THE JAY B. DILLINGHAM AWARD Steven Sullivan (J.D. ’85)

Steve Sullivan graduated from the UMKC School of Law in 1985. While at UMKC, he clerked for Lantz Welch and Jim Bartimus and worked on the first and third largest verdicts of the Hyatt Skywalk collapse cases and a medical malpractice case that resulted in a $17.5M verdict — at that time the largest ever personal injury verdict. After that, Steve worked for Anheuser-Busch on many projects, including the acquisition of Grupo Modelo. Following his time at Anheuser-Busch, Steve became senior vice-president and general counsel of Ameren, an electric and gas utility in Saint Louis, Missouri, for more than a decade. He ultimately became president, CEO and chairman of Ameren Energy Generating and Ameren Energy Marketing, an unregulated electricity generating company and marketer. After Ameren, Steve became executive director of Provident, a non-profit specializing in mental health counseling and suicide prevention. Most recently, he purchased the Broadway Oyster Bar, an iconic Cajun and Creole restaurant and music venue in Saint Louis, that was recently recognized as the number one seafood restaurant in Missouri.

JOELLEN FLANAGAN ENGELBART PRO BONO/PUBLIC SERVICE AWARD Alicia Johnson (J.D. ’04)

Alicia Johnson is the executive director of Legal Aid of Western Missouri, and she has been with the organization for over 14 years. Over the past 10 years, she has served in executive leadership roles within the organization and under her direction, Legal Aid launched its first ever Justice in the Schools project and Right-to-Counsel project. Alicia has served as executive director for the last three years and during this time, Legal Aid started a trial practice academy to train newly hired attorneys on best practices in litigation. Legal Aid also formed a DEIB committee and started up a new social work program to provide enhanced services to clients.

Alicia is a proud graduate of UMKC School of Law. She began her legal career as a bankruptcy practitioner working in Kansas City. After three years in this practice, Alicia and her husband Chris made the decision to spend two years in Cameroon where she taught at St. Augustine’s College. She worked with the students there to start up the first school newspaper in that region and she created a book donation project that built up a small library for this school.

ALVIN SYKES JUSTICE AWARD Tamia Broom (BLA ’17)

Tamia Broom began her paralegal career with the Missouri State Public Defender System in St. Louis where she worked in both the appellate and trial sections. She collaborated with the Public Defender System from 1991-2001. Tamia then relocated to Kansas City, Missouri, and began her career with Jackson County Family Court. She worked as a paralegal for the attorney for the Juvenile Officer in Legal Services from 2001-2005. After leaving Jackson County Family Court, she joined Husch Blackwell in 2005, where she remains employed currently. As the pro bono paralegal for Husch Blackwell, Tamia helps assist attorney Darren Korte with representing parents whose children are placed in foster care, while also helping to represent children in foster care and juveniles accused of crimes. Some of her responsibilities include heavy client contact, writing and filing motions under Korte’s supervision, attending meetings with Children’s Division, and advocating for clients and attending mediations to help clients mediate contact with their children, should the child/children be adopted. Tamia enjoys her work and is an extremely passionate advocate for parents and children. She has had the honor of being the paralegal for two sitting commissioners in Jackson County Family Court: Commissioners Daniel Berezoski and Nancy Alemifar.