She served on a Panel on State Efforts to Promote Election Reform and Access to the Vote, Moderator, American Constitution Society and the National Press Club, Washington, D.C. (Feb. 25, 2008).

She served as a panelist to address "The Crucial Role of State Election Administrators in Promoting Democracy," at the Norman Amaker Public Interest Law Conference, Indiana University Law School (Feb. 23, 2008).

She addressed "Martin Luther King, Jr. and The Future of Voting Rights," as part of the Penn State Dickenson School of Law Speaker Series on Preserving King's Legacy, Lecture, State College, PA. (Feb. 22, 2008).

She was interviewed in a segment called "Am I Right?" for Detroit Public Television (discussing the accusations of perjury against Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick) on Jan. 25, 2008.

She was interviewed by Patty Satalia for Pennsylvania Inside Out, WPSU TV, on Feb. 22, 2008.

She spoke on Feb. 2, 2008, on a judicial panel in Washtenaw County with former Attorney General Candidate Amos Williams on the current status of standing issues in the Michigan Supreme Court.

She will speak on Feb. 8, 2008, at the national Mid-Year Meeting of the American Bar Association on a panel entitled "Modern American Election Law and Voting Rights," cosponsored by Section of State and Local Government Law, Section on Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice and the ABA Center for Continuing Legal Education.

She and Professor Robert Sedler were interviewed for an hour-long segment on Jury Diversity issues in Wayne County on Detroit Today, WDET/Michigan Public Radio. (Sept. 18, 2007)

The American Constitution Society published an issue brief that she authored entitled "Towards Full Participation: Solutions for Improvements to the Federal Language Assistance Laws." The issue brief was distributed to over 50,000 members of the ACS Voting and Democracy initiative and is available at: http://www.acslaw.org/c21/voting (Sept. 12, 2007)

She published an Op-Ed in the Daily Journal (www.dailyjournal.com), the most widely read legal journal on the West coast. The Op-Ed was entitled "Promoting Equal Opportunity and Access to the Vote for Citizens with Limited English Proficiency." (Sept. 27, 2007)

On March 4, Professor Benson served as a panelist at the WSU Center for Citizenship Conference on Race and Citizenship, presenting a version of her forthcoming Boston College Law Review article, Su Voto Es Su Voz: Incorporating Voters of Limited English Proficiency into American Democracy.

From March 11 to March, with funding from the Izumi Fund, Professor Benson sponsored a trip to Atlanta and Montgomery, Alabama for students enrolled in her Election Law and Race and the Law courses. Eight students went on the trip. One half of the trip was spent meeting with lawyers at the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Equal Justice Initiative who work on death penalty litigation, suits against white supremacist organizations, and various anti-discrimination cases. The second half of the trip was spent touring parts of Alabama and Georgia that were relevant to the civil rights movement, including a journey along the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights trail and a visit to the Voting Rights Museum in Selma, Alabama. The purpose of the trip was to offer students the opportunity to interact with lawyers currently working on civil rights litigation and to provide a view into the realities of the events that led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

On March 15, Professor Benson submitted an entry on Voting Rights for the Encyclopedia of the United States Constitution to be published by Facts on File, Inc. in 2008.

In December 2006, Professor Benson was appointed to serve on the Racial Justice Advisory Council for the Michigan ACLU. She is currently drafting a memorandum for the council on the issues surrounding the creation of a legal right to education for students in the state of Michigan.

On January 11, Professor Benson delivered Wayne State Medical School's annual Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture, "MLK and the quest for voting rights," sponsored by the Black Medical Association.

On January 22, she was elected to serve on the Board of Directors for Transportation Riders United, a non-profit organization advocating for improved public transit in the Detroit Metro area.

On February 14, Professor Benson participated as a lecturer in the Wayne State Humanities Center Brown Bag Colloquium Series, speaking on the recent reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act and the impending constitutional challenge to the Act.

On October 24, 2006, Professor Benson moderated a panel discussion in the Partrich Auditorium consisting of the six Wayne State law student research assistants she hired through work study this summer to examine and document the potential impact of Proposal 2, should it pass, on educational and economic opportunities in Michigan. The panel was sponsored by the Student Board of Governors and nearly 60 students and other community members attended the discussion.

On October 25, 2006, Professor Benson addressed students at the University of Toledo Law School on "Election Protection: Issues in 2004 and Beyond" to a gathering of approximately 75-80 students. The lecture included a presentation of the themes and arguments in her article, "Su Voto Es Su Voz: Incorporating Limited English Proficient Citizens into American Democracy" Boston College Law Review (forthcoming 2007).

Professor Benson completed the Detroit Free Press Marathon on October 29, 2006, in just over four hours.

She also spoke on "The Voting Rights Act Reauthorization of 2006 and Limited English Proficiency Voters," for the panel on the Reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, Emory Law School, Atlanta, Georgia, on October 7, 2006.

Professor Benson delivered a keynote address, "Voter Fraud or Voter Defrauded? Federal Courts and the Issue of Fraud in Elections," at Drake Law School, Des Moines, Iowa, on October 23, 2006.

On October 25, 2006, she delivered a keynote address, "Election Protection: Issues in 2004 and Beyond," at University of Toledo Law School, Toledo, Ohio.

Her article, "Su Voto Es Su Voz: Integrating Limited English Proficient Citizens into American Democracy," is forthcoming later in 2006 in the Boston College Law Review.

Language Accommodations for All? Extending and Expanding the Language Protections of the Voting Rights Act, in DEMOCRACY, PARTICIPATION AND POWER: PERSPECTIVES ON REAUTHORIZATION OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT (forthcoming Fall 2006 by the Berkeley Public Policy Press).

She delivered two invited presentations:

The Annual Conference of the International Municipal Lawyers Association (IMLA) (September 18, 2006), and she co-authored an accompanying paper entitled What Local Government Counsel Needs to Know about the 2006 Amendments to the Voting Rights Act, H.R. 9: Bilingual Interpreters, Foreign Language Ballots & Strengthened Preclearance Requirements (with Benjamin E Griffith); and

The Warren Institute of Boalt Law School, University of California, Berkeley, where she delivered a lecture and presented accompanying written remarks on "Appropriate Language Accommodations under Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act" before an audience of approximately 250. (February 9, 2006).

She was recently appointed to serve on the following boards:
Standing Committee on Election Law, The American Bar Association (3 year appointment);
Board of Directors, Mobilizing America's Youth (2 year appointment); and
President's Commission on Women, Wayne State University

She also supervised the research and production of three studies, completed by seven work-study students at Wayne State University Law School, into the potential legal, political, and sociological effects of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative. The students will present their research and written studies to the public in October 2006.

She was an invited guest on the Detroit television broadcast of "Am I Right? Or Am I Right?" to provide commentary on Detroit municipal elections and other voting related controversies (October 28, 2006).

She completed the Green Bay Marathon in Green Bay Wisconsin, May 2006.