Education

J.D., University of Wisconsin Law School
M.S., College of Charleston
B.S., College of Charleston

Biography

Tessa Henson is a Clinical Fellow and Research Associate in the Economic Justice Institute, where she co-teaches and supervises students in the Neighborhood Law Clinic and Eviction Defense Clinic. In this role, she supports students in developing essential lawyering skills while challenging them to apply critical lenses to the systems they operate within. In addition, Tessa launched the Milwaukee Property Tax Appeals Project in Fall 2023, a collaborative effort with a local Milwaukee nonprofit and the Coalition for Property Tax Justice, a collective of 15+ grassroots organizations. The Project aims to keep Milwaukeeans with low incomes in their homes by preventing property overtaxation and property tax foreclosure, which disproportionately impact Black and Latine homeowners and exacerbate the racial wealth gap. Beginning in Fall 2024, the Project's work will be integrated within the Neighborhood Law Clinic.

Tessa received her J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she served two years as Co-President of the APIDA Law Students Association and helped establish a number of mentorship programs. During law school, Tessa worked in Legal Action of Wisconsin's (LAW) Housing Law and Eviction Defense Project. At LAW, she co-drafted a comment to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, supporting a rule petition seeking to recognize DEI education as a necessary step in fulfilling a lawyer's ethical responsibilities to their clients, the profession, and their peers. Relatedly, as a representative to the Law School's DEI Committee, Tessa advocated for curriculum development at the Law School that will better prepare students to be change agents in a racially, socially inequitable society. She currently serves on the leadership team of Pathways, a pre-law DEI mentorship program.