Seattle, WA – In a time of unprecedented attacks on education, freedom of speech, and long-cherished social norms, Marguerite Casey Foundation (MCF) proudly announces the 2025 Freedom Scholars, four trailblazing scholars whose work provides a blueprint for taking action for racial and economic justice. 

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This year’s cohort—a legal strategist, a solidarity-economy architect, a student debt abolitionist, and a longtime Indigenous sovereignty organizer—exemplifies what it means to do scholarship in service of collective liberation. The knowledge they produce is intimately tethered to on-the-ground people’s movements that are building power to shift policy and challenge a government that has been captured by a billionaire class. 

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“Each Freedom Scholar is engaged with work to produce knowledge, research, and road maps to shift power to those communities who have long been excluded from having it. They’re shining light on a path to a more just future where everyone has what they need to live a good life,” said Dr. Carmen Rojas, president and CEO of MCF.

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Why This Matters Now

As educators, professors, and students face suppression, the Freedom Scholar award stands as a beacon of resistance, an inoculation against the attacks on the freedom to learn. These honorees prove that rigorous, movement-connected scholarship is essential to creating a future worth living in. 

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‍The 2025 Freedom Scholars Are: 

1. Dr. Stacey Sutton, whose Black feminist framework reimagines a solidarity economy as a force for collective liberation as opposed to a site of extraction. 
2. Dr. Aziz Rana, the legal scholar offering a road map beyond the Constitution’s shortcomings. 
3. Dr. Dian Million, the longtime Indigenous organizer centering Indigenous practices in climate justice while challenging false promises of “reconciliation.”
4. Dr. Luke Herrine, the legal architect behind historic student debt cancellation, proving policy can be a tool for mass justice. 

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What Sets Them Apart

These scholars have each rooted their work in relationship to social movements. Whether challenging the courts, rethinking economics, or fighting to dethrone settler colonialism, they understand that ideas change the world only when they’re put to work. 

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Marguerite Casey Foundation supports leaders, scholars and initiatives focused on shifting the balance of power in society — building power for communities that continue to be excluded from shaping how society works and from sharing in its rewards and freedoms. Its board members, leadership and staff are committed to building a just economy and fully realized democracy, and to providing unfettered support to the bold strategies and leadership that are required to bring about major change in our lifetime. For interviews, profiles, or commentary on the 2025 Freedom Scholars, contact: media@caseygrants.org 

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