Elizabeth Marie Frankel

Elizabeth Marie Frankel, age 43, died on January 12, 2021, of complications from breast cancer. Elizabeth was born at NYU Hospital, NY, NY on July 15, 1977; she arrived shortly after power was restored from a total blackout in New York City. From age 6, she grew up in Short Hills, NJ. Liz graduated from Millburn High School in 1995 and from Middlebury College in 1999.

Following college, she spent two years teaching at a middle school in the South Bronx through Teach for America. She received her law degree from NYU Law School in 2005 and clerked for Justice Susan Calkins on the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine. After a few years of law firm practice, where she devoted substantial time to asylum defense, Liz moved to Chicago where she joined the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. She was passionate about her work with the children, training volunteers to serve as their advocates, and teaching law students at the University of Chicago Law School.

Liz later became Associate Director of the Young Center, a position she held at the time of her death, and returned to New York in 2015 when the operations of the Young Center expanded to various cities across the US. Liz dedicated her life to advocating for unaccompanied immigrant children from all over the world, developing an entirely new model for fighting for their rights. Thousands of children are safe and reunified with their families because of her work.

Liz delighted in the outdoors and travel, from biking and kayaking in Alaska, to climbing Kilimanjaro, hiking in Patagonia, skiing in Utah and snorkeling in Belize and Mexico; all gave her joy. Closer to home, she loved hiking and swimming throughout Maine, Vermont, and on her aunt and uncle’s property in the Adirondacks, with family members, especially her beloved stepdaughter Katie Kasa. In addition to her partner Thomas Kasa and Katie, Elizabeth is survived by her parents, Michael and Joan Frankel, her sister Sarah (Ben Kroger) and brother Jonathan (Katherine Hunsberger), a large extended family, and friends and colleagues, all of whom loved and admired her.

Due to coronavirus restrictions, Liz’s memorial service will be for immediate family only.

Contributions in her memory to the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights would be appreciated (2245 South Michigan Avenue, Suite 301, Chicago, IL 60616; www.theyoungcenter.org).