Pro Bono: LaRonna Lassiter Saunders

My Better America, Founder 

Kansas City 

If you want to know the kind of nation LaRonna Lassiter Saunders hopes for, the answer is right in the name of her non-profit. 

“It gives me a perspective that I know we are able to do this together if we set aside boundaries and differences,” said the founder of My Better America. 

Perspective is an important part of Saunders’ work as the UMKC graduate attempts to bridge communication gaps in the community between law enforcement and marginalized groups. By her own description, it was an effort born “out of love” when her own teenage sons began driving and seemed to experience more traffic stops than their white peers. She began to study the issue of traffic stops and citations. 

“The more I got into that world, I became aware of more and more cases,” she said. “I found out it was more than a once-in-a-while situation.” 

A native of Topeka, Kan., Lassiter Saunders wears a fair number of hats. In addition to her work at My Better America, she also runs her own legal practice at Lassiter Law and Justice and she is also a section chief for the Department of Homeland Security. 

Her work at My Better America focuses on challenging systemic abuses of power and providing free and reduced legal services for minorities who believe they have been treated unfairly. It also works to educate both officers and the community members they stop on one another’s viewpoints and perspectives. 

These efforts are designed to create cultural change, particularly for those in authority. 

“A lot of times what I’ve seen is that people in those positions think that everything is going status quo and the way they’ve put it down on paper but that’s not the way it is being applied in real life for the people actually experiencing it,” she said. 

Integrity, keeping an open mind and treating everyone with respect are all vital components. 

“People’s perspective is their reality so that is going to affect the way they see and interact and react to a situation,” she said.