Howard B. Eisenberg Service Award

Isioma O. Nwabuzor, Arts ’12, Law ’15
Milwaukee, Wis.

Isioma Nwabuzor’s formula for success echoes the tenets of Marquette’s Jesuit mission: People first. Maximum impact. Excellence is the baseline. “It’s always bigger than me”: Her words directly align with Jesuit tenets like cura personalis and Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam. It is no surprise, then, how Isioma’s legal career and life have developed.

As the associate general counsel and assistant corporate secretary for Modine Manufacturing, Isioma works daily to fulfill her personal goal of service. She loves the variety of work she does, inside and outside the company — everything from helping someone in a negotiation gone awry to supporting organizations with their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and amplifying the voices of women and Black people.

Isioma’s experience as an undocumented immigrant — further invigorated by a TEDx Talk she gave on the topic — motivated her to create her own nonprofit organization, The DREAMer Next Door, Inc., which provides scholarships for currently matriculating DREAMers who wish to achieve the American Dream but are ineligible for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Isioma recalls the financial hurdles she faced in her efforts to achieve her academic goals, including not registering for her second year of law school until one week before classes started because she couldn’t come up with the balance to pay the Bursar’s Office. Now that she is in a position to give back, she works hard to alleviate some of this financial burden for other undocumented students and families.

Isioma credits Marquette with giving her opportunities to flex her leadership muscles. She served as president of the Black Law Students Association and on the National BLSA’s executive board, along with service as president of her sorority and other extracurricular activities. She continues to support Marquette, collaborating closely with the Institute for Women’s Leadership on its initiatives and programming, as well as working with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion on the Annual Dreamers Gala.

Fun Facts

Name someone (past or present) you’d like to have dinner with.
Michelle Obama

When you were in grade school, what did you want to be when you grew up? Why?
I always knew I wanted to be a lawyer. I come from a long line of lawyers, with my late maternal grandfather being a Nigerian high court judge (and the first lawyer from his ethnic group in Nigeria) and my late maternal step-grandmother, Dulcie Ethel Adunola Oguntoye, being Nigeria’s second female judge, with both having studied law at the Middle Temple Inns of Court. Thus, law, advocacy, a staunch desire for all that is right, and a keen ability to express myself well verbally were always a part of my upbringing.

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