Leaders of Tomorrow: Faith Kathleen Whatley-Blaine

Law Student
Saint Louis University School of Law
St. Louis

Faith Kathleen Whatley-Blaine grew up in North St. Louis County, where a 2013 encounter with a homeless man inspired her to found 1 Day 1 Meal 1 Love. The organization provides meals, clothing and hygiene supplies to the unhoused; what began with 100 meal packs has grown into a decade-long initiative delivering more than 4,000 Hope Packs and mobilizing more than 200 local volunteers.

A first-generation 3L, Whatley-Blaine serves as president of Disabled and Neurodivergent Law Students and mentored Teaching Fellows through her law school’s first-year foundational skills program, advocating for curricular changes to support students with diverse learning needs.

As a law clerk at the MacArthur Justice Center, she worked on wrongful conviction claims and a class action challenging the lack of air conditioning in Missouri prisons. As a student attorney in a human rights clinic, she represented a transgender incarcerated individual in a name change case and contributed to the People’s Universal Periodic Review.