Felicia Thomas is the incoming Co-Executive Director at the Detroit Justice Center. Prior to this, she served as the Associate Executive Director of Operations & Management. Felicia oversaw the establishment of our Organizational Strengthening Committee and our Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (JEDI + B) policy which helps us focus on what it means to be an inclusive, welcoming, and affirming workplace. She’s been part of conceptualizing and integrating wellness programs and innovative internal policies such as: a four-day workweek, bi- annual rest weeks to recharge and re-center, and rolled out DJC’s inaugural sabbatical policy. Felicia has worked alongside our Leadership team to realign our PTO and parental leave policies to better serve the needs of our staff.

A native Detroiter, Felicia earned her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School and her B.A. in African & African American Studies & English from the University of Michigan. While in law school, Felicia served as a student attorney for the Family Law Project, Civil Clinic and the Criminal Appellate Practice Clinic. She was the first law student intern at the Maya Angelou Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. where she co-taught a class on the 4th Amendment. That summer, she also served as an intern in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan under Magistrate Donald Scheer. Felicia also interned with Think Detroit, Inc. and during her last semester of law school served as a Graduate Student Instructor in the Sociology Department at the University of Michigan.

Prior to DJC, Felicia served as the director of diversity and inclusion at Bodman PLC and the assistant dean of student affairs and director of diversity initiatives at Wayne State University Law School (Wayne Law). During her tenure at Wayne Law, she was appointed to chair the Law School’s inaugural Diversity Task Force and convened its first Diversity Committee. She also launched and ran a successful K-12 Pipeline Outreach Program with Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD). Wayne Law was recognized twice as one of only ten law schools in the country by the Law School Admission Council’s Discover Law Program. Hundreds of DPSCD participated in these programs over the years; several students have gone on to become lawyers and credited their decision to pursue law to participating in these programs. Prior to Wayne Law, she served as a law clerk to Daphne Means Curtis in the Wayne County 3rd Circuit Court, Civil Division. Felicia also served as an adjunct faculty member at Wayne Law, teaching a course called Teaching Law in High School. Felicia is a member of the State Bar of Michigan and sat on the Character and Fitness Committee for District H and the Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee for several years.