ABOUT

Nadine Tebeh Graves is a Minnesota native and the daughter of Liberian immigrants whose life and work sit at the intersection of justice, faith, and storytelling. She is a graduate of Delaware State University, an HBCU, where she earned her B.A. in Sociology and Criminal Justice, and Mitchell Hamline School of Law, where she focused on public interest law.

Nadine is a 2023 Bush Fellow and a Managing Attorney at the Hennepin County Public Defender’s Office in Minneapolis, where she supervises attorneys representing people charged with misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor offenses. Over the course of her legal career, she has represented hundreds of individuals facing criminal charges and has also advocated for parents in child protection cases and tenants facing eviction.

Her work extends beyond the courtroom. Nadine serves as a Commissioner on Minnesota’s Clemency Review Commission and as an Advisory Board member for the state’s Conviction Review Unit. She is also a former board chair of We Are Criminals, a nonprofit dedicated to challenging society’s perceptions of what it means to be “criminal.” She has testified in support of policies such as Ban the Box, expungement reform, and restoration of voting rights.

Through this podcast, Nadine brings the human stories behind the criminal legal system into view — centering the voices of those waiting for justice, freedom, healing, and hope.

Outside of her professional work, Nadine is active in her church, loves to travel, read, and write, and is the proud mother of two sons.

Nadine created this podcast to shed light on the often unseen human cost of the criminal legal system.