Hometown: Jackson, MS
BA in Classics, emphasis in Greek, minor in Gender Studies (2014)
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While at UM, Kaitlyn Barnes was a member of the Sally McDonnell Barkesdale Honors College, Steering Committee of the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies, Vice Chancellor’s Student Advisory Committee, and Chancellor’s LGBT Advisory Committee. She was a Co-Coordinator of One Mississippi and Organizing Committee Member of Rethinking Mass Incarceration of the South Conference. She was selected to be part of Eta Sigma Phi, Phi Beta Kappa, and Phi Kappa Phi.
She was an intern with the Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, where she facilitated diversity training and community building workshops. Barnes mentored youth in civic engagement projects, and designed campaigns and programming to promote diversity and civility on University of Mississippi campus. She also took the opportunity to research civil rights history.
Barnes earned her JD at Emory School of Law in 2017 and passed the Georgia bar exam in 2018. During her time in law school, Barnes worked with the Mississippi Center for Justice, DeKalb County Public Defender, The Southern Center for Human Rights, Barton Child Law & Policy Center, and The Southern Poverty Law Center.
After law school she worked as a Policy Fellow at the Barton Child Law and Policy Center and now serves as a Public Policy Counsel at Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, GA.