Barbara Zanzig Lock, director, Low Income Taxpayer Clinic, Lecturer of Tax Law, University of Idaho College of Law in Boise

When Barbara Lock saw the job posting for her current position, she was working as a partner in a law firm in Seattle, but she knew she had found her calling.

“I live tax, I love tax, and I was able to take that and combine it with an overwhelming interest in helping people,” she says.

Though she moved away from her family to take the job – her husband followed three years later – she wouldn’t have changed a thing. As director of the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic at the University of Idaho College of Law, Lock makes a huge impact on low income taxpayers who wouldn’t otherwise have representation to help solve their tax problems.

“They are terrified of the IRS,” Lock says. “I am one of the few people I know who is not terrified of the IRS, and I can help them.”

But Lock doesn’t just help taxpayers. Her students, who nominated her for the award, say she has inspired them both to love tax law and to serve others. They enjoy telling the story of when she literally gave a student the shirt off her back.

“Even though law school is challenging, Professor Lock has a way of making students feel like they can succeed – even in a class with a 2,000 page book of statutes,” says student Ingrid Batey. “She is never too busy to lend an ear, or provide words of encouragement.”

For Lock’s part, she says she loves watching her students catch the bug.

“I can see in them that they’re learning the importance of doing pro bono work and helping people who otherwise wouldn’t have a chance,” she says.

Lock says she originally got interested in tax law while taking introductory courses at University of California, Los Angeles. She says when she took her first tax law class, it was like she came home. She loves taking all the pieces of a tax case and figuring out how they all go together.

“It’s exciting to me to help put it all together and clean up messes for people,” she says.

Lock’s passion for helping extends beyond the classroom and her clinic. She’s worked as a foster parent for years, in addition to raising her two daughters, and also spent 20 years as a one-on-one companion for a woman with cerebral palsy.

When she’s not working or caring for others, Lock enjoys skiiing, running and hiking. But her favorite thing to do is visit her daughters, now grown.

“It is not because of me that they are so accomplished, but we parented before all else and I have no regrets,” she says. Daughter Laura is a lawyer and Jane has a master’s in statistics. “I am lucky to have mentored these two amazing women.

“They are my hobby now,” she says.