Features

Campus News

Alumni Notes

Definition of
excellence

 


INSIDE ARCHIVE


Marketing and
University Communication
UW-Green Bay, CL 815
2420 Nicolet Drive
Green Bay, WI 54311-7001
(920) 465-2214

E-mail: matzken@uwgb.edu

Rev. May 13, 2008

 


Ma Manee Moua '99
Twin Cities attorney, former assistant attorney general
UW-Green Bay Major: Philosophy
Law School: University of Wisconsin '02

Ma Manee Moua ‘99 was the first Hmong hired as assistant attorney general with the state of Wisconsin Department of Justice and the first Hmong American in any state Department of Justice office across the United States. But you probably won’t hear about it from her.
      The UW-Green Bay philosophy major is proud of her Hmong heritage, but she says that race has less to do with her success than “passion, ambition and a little luck.”
      “I am proud (of the noted ‘firsts’), but I just see it as working hard and living my life and doing what I’ve always wanted to do,” Moua says. “Sometimes I feel like I’m a leader by default, but I feel that anyone can accomplish their dreams.”
      She never fails to explain just that to the next generation of Hmong leaders, or anyone who will listen, for that matter.
      “I encourage everyone to follow their dreams and goals. I tell them ‘don’t think that you have to have special skills. You have to have a dream and follow through with passion to achieve your goals.’”
      As an assistant attorney general, Moua defended the State of Wisconsin, state agencies and state employees from lawsuits, primarily working in areas of civil rights, medical cases and workers compensation enforcement.
      She stepped away from the position at the end of March to spend more time caring for her new baby daughter Hope Kajlug Antonie, and to move back to her native Minnesota where she could be closer to family.
      “It was a great, invaluable, legal experience,” she says of her work at the Wisconsin Department of Justice. “I was pleased to be able to work on behalf of justice for the citizens of Wisconsin. But I missed not having grandparents in my own life and I thought it was important for Hope to have a relationship with my mom and dad.”
      Moua won’t give up law, nor working on behalf of civil rights. In fact, she is in the process of completing the Minnesota Bar Application, and working as an attorney in the Minneapolis/St. Paul region. Having worked in defense for the past four years, she hopes to gain experience “on the other side” working on behalf of plaintiffs.
      She recently applied for a position with the U.S. Department of Justice as an assistant U.S. attorney.


Click here to download a PDF file of the entire May 2008 issue of Inside magazine.