatting anti-Black racism with WILD.
Although the fight to end systemic racism never ceases, LaLinda manages to find balance by cooking large pots of khao poon and making pâte à choux to share with her loved ones. Breaking bread and sharing a warm and spicy bowl of soup helps fill her cup to fight another day. When spare time is found, LaLinda volunteers for values-based campaigns and teaches children how to ride bikes at the nearby elementary school. She also participates in programming set by organizations of the Coalition of Asian American Leaders and the Southeast Asian Diaspora Project. You can find LaLinda zipping through the city on her fixed gear bike or at the Minneapolis Bouldering Project, where she pretends to know how to climb. LaLinda will always be a Milwaukeean at heart, but has grown to love Minneapolis, no matter how terrible the Timberwolves are, BUCKS IN SIX.
Keaana Harvey
Executive Administrator
Keaana Harvey joined TCDIP after working in the Healthcare field for many years in various roles, including Physician Administrative Assistant, Assistant Manager of an Assisted Living, and Human Resource generalist. During her time working in healthcare, Keaana enjoyed working in compliance, employee relations, and performance management.
Keaana brings her robust knowledge and portfolio of experience in organizational support to TCDIP. Her passion for well-managed structure supports TCDIP’s mission to attract, recruit, advance and retain attorneys of color. Throughout all the work to change the diversity metrics of the legal industry, TCDIP relies on the behind-the-scenes work that all our staff brings to the organization! Keaana’s work in finance, assistance in development of policy and procedure, and administrative support ensures TCDIP is an efficient and effective organization.
Keaana is currently finishing up her bachelor’s degree in individualized studies with a minor in Human Resource Management at Metropolitan University. She is a true Minnesota Native, and enjoys traveling, live music, and spending time with friends and family.
Sid Clarke
Program and Communications Coordinator
Sid Clarke started school intending to become “a cool English teacher.” Her studies in education led Sid to minor in Racial Justice in Urban Schooling, which brought her directly into diverse schools in the Twin Cities area. Through the minor program, Sid spent a few hours every week observing the educational, socioeconomic, and cultural inequity facing the Twin Cities youth.
In 2021, in a sixth-grade classroom in St. Paul, where the students outnumbered their exhausted teacher 38:1, Sid made a bittersweet decision and started down a new career path. She continued studying the influence of meritocratic social constructs that systemically undermine people of color in the U.S. and she continued her work by writing about culturally responsive teaching practices and trauma-informed leadership.
In early 2023, Sid joined TCDIP as its Program and Communications Associate. She enjoys major event planning, digital content writing, and investigating personal stories to bring equity issues to life.
Outside work, Sid is a full-time foodie. By the request of her roommates, she doesn’t cook often, but you are likely to find her checking out a new joint in Uptown, or an old favorite on Eat Street. Sid also enjoys stirring up conflict in the comment section on Good Reads, listening to podcasts, and live theater.
Sofía Leyva
WILD Program Assistant
Sofía Leyva comes to WILD with a background in philanthropy and community-centered event planning. She is excited to transfer her skills to support the racial equity efforts within the legal community. Working with WILD, Sofía brings a passion for community centered relationship building. She believes that our communities hold the knowledge and power to create systemic change, and she is honored to be able to advocate for them through WILD’s work.
Sofía graduated from the University of St. Thomas with a degree in Justice and Peace Studies and Nonprofit Management. She started her career at Headwaters Foundation for Justice working closely with their Giving Project grants. Her work was focused on investing in the power of community and the importance of addressing systemic change. Sofía later brought this passion into the realm of community-centered event planning with Claim Our Space.
Alongside her work at WILD, Sofía also works as a part-time receptionist at a hair salon in St. Louis Park. To her pleasant surprise, Sofía found that the world of hair and color is fascinating and fun. She enjoys learning about the intricacies of hair care and complexities of hair color through her exposure to the world of fashion.
Sofía grew up just south of St. Paul’s Battle Creek neighborhood and is a St. Paul devotee at heart. She has fond memories of learning to ride her bike along the Mississippi and going to the Farmer’s Market on Saturdays with her mom. Now living in Northeast, Sofía can be found walking to breweries, camping, and spending time with her partner and their one-eyed cat, Maisy.