Board Member
Hometown: Stoughton, Wisconsin
What was the most valuable lesson you learned as a child, and how has it influenced your life today?
The people you love will not always be around so you should spend as much time with them while you can and appreciate them while you can. My family and friends are very important to me and I think it is important to make an effort to see them as much as possible and stay connected even when you live far apart.
What advice would you give to your younger self, based on what you’ve learned throughout your life so far?
I would tell myself to focus on the relationships, activities, and goals that bring me happiness and contentment and to try and care less about other people’s opinion or worrying about what I think I “should” be trying to do and achieve. One of the best parts about aging is realizing that other people’s opinions of you are not that important.
What was your favorite meal or dish that your family would make, and do you still enjoy it today?
My grandma used to make homemade raspberry pie with the raspberries picked from her backyard patch. She used to give me an empty cool whip tub and tell me that if I could fill the tub with raspberries, she would make a pie. I still love raspberry pie but I have never had one as good as my grandma’s.
What was your favorite hobby or extracurricular activity as a child, and did youpursue it further later in life?
My favorite hobby as a child was reading, especially when I discovered the joy of fantasy novels like Lord of the Rings. While I have to read a lot for my job, I also continue to reach a lot for pleasure. And my favorite books continue to be fantasy novels. I just finished reading the first two books in the Hierarchy Series by James Islington.
Biography
Mackenzie Heinrichs is an Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Refugee and Immigration Law Clinic at the University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law. Before joining the University of Utah, Mackenzie was a Clinical Fellow and Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor with the Immigration and Human Rights Clinic, James H. Binger Center for New Americans, University of Minnesota Law School. She also previously worked as an attorney advisor at the Otay Mesa Immigration Court in San Diego, CA and as an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota. Prior to attending and graduating from law school at the University of Minnesota, Mackenzie taught preschool for several years in both Madison, Wisconsin and Istanbul, Turkey. Mackenzie is from Wisconsin and obtained her bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, go Badgers!
