Evangeline M. Mitchell

Iowa College of Law
Founder, National Black Pre-Law Conference and Law Fair

Evangeline M. Mitchell is the founder of the National Black Pre-Law Conference and the National HBCU Pre-Law Summit, the country’s only major national information-sharing, networking and empowerment events created especially for aspiring Black lawyers, and for current HBCU students and alumni. Additionally, she founded the National Diversity Pre-Law Conference and the Joint National Black and Hispanic Pre-Law Conference. These events have impacted thousands of minority pre-law students for nearly 17 years. This year, she will host The Inaugural Future Legal Eagles Flight School (National Pre-Law Conference for Black Youth).

Mitchell is the founder of Hope’s Promise Publishing, the first niche publishing company dedicated to producing books geared to aspiring Black lawyers. She is the author or editor and publisher of several books including The African American Pre-Law School Advice Guide, Profiles & Essays of Successful African American Law School Applicants, The African American Law School Survival Guide, Conquering the Bar Exam, Creating Your Personal Strategic Action Plan for Law School Admission Success, and Lessons from Successful African American Lawyers. She has gifted thousands of e-copies to pre-law students for years. She is currently working on her first children’s book geared to Black children who might be interested in going to law school and becoming lawyers one day.

She also recently launched The Bridge Builders Esq. National Mentorship Program for Aspiring Black Lawyers with the goal of providing mentoring circles for prospective law students to enable them to have law student and lawyer mentors and peer pre-law accountability partners to support them in their journeys to law school. Nearly 400 pre-law students have already been assigned circles.  Her goal is to serve at least 1,000 pre-law students each year.

In addition, she is the founder of HBCUPRELAW.com

and BLACKPRELAW.com informational resource websites. Further, she is a documentary producer/filmmaker, and is the creator, director and executive producer of the docu-series/web series “Becoming Black Lawyers: African Americans and the Law School Experience.” Upcoming projects also include “The Black Lawyers Legacy Project” and “HBCU Law Schools.”  

Through her self-initiated grassroots programming and other efforts and her ability to bring people together around a common cause, she has helped thousands of Black people across the country with law school aspirations better understand what it takes to get into law school and succeed while there. Additionally, she mentors numerous prospective law students across the country.

Evangeline is the recipient of several awards including the Leadership Empowerment Award from the National Black MBA Association-Houston Chapter, the Roberson L. King Excellence in Education Award from the Houston Lawyers Association, the Sadie T.M. Alexander Service Award from the National Black Law Students Association, the Nation’s Best Advocates – 40 Lawyers Under 40 from IMPACT and the National Bar Association, the Top 50 Black Lawyers of Houston and the Trailblazer Award from D-Mars.com

Her honors and associations also include Who’s Who in Black Houston, the Houston Bar Association’s Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program Equal Access Champion Award, the Legacy of NBLSA Award, the CLEO Edge Award for Education, Ms. JD’s Road Less Traveled Award, The National Black Lawyers – Top 100, the National Black Law Students Association Pre-Law Division Honoree Award, and the Lawyers of Color Power List 2020.

Evangeline is a graduate of HBCU Prairie View A&M University, the University of Iowa College of Law, and the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. She holds a Certificate in Non-Profit Management from Duke University – Continuing Studies. She is currently working on completing her Certificate in Documentary Arts from the Duke University Center for Documentary Studies and a Public Leadership Credential from Harvard University Kennedy School of Government. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana and raised in Houston, Texas, she currently resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband Michael and two children Nyla and Michael II.