Speaker Biographies

Speakers and Committee Leads

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Judith F. Aidoo-Saltus ʼ87

Judith Aidoo-Saltus is a lawyer and investment banker specializing in impact investments and social enterprise in emerging economies. She began her career at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in 1987, and started her own investment firm in 1991 to advise institutions like the World Bank, International Finance Corporation and, most recently, the Global Steering Group for Impact Investing, on the global capital markets. Judith has invested in several companies, large and small, including an innovative $500 million trade loan securitization program for 22 eastern and southern African countries. She is also noted for her feasibility study for the creation of the Ghana Stock Exchange and she is a frequent speaker and thought leader regarding impact investing in Africa. (See her 2021 “Field Notes from an African Investor” in the recently released CreativityCultureCapital.org publication.)

Ms. Aidoo-Saltus has been honored for her business accomplishments and philanthropy, and has served as a director to the following institutions: President Clinton’s Transition Team responsible for covering the US Federal Reserve System; the U.S Trade Advisory Committee chaired by the US Trade Representative Ms. Charlene Barshefsky; the US-South Africa Business Development Committee co-chaired by the US Secretaries of Commerce Brown and Daley; the Constituency for Africa; the African Women’s Development Fund; and the Advisory Boards of the Africa House at New York University and the Ghana campus of Webster University. Judith currently serves on the global board of directors for VisionSpring, a New York based social enterprise providing eye testing and low cost eyeglasses to the poor in Africa and Asia, and a board member and Treasurer of the ArchiAfrika Foundation, which supports the development of architecture, design, and culture in Africa to address its development challenges.

Judith graduated Phi Beta Kappa and with high honors from Rutgers College in 1984 and received a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1987. Her activities have been profiled in at least two books: “More than 85 Broads” by Janet Hanson, published by McGraw Hill (2006); and “Doing It for Ourselves: Success Stories of African American Women in Business” by Donna Ballard, Berkley Books (1997). She is an avid traveler, reader, photographer and art collector.

Michele Alexandre ʼ00

Michèle Alexandre, JD, is the dean of the School of Law at Loyola University Chicago. Alexandre previously served as dean of Stetson University College of Law, where they led efforts to expand the curriculum, increase alumni engagement, and establish new community partnerships. Under Alexandre’s leadership, Stetson raised more than $20 million for scholarships and capital projects, created a new business law concentration, and boasted the best pass rate for first-time takers of the Florida Bar exam since 2016.

A first-generation lawyer, Alexandre has dedicated much of their career to issues of sustainability, race and gender equity, economic independence, and social justice for small farmers and poor populations. Alexandre’s scholarship includes constitutional law, international law, civil rights law, disability law, critical race theory, human rights, and gender. Alexandre previously held roles at the University of Mississippi School of Law, the American College of Law, the University of Baltimore School of Law, and the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, among others. Alexandre litigated discrimination cases in Selma, Alabama, including both iterations of the historic Black Farmers class action litigation. Alexandre authored the civil rights textbook The New Frontiers of Civil Rights Litigation (Carolina Academic Press, 2019) and Sexploitation: Sexual Profiling and the Illusion of Gender (Routledge, 2014).

Mussab Ali ’23

Mussab Ali is the former Jersey City Board of Education President, education nonprofit founder, and cancer survivor running for mayor of Jersey City.

In 2017, Mussab ran for Jersey City Board of Education and made history as the youngest elected official in Jersey City history, at just 20 years old, and the youngest Muslim elected in the country at the time. Later elected BOE president by his peers, Mussab worked to raise teachers’ salaries to $61,000 per year, abolish student lunch debt, and raise the minimum wage to $17 per hour. In 2018, Mussab co-founded the Ali Leadership Institute to train the next generation of activists, organizers, and grassroots leaders.

Mussab received his B.A. from Rutgers University-Newark, where he was a Truman scholar, his master’s from Tsinghua University as a Schwarzman Scholar, and his J.D. from Harvard Law School. At Harvard, he served as the student body’s co-president and was a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow. A survivor of Stage 4 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, he recently ran his fourth marathon. Now, he’s running for mayor to fight for the same opportunities that helped his family succeed.

Vanessa L. Allen Sutherland

Vanessa Allen Sutherland, Executive Vice President, Government Affairs, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Fortune 50 Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX), is a former U.S. Senate-confirmed political appointee with over 25 years of private and public sector experience, focusing on helping publicly traded companies increase their value through culture transformation, strategic discipline, continuous improvement, risk management and talent development. She holds a law degree, Master of Business Administration (IT) and a Certified Information Privacy Professional status. She also manages Ethics and Compliance, Communications and Sustainability for Phillips 66. She serves on the board of Dominion Energy (NYSE: D) and has been a director for Eastman Chemical Company and Southern Company Gas.

Prior to Phillips 66, she was the Chief Legal Officer at Norfolk Southern Corporation. Sutherland joined Norfolk Southern as vice president law in 2018, subsequently being promoted to senior vice president, chief legal officer and then to senior vice president, government relations and chief legal officer.

She served as presidentially appointed and U.S. Senate confirmed CEO and chairperson of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board in Washington, D.C. from 2015-2018. She also served as an appointee as chief counsel with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

Her prior positions include seven years at Philip Morris USA and its affiliate, Altria Client Services. Sutherland began work as an in-house attorney at long-distance phone company Intermedia, before MCI WorldCom subsidiary Digex, where she served first as counsel, then senior counsel and then vice president and deputy general counsel.
Sutherland’s awards and honors include a 2025 The Burton Awards’ Leaders in Law, 2025 ACC’s Best Large Corporate Legal Department, Top 25 General Counsel of 2023, 2021 Most Influential Black Corporate Directors, National Diversity Council’s Power 50 List, Corporate Counsel Magazine – “Best Of” Law Departments, three U.S. Secretary of Transportation Awards, Virginia Lawyers Weekly “Leaders in the Law” Award, the University of Richmond “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants Award.” She loves family, travel, art, motorcycles, and mentoring.

Deborah N. Archer

Deborah Archer is the President of the ACLU, the first person of color to serve in that role in the organization’s history, and a nationally recognized expert on civil liberties, civil rights, and racial justice. She is also the Margaret B. Hoppin Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Community Equity Initiative at New York University School of Law. Deborah is an award-winning teacher and legal scholar whose articles have appeared in leading law reviews and national publications, and she has offered commentary for national and international media. Prior to fulltime teaching, Deborah worked as an attorney with the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., where she litigated in the areas of voting rights, employment discrimination, educational equity, and school desegregation. Deborah also previously served as Chair of the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, the nation’s oldest and largest police oversight agency.

Recent recognition of Deborah’s contributions to civil rights and racial justice advocacy and scholarship include elections to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Law Institute; the Smith College Medal, the highest honor Smith College awards to an alum; the National NAACP William Robert Ming Advocacy Award; the Arabella Mansfield Award from the National Association of Women Lawyers; and an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Seattle University.

Deborah is also the author of the national best-selling book Dividing Lines: How Transportation Infrastructure Reinforces Racial Inequality.

Elise C. Boddie ʼ96

Elise C. Boddie, the James V. Campbell Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, is a dynamic, nationally recognized, and award-winning legal scholar. Boddie’s scholarship explores the regulation and production of race in spatial contexts and dynamic systems that sustain and perpetuate racial inequality. Her work bridges diverse disciplines and practices of scholarship, teaching, community, and service and has been widely cited and discussed in academic and non-academic circles. She has published in leading law reviews and multiple national media outlets, including The New York Times and the Washington Post.

Boddie has significant experience in organizational leadership, having served as Director of Litigation for the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., and through her service and leadership on the national board of the American Constitution Society, the board of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, and as a founding board member of the New Jersey Coalition for Diverse & Inclusive Schools. While at Rutgers Law School, Boddie founded the Inclusion Project, which brought together students, faith leaders, educators, researchers, and community-based constituencies in a multisector initiative to challenge school segregation in New Jersey.

Boddie was elected to the American Law Institute in 2017 and as an American Bar Foundation Fellow in 2019. In 2021, President Biden appointed her to the Presidential Commission on the United States Supreme Court. In 2022, she was invited by the American Law Institute to participate in a small bipartisan group that proposed reforms to the federal Electoral Count Act (ECA), leading to Congress’s passage of a new ECA that President Biden signed into law.

Nikolas Bowie

Nikolas Bowie is the Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He is a historian who teaches courses in federal constitutional law, state constitutional law, and local government law. His research focuses on critical legal histories of democracy in the United States. Professor Bowie was the 2021 recipient of the Sacks-Freund Award for Teaching Excellence from the graduating class at Harvard Law School. His scholarship has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Law and History Review, the Stanford Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal. He has also written essays for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Slate, and other publications.

In addition to teaching and writing, Professor Bowie is active in local government and in the civil rights community in the Boston area. He is on the boards of Lawyers for Civil Rights and People’s Parity Project. He is also an avid marathoner. Professor Bowie received a BA in history from Yale and a JD and PhD in history from Harvard. He clerked for Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the US Supreme Court.

Tona Boyd ʼ09

Tona Boyd is a civil rights lawyer who most recently served as the Associate Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF). Before joining LDF, Tona served as Special Counsel and Special Assistant to the President in the White House Counsel’s Office in the Biden-Harris Administration, where she worked to advance President Biden’s agenda related to racial justice, equity, and judicial nominations, including the selection, preparation, and confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Prior to joining the Biden-Harris administration, Tona was Chief Counsel and Senior Legal Advisor to United States Senator Cory A. Booker on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Tona began her legal career as a litigator in the Honors Program of the United States Department of Justice. She served for nearly a decade as a federal civil rights prosecutor in the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division.

Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. ʼ95

Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. is the 37th District Attorney elected in Manhattan. A son of Harlem who has served as both a state and federal prosecutor, Alvin has spent more than two decades fighting for safer communities and a fairer criminal justice system. He is the first Black Manhattan DA. Alvin restructured the Manhattan DA’s Office to focus more resources on prosecuting serious violent crimes, meeting the needs of survivors, reducing recidivism by addressing underlying causes of criminal behavior, protecting everyday New Yorkers from abuses by the powerful, and vacating wrongful convictions. Alvin also directly oversees the Police Accountability Unit.

Sashi Brown ’02

Entering his third year with the Baltimore Ravens, Sashi Brown, 48, oversees and manages all business areas of the organization, including finances, legal, budgeting, corporate sales, operations, stadium activities, communications and business ventures. Brown was also appointed by Commissioner Roger Goodell to serve on the NFL’s Stadium Committee. “He’s very smart and has good judgement,” stated longtime Ravens president Dick Cass, whose role Brown assumed in April 2022. “He’s thoughtful, and what you really notice are his people skills, poise and presence. “For the three years (2019-21) prior to his arrival in Baltimore, Brown worked at Monumental Sports & Entertainment, last serving as President of Monumental Basketball (Wizards, Mystics and Go-Go) and as a special advisor to the CEO. Brown also previously accrued 13 years of NFL experience, including five seasons (2013-17) with the Cleveland Browns, where he served two years (2016-17) as executive vice president of football operations. Prior, he spent eight years (2005-12) with the Jacksonville Jaguars, last serving as senior vice president and general counsel. In 2015, Brown was named to the Sports Business Journal’s “Forty Under 40” list. He began his career as an attorney at the Washington, D.C.-based law firm WilmerHale.

Tomiko Brown-Nagin

Tomiko Brown-Nagin is dean of Harvard Radcliffe Institute, one of the world’s leading centers for interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts, and professions. Brown-Nagin is also the Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School, a professor of history in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences and a distinguished scholar in the fields of law and history.

Brown-Nagin has served as dean of the Harvard Radcliffe Institute since 2018. Prior to becoming dean, Brown-Nagin held leadership roles at Harvard Law School. She served as the faculty director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute and as co-director of the Law and History program. In addition, Brown-Nagin has helmed University-wide endeavors. From 2019-2022, Brown-Nagin chaired the Presidential Committee on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery (Harvard University Press, 2022). In 2024, Brown-Nagin was named co-chair of Harvard’s Working Group on Open Inquiry and Constructive Dialogue. Established by the President and Provost, the group was tasked with assessing the University’s climate for teaching and learning. Brown-Nagin led a team of faculty, engaged with faculty, students, and alumni from all schools, authored the group’s report, and presented its findings to media. She continues to co-lead this initiative, now focused on implementing the group’s recommendations to foster a climate that supports the free exchange of ideas.

Prior to entering academia, Brown-Nagin worked as an associate in the litigation department of a major New York City law firm and served as a judicial clerk on both the U.S. Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Court. She earned a law degree from Yale Law School, a doctorate in history from Duke University, and a Bachelor of Arts in history from Furman University.

Devon W. Carbado ’94

Professor Carbado is the Elihu Root Professor of Law at NYU School of Law and a Distinguished Research Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. A 1994 graduate of the law school, he was the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal, a member of the Board of Student Advisors, the Academic Chair for BLSA, and the winner of the Northeast Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition. Professor Carbado has received numerous teaching awards, including the Professor of the Year award and UCLA’s university-wide distinguished teaching award. His scholarship appears in leading law reviews, including the California Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Harvard Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Texas Law Review, UCLA Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal. Professor Carbado has edited or written several books, served as a vice dean and an associate vice chancellor, and was the Shikes Fellow in Civil Liberties and Visiting Professor of Law at the law school.

Guy-Uriel Charles

Guy-Uriel E. Charles is the Charles J. Ogletree Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School where he also directs the Charles Hamilton Institute for Race and Justice. He writes about how law mediates political power and how law addresses racial subordination. He teaches courses on civil procedure; election law; constitutional law; race and law; critical race theory; legislation and statutory interpretation; law, economics, and politics; and law, identity, and politics. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the American Law Institute. He was appointed by President Joseph Biden to the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States. He is currently working on a book, with Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, on the past and future of voting rights, under contract with Cambridge University Press, which argues that the race-based model that underlies the Voting Rights Act has run its course and that the best way to protect against racial discrimination in voting is through a universal, positive rights model of political participation. He is also co-editing, with Aziza Ahmed, a handbook entitled Race, Racism, and the Law, under contract with Edward Elgar Publishing. This book will survey the current state of research on race and the law in the United States and aims to influence the intellectual agenda of the field.

Professor Charles received his JD from the University of Michigan Law School and clerked for The Honorable Damon J. Keith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. While at the University of Michigan, he was one of the founders and the first editor-in-chief of the Michigan Journal of Race & Law. From 1995-2000, he was a graduate student in political science at the University of Michigan.

Before teaching at Harvard, he taught at Duke Law School and at the University of Minnesota Law School. He also served as interim co-dean at the University of Minnesota from 2006-2008. He has been a visiting professor at Georgetown, Virginia, and Columbia law schools. He was a past member of the National Research Commission on Elections and Voting and the Century Foundation Working Group on Election Reform. In 2006, he was awarded the distinguished teaching award at the University of Minnesota Law School. In 2016, he was awarded the distinguished teaching award at Duke Law School.

Antoinette (Sequeira) Coakley ’95

Antoinette Coakley (’92, JD ’95) is an educator and corporate transactional attorney with more than 25 years of experience. In 2022 she joined the faculty at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, where she currently serves in the dual role of Associate Teaching Professor and Assistant Dean for the Bar Success Program. In her faculty capacity, Professor Coakley teaches a Negotiation course to upper-level students and serves as Co-Advisor to the Black Law Students Association, Kemet Chapter. In her administrative role, she provides guidance and support to students pertaining to the bar exam and bar admissions process. Professor Coakley also teaches a Business Negotiations course as a Lecturer on Law at her alma mater, Harvard Law School. She was nominated by her students at Northeastern to serve as their Faculty Commencement Speaker in May 2024. In spring 2025 she also was recognized as one of the “57 Most Influential Black Lawyers in the Northeast” by the Northeast Black Law Students Association for her dedicated work as a mentor and advisor to Black law students.

Prior to entering academia, Professor Coakley served as Director of Business & Regulatory Law for Retail Business Services, a division of Ahold Delhaize, a multi-billion dollar international grocery retail company operating supermarkets and e-commerce retail operations in the US and in Europe. Prior to working for the Ahold Delhaize companies, Professor Coakley was a corporate associate at the law firm of Ropes & Gray in Boston.

A native of Boston, Professor Coakley is active in various organizations within her community, including youth ministry leadership at her church, Bethel AME Church in Boston. Professor Coakley graduated cum laude from Harvard-Radcliffe College, with an AB degree in Government, earned her JD from Harvard Law School, and is a distinguished alumna of Boston Latin Academy. She is also the proud mother of two amazing college graduate children.

Melanie Cook ʼ90

Melanie Cook is an accomplished CEO, corporate attorney, and strategic operator with over two decades of experience leading high-impact initiatives across the private and public sectors. A graduate of Harvard Law School and Spelman College, Melanie is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Veritas Management Group (VMG), a nationally recognized firm that helps Fortune 500 companies, federal agencies, and mission-driven organizations drive progress by integrating strategy, technology, and operations.

Under Melanie’s leadership, VMG has grown into a high-performing firm with more than 100 team members across 19 U.S. states and 10 global locations. In 2023, she led the acquisition of ASAP Talent Services, expanding VMG’s footprint into enterprise systems staffing, SAP talent acquisition, and IT workforce solutions. The combined enterprise delivers both strategic insight and operational capacity—supporting clients through system modernization, data infrastructure, and real-world implementation. VMG was recognized as one of Inc. 5000’s Fastest-Growing Companies (2024) and an EY Entrepreneur of the Year Southeast Finalist.

Melanie was named to the Women’s President’s Organization Women2Watch List, Women Elevating Women 2024 Entrepreneurial Woman of Impact, and Equilar/Nasdaq Center for Board Excellence Top 50 Diverse Board Candidates.

Melanie began her career as an attorney with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. She was later appointed as a Senior Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Her work at Commerce led to a consultancy with a Wall Street investment firm focused on launching a fund to invest in minority-owned IT companies—further shaping her focus on execution, access, and market expansion. She has also served as a senior consultant to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Cari K. Dawson ’93

Cari Dawson is a creative problem solver, legal strategist, and committed advocate. She has practiced for 30 years at Alston & Bird and co-chairs the firm’s Class Action & Multidistrict Litigation Practice Team. From litigation arising out of recalls and data breaches to challenges to clients’ use of artificial intelligence, Cari is regularly retained by corporations to help them think strategically about minimizing liability exposure, winning cases on the merits, and resolving global threats through business-minded settlements. A Chambers-ranked attorney, Cari has served as lead counsel in bet-the-company matters nationwide.

Cari has served on Alston’s Diversity Committee, including as co-chair, and currently co-chairs the firm’s Women of Color Attorney Network. Cari served on the Executive Committee of the National Bar Association’s Commercial Law Section and in 2024 was given the Cora T. Walker Award, which recognizes an NBA member who has a longstanding history of supporting the CLS and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal profession.

Cari received her A.B. from Princeton University with a degree from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs before entering Harvard Law School in the fall of 1990, where she was active in the HLS Drama Society, worked at the BlackLetter Law Journal, and participated in the Ames Moot Court Competition as the first all-Black team to make it to the finals, the Thurgood Marshall Legacy Team.

Antonio Delgado ’05

Antonio Delgado was born and raised in Schenectady, New York. His parents worked for General Electric, and from a young age, he saw their determination to pull their family into the middle class. This left a lasting impression and shaped many of the values that guide Antonio to this day.

Antonio’s journey took him from Schenectady to Colgate University, in Hamilton, NY, where he was awarded a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford. Following this, he went on to earn his law degree from Harvard University—where he met his wife, Lacey.

Before entering public office, Antonio spent five years as a hip-hop artist, and practiced law for nearly a decade. His experiences gave him a deep appreciation for the struggles and aspirations of everyday Americans.

In 2018, motivated by the disappointment of watching everyday working Americans being left behind, Antonio ran for Congress to represent New York’s 19th District—one of the most rural in the country. As a member of Congress, he focused on bringing people together, delivering results, and fighting for communities too often overlooked. He was recognized as one of the most effective and bipartisan members of Congress—with 18 of his bills signed into law under two different presidents. During COVID, he delivered the Direct Support for Communities act, which provided over $130 billion to cities, counties, towns and villages across the United States—including more than $400 million in direct relief for local governments across NY-19, and over $10 billion to local governments across NY.

In May of 2022, Antonio was appointed Lieutenant Governor of New York and elected to a full term in November of 2022. Since then, he’s traveled across the state, meeting with New Yorkers from all walks of life, listening to their concerns, and working to improve lives through compassion, opportunity, and respect. In addition to chairing New York’s Hate and Bias Prevention Unit, the Regional Economic Development Councils, and the Council on Community Justice, Antonio oversaw the creation of the state’s very first Office of Civic and Service Engagement.

Antonio lives in Rhinebeck with his wife, Lacey, their twin sons, Maxwell and Coltrane, and their dog, Leroy. He remains deeply committed to building a New York that works for everyone—no matter who you are, where you’re from, or how much money you make.

Robin D. Dunson ʼ90

Robin Dunson is Founder and President of Ocean 79 Group, a media investment platform that is an owner in the Allen Americans ECHL hockey team and invests in IP assets across music and film. She serves on the Board of Directors of Ecka Holdings, a company focused on music and entertainment IP acquisition and royalty monetization.

Robin previously served as Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary of Segra, a leading fiber infrastructure and data center provider and subsidiary of Cox Communications. In this role, she was a key member of the executive leadership team, advising the CEO, senior leadership, and board of directors on strategic legal matters. She led Segra’s legal, compliance, governance, and risk functions across 21 states and oversaw a high-performing legal team supporting major M&A transactions, commercial deals, litigation, employment, privacy and data security, and regulatory initiatives.

Before joining Segra, Robin was Assistant Vice President & Associate General Counsel at Cox Enterprises, Inc., where she led legal strategy and negotiated high-value commercial transactions involving supply chain, real estate, Cox’s newspapers, sustainability initiatives, and the company’s newly launched esports teams. Earlier at Cox Communications, she served as Assistant General Counsel – Marketing, Residential Sales, and Product. Her foundational legal experience includes roles at AT&T, SBC/Ameritech, and the global law firm Jones Day.

Robin recently completed the Stakeholder Leadership and Governance Institute’s board readiness program and was one of three cohort members selected to present governance recommendations to Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Unite Board. She also is a graduate of Harvard Business School Cable Executive Management and Leadership Program, Leadership North Fulton (GA), and NAMIC’s Executive Leadership Development Program.

Robin’s civic and board service includes the Trust for Public Land, YWCA of Greater Atlanta, and the Emma Bowen Foundation. She is a Life Member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and Jack & Jill of America, and a member of The Links, Incorporated. Her honors include the 2023 Power 100 DEI Award, Women in Business Award 2023, and Diverse Lawyers Making a Difference award 2023. She was recognized by Savoy Magazine as one of the 2022 “Most Influential Black Lawyers.”

Ms. Dunson obtained her JD from Harvard Law School and a B.S. in Accounting, cum laude, from Bradley University.

Willie J. Epps, Jr. ʼ95

Judge Willie J. Epps, Jr. ‘95 serves as the Chief United States Magistrate Judge for the Western District of Missouri. He began his legal career as an Air Force Judge Advocate, Special Assistant United States Attorney, and Assistant Special Counsel for the Waco Investigation. Later, he was named partner at two law firms and head of litigation at a financial services firm.

Judge Epps’ scholarship focuses on the history of Black lawyers and judges. His article, Black Lawyers of Missouri: 150 Years of Progress and Promise, appeared in the Missouri Law Review, providing an in-depth history and analysis of Missouri’s Black legal community from 1871 to 2021. He authored The Jackie Robinsons of the Federal Judiciary: Examining the Appointment of the First Black Federal Judges, published by the University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender, and Class. With Dean Roger A. Fairfax, Jr. ‘98 and Professor Angela J. Davis, he co-authored the ABA Criminal Justice Magazine article, Professor Charles J. Ogletree Jr.: A Humble Civil Rights Defender and Public Theologian. He also writes about federal trial practice. In 2023, the ABA published his second book, Preparing for a Federal Jury Trial, which shares proven trial strategies and techniques.

Judge Epps is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, member of the Judicial Council of the National Bar Association, and former chair of the ABA National Conference of Federal Trial Judges. He is a graduate of Amherst College and Princeton Theological Seminary and holds law degrees from Harvard and Duke. As an HLS student, Judge Epps was a member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, co-chair of Harvard BLSA’s 1994 Spring Conference, president of the Law School Council, and research assistant for three years to Professor Charles J. Ogletree, Jr.

Jelani Jefferson Exum ʼ04

Jelani Jefferson Exum is the 10th Dean of St. John’s University School of Law and holds the Rose DiMartino and Karen Sue Smith Professor of Law endowed chair. She has also held positions as the Dean and Philip J. McElroy Professor of Law at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, and as a professor at the University of Toledo College of Law and at the University of Kansas School of Law. Additionally, she taught as a visiting professor at the University of Michigan Law School and as a fellow at Tulane Law School.

Prior to her academic career, Dean Jefferson Exum earned her undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Harvard College, received a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and held federal clerkships with Hon. Eldon E. Fallon, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, and Hon. James L. Dennis, U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. She is a nationally and internationally recognized sentencing scholar. Her scholarly work on sentencing, comparative criminal law and procedure, policing, and the impact of race on criminal justice has appeared in a range of publications. Dean Jefferson Exum serves as a member of the New York State Justice Task Force, the editorial board of the Federal Sentencing Reporter, and serves as Secretary of the Neighborhood Defender Service, Inc. Board of Advisors.

Roger Fairfax ʼ98

Roger A. Fairfax, Jr. is Dean and Professor of Law at the Howard University School of Law. Dean Fairfax previously served as the 19th Dean of the American University Washington College of Law. Dean Fairfax’s scholarship is published in books and leading journals, and he teaches and conducts research on criminal law and procedure, professional responsibility and ethics, criminal justice reform, racial justice, and civil rights legal history. He has championed diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts throughout higher education and the legal profession, and he is a member of the Association of American Law Schools Steering Committee leading the Deans of the nation’s 200 law schools.

After clerking for federal judges on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Dean Fairfax served as an Attorney General Honors Program Trial Attorney in the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division, where he handled a wide array of white-collar and corruption investigations and prosecutions. He then practiced at a large international law firm, where he handled corporate internal investigations, strategic counseling, complex trial and appellate litigation, securities enforcement and other white-collar criminal matters, and pro bono civil rights and indigent criminal defense cases.

Dean Fairfax currently serves on the boards of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, the ABA Criminal Justice magazine, and City Year DC, and he is a member of the American Law Institute and He previously served the Judicial Conference of the United States advisory committee responsible for drafting and revising the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the Board of Governors of the National Bar Association, the boards of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender and Southeastern Association of Law Schools, the ABA Criminal Justice Section Council, and as a Senior Fellow at the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School.

Dean Fairfax earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard College, a graduate degree from the University of London, and his law degree from Harvard Law School, where he was an NAACP Legal Defense Fund Scholar, and an editor of both the Harvard Law Review and the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review.

Burt M. Fealing ’95

Burt M. Fealing serves as Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Sustainability Officer, and Corporate Secretary for Southwire Company, a global manufacturer with approximately $9 billion of revenue.

Fealing leads the company’s legal, compliance and government affairs functions as well as the Risk Management, Internal Audit and Global Security departments. He is the Chief Compliance Officer and the Chief Sustainability Officer for Southwire.

Fealing serves on numerous nonprofit organizations, including as a Board member for the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education, The Scouts of America, the Georgia Chamber and the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the 2018 Class of Leadership Atlanta, 100 Black Men of Atlanta, and the Rotary Club of Atlanta.

Fealing earned his B.A. (economics and psychology) from Williams College and his J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is admitted in Massachusetts, Georgia and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Idriss Fofana

Idriss Fofana is assistant professor of law and affiliate assistant professor of history at Harvard University. He writes on international law and inter-polity order from both contemporary and historical perspectives. His research explores issues related to the law of treaties and the use and interpretation of historical sources and evidence by international courts and tribunals. His historical work focuses on the intellectual history of the Third World legal movement in the second half of the 20th century as well as the legal and institutional history of China and Sahelian West Africa from the 1600s to the 1900s. He received a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

Kenneth C. Frazier ʼ78

Kenneth C. Frazier is the former Chairman and CEO of Merck, following his retirement from more than 30 years with the company, including a decade-long tenure as CEO. Currently, he is chairman of Health Assurance initiatives at the venture capital firm General Catalyst, where he advises on investments and partnerships for companies that are well-positioned to transform the healthcare industry.

Since his retirement from Merck, Ken has committed himself to organizations dedicated to leading social change and building greater equity for all people. He is the co-founder and co-chair of OneTen, a coalition of organizations committed to upskilling, hiring, and promoting people without four-year degrees into family-sustaining jobs with an emphasis on Black Americans.

Ken serves on the boards of Eikon Therapeutics, Paradigm, and Transcarent, as well as a number of non-profit boards, including Cornerstone Christian Academy in Philadelphia, PA, the Harvard Corporation, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and the National Constitution Center. He also is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Bar Association, the American Philosophical Society, the Council of the American Law Institute, and the Legal Services Corporation’s Leaders Council. Ken also serves on the ABA Task Force on American Democracy.

Ken is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Anti-Defamation League Courage Against Hate Award, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund National Equal Justice Award, and the National Minority Quality Forum’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2018, Ken received the Harvard Law School Association Award. Ken was named one of the World’s Greatest Leaders by Fortune magazine and one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People.

Ken received his bachelor’s degree from The Pennsylvania State University and holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

David K. Gaston ʼ06

David K. Gaston is a highly accomplished legal and technology executive recognized nationally for his leadership at the intersection of law, technology, and artificial intelligence. He currently serves as the Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer (CAIO), Assistant General Counsel & Chief of the E-Litigation Branch at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), where he leads agency-wide strategy on AI, information policy, and e-discovery.With a proven track record of innovation across the public and private sectors, David is a litigator and technologist who builds cutting-edge tools and processes to advance litigation strategy, legal operations, and information governance. His practice areas include artificial intelligence, electronic evidence, digital investigations, civil litigation, and the Freedom of Information Act.

Before joining the NLRB, David served as an Attorney-Advisor at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he focused on information governance, litigation, and emerging technologies. He was the Director of Waters Edge Consulting, a firm dedicated to advancing information governance and security strategies. A published author and frequent speaker, David co-authored Discovering the Digital Record: The Questions for Examination (2008) and has written and presented extensively on AI strategy, information policy, e-discovery, and legal technology. Renowned for his ability to clearly communicate complex technical concepts, he regularly engages with executives, legal professionals, and members of the judiciary. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Georgia.

Annette Gordon-Reed ʼ84

Annette Gordon-Reed is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University. Gordon-Reed won 16 book prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (2008). She is the author of six books, and editor of two. She was the Vyvyan Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History at the University of Oxford (Queen’s College) 2014-2015, and was appointed an Honorary Fellow at Queen’s in 2021. Gordon-Reed served as the 2018-2019 President of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, and is currently president of the Organization of American Historians. Her honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations, and the National Humanities Medal. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the British Academy.

Reggie Hedgebeth ʼ96

Reggie Hedgebeth is currently Executive Vice President, External Affairs & Chief Legal Officer of Enbridge, Inc. (TSX & NYSE: ENB). Enbridge is an energy company that delivers energy through four core businesses: liquids pipelines, natural gas pipelines, gas utilities and storage, and renewable energy. His responsibilities include overseeing Legal Services, Ethics & Compliance, Enterprise Security, Aviation, Public Affairs, Communications, and Sustainability.

Mr. Hedgebeth previously served as Chief Legal Officer for Capital Group, which manages over $2.4 trillion in equity and fixed income assets globally. He also served as executive vice president, general counsel, and chief administrative officer for Marathon Oil Corporation, where he was responsible for legal, human resources, compliance, communications, government affairs, and corporate facilities. His past roles include general counsel, corporate secretary, and chief ethics and compliance officer for Spectra Energy Corp; general counsel for Spectra Energy Partners; senior vice president, general counsel and secretary for Circuit City Stores, Inc.; and vice president of legal for The Home Depot, Inc.

Mr. Hedgebeth began his legal career at King and Spalding, LLP, and held finance and commercial real estate positions at GE Capital before attending law school. He graduated from Harvard Law School and Penn State University. He currently serves on the board of directors and as chair of the audit committee for BWC Terminals LLC, and the advisory board of The Artemis Fund. He is also a member of the external advisory board of the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State and Theatre Under the Stars in Houston. He previously served on the board of directors and as chair of the Audit & Ethics Committee for The Brink’s Company, and was involved with the Memorial Hermann Health System and the Greater Houston Partnership. He participated in fundraising initiatives for the United Way of Greater Houston’s Legal Initiative and the Ensemble Theatre’s Founders Circle, and served on the boards of the William Byrd Community House and the Urban League of Greater Atlanta.

Mr. Hedgebeth has been recognized by Corporate Boardmember Magazine and the Houston Business Journal, and holds honors from Penn State University and the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State.

Marilyn Holifield ’72

Marilyn Holifield ‘72 is a senior partner in Holland & Knight LLP, an international law firm that traces its Florida history to the 1890s. Ms. Holifield attended Swarthmore College, where she earned her B.A. in economics with an inaugural concentration in Black Studies and was a founding member of the Swarthmore Afro-American Student Society (SASS). She earned a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School and received an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters from Barry University (Miami Shores). Ms. Holifield was born in Tallahassee, Florida, where she was one of three black students to desegregate Leon High School. Her legal career began at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in New York, where she litigated class action employment and prison reform lawsuits. She was General Counsel for Peter Edelman at the New York State Division for Youth and worked as a law clerk for Judge Paul H. Roney of the United States (former) Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. She joined Holland & Knight in 1981 as the firm’s first Black attorney and became a partner in the firm in 1986—the first Black woman partner of a major law firm in Florida.

She served on the Executive Committee of the Harvard University Board of Overseers and as Chair of the Board’s Standing Committee on Schools, the College and Continuing Education. She also served on the Executive Committee of the Harvard Alumni Association and executive committees of the Swarthmore College Board of Managers and University of Miami Board of Trustees. She was a co-founding member of the Swarthmore Black Alumni Network. In 2013, as a founding director for the Miami-Dade North Arts & Humanities Foundation, Inc., Ms. Holifield began working to establish the Miami Museum of Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora (Miami MoCAAD).

She is coauthor of the collective memoir, Seven Sisters and a Brother: Friendship, Resistance and Untold Truths Behind Black Student Activism in the 1960s. Ms. Holifield and her coauthors established the Seven Sisters and a Brother Black Studies Endowment as perpetual support for Black Studies at Swarthmore College. She and her brother, Bishop C. Holifield ’69, who was a co-founder of the Harvard Black Law Students Association, are featured in a recently released book, The Family Dynamic, by Susan Dominus, an award winning New York Times journalist.

Sherrilyn Ifill

Sherrilyn Ifill is a civil rights lawyer and scholar. From 2013-2022, she served as the President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), the nation’s premier civil rights law organization fighting for racial justice and equality. Since then Ifill has served as a Senior Fellow at the Ford Foundation, a Fellow at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and as the Klinsky Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. Ifill is currently the Vernon Jordan Distinguished Professor in Civil Rights at Howard Law School where she is also the founding director of the 14th Amendment Center for Law & Democracy. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the American Law Institute. Ifill was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by TIME Magazine.

Congressman Glenn Ivey (MD-04) ʼ86

Congressman Glenn Ivey currently represents Maryland’s 4th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. In the 119th Congress, he serves on the House Committee on Appropriations’ Subcommittees on Commerce, Justice, and Science, as well as Financial Services and General Government. He also serves on the House Committee on Ethics. In the previous, 118th Congress, Representative Ivey served on the House Committees on the Judiciary, Homeland Security, and Ethics. His involvement was outstanding for a freshman member, a distinction that has noticeably carried into his sophomore term.

Since first being elected to Congress in 2022, Congressman Ivey has been a champion for criminal justice, education, and healthcare policy. Prior to serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, Congressman Ivey was an attorney who worked on Capitol Hill as chief counsel to the Senate Majority Leader, as counsel to Senator Paul Sarbanes during the Whitewater investigations, and as Chief Majority Counsel to the Senate Banking Committee. He also served on the staff of Rep. John Conyers (D-MI). Additionally, he worked for U.S. Attorney Eric Holder as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and as chair of Maryland’s Public Service Commission. He was twice elected as State’s Attorney for Prince George’s County, where he worked with the Obama Administration to reduce crime. In this role, Congressman Ivey created a first-of-its-kind Domestic Violence Prosecution Unit and advocated for stronger penalties for witness intimidation.

Much of the Congressman’s commitment to public service stems from his upbringing. Ivey grew up in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, where the schools in his hometown were still segregated. His mother, a librarian, helped desegregate four schools. His father worked for a federal War on Poverty agency, which provided unemployed individuals in North Carolina with the training necessary to find jobs.From these experiences, Ivey saw the power of public service and the impact that advocacy can have on social justice. He continues to be a tireless advocate for his district (MD-04), the state of Maryland, and the American people. Congressman Glenn Ivey resides in Prince George’s County with his wife, Jolene, a County Councilmember. His son, Julian, serves as a Delegate for District 47A in the Maryland House of Delegates. Ivey is a graduate of Princeton University (A.B., 1983) and Harvard Law School (J.D., 1986).

Alan Jenkins ʼ89

Alan Jenkins is a Professor of Practice at Harvard Law School where he teaches courses on Race and the Law, Communication, and Supreme Court Jurisprudence. Before joining the Law School faculty, he was President and Co-Founder of The Opportunity Agenda, a social justice communication lab. Jenkins’s prior positions have included Assistant to the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he represented the United States government in constitutional and other litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court; Director of Human Rights at the Ford Foundation, where he managed grantmaking in the United States and eleven overseas regions; and Associate Counsel to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where he defended the rights of low-income communities facing exploitation and discrimination. He previously served as a Law Clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun and to U.S. District Court Judge Robert L. Carter.

Jenkins is a frequent commentator in broadcast, print, and digital media on topics ranging from Supreme Court decision-making to racial equity to the role of popular culture in social change. His past Board service includes New York Public Radio, the Center for Community Change, the Legal Action Center, and Futuro Media Group, as well as the Board of Governors of the New School for Public Engagement. He has also served on the Selection Committee for the Sundance Documentary Fund. Jenkins holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an M.A. in Media Studies from the New School for Public Engagement, and a B.A. in Psychology and Social Relations from Harvard College.

Walter C. Jones ʼ88

Director, Investments, U.S. Development Finance Corporation

Randall L. Kennedy

Randall Kennedy is Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School where he teaches courses on contracts, criminal law, and the regulation of race relations. He was born in Columbia, South Carolina. For his education he attended St. Albans School, Princeton University, Oxford University, and Yale Law School. He served as a law clerk for Judge J. Skelly Wright of the United States Court of Appeals and for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court. He is a member of the bar of the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court of the United States. Awarded the 1998 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for Race, Crime, and the Law, Mr Kennedy writes for a wide range of scholarly and general interest publications. His other books are For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law (2013), The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency (2011), Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal (2008), Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity, and Adoption (2003), and Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word (2002). A member of the American Law Institute, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Association, Mr. Kennedy is also a Trustee emeritus of Princeton University.

Rashida La Lande

Rashida La Lande is Executive Vice President and General Counsel at The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC), where she leads the company’s global Legal organization. In her role, Ms. La Lande acts as a strategic advisor to ELC’s leadership and Board of Directors on global legal issues, and oversees legal strategy, practices, and policies.

Her responsibilities extend to overseeing ELC’s Global Privacy Office and Global Security Team, making her a critical partner in guiding the organization through a wide range of legal matters, including corporate strategies, compliance, risk mitigation, governance, and business transactions. Additionally, she leads the company’s legal review of potential acquisitions, divestitures, and joint ventures.

Before joining ELC, Ms. La Lande held several leadership roles at The Kraft Heinz Company, including Executive Vice President and Global Chief Legal and Corporate Affairs Officer. Earlier in her career, Ms. La Lande was a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, where she practiced from 2000 to 2018. She began her legal journey at Chadbourne & Parke LLP.

Ms. La Lande holds a Bachelor of Arts in African American Studies from Harvard University and a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School in New York City.

Nicole Lamb-Hale ’91

Nicole Y. Lamb-Hale is Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), and Corporate Secretary of Cummins Inc. (NYSE: CMI), a Fortune 150 global power leader that designs, manufactures, distributes, and services a broad portfolio of advanced power solutions. She is an officer of the company, reporting directly to Cummins’ Chair and Chief Executive Officer, and is a member of the company’s global leadership team. In her role, she oversees global functions essential to the company’s success, including product compliance and regulatory affairs, communications, brand marketing, government relations, corporate responsibility, facilities, security, enterprise risk, ethics and compliance, and the company’s shared services organization. She also serves as Corporate Secretary, advising the company’s board of directors and executive management on governance, SEC reporting requirements, and NYSE rules. In addition, she serves on the board of the Cummins Foundation.

Before her appointment as CAO, Nicole served as Cummins’ Vice President, Chief Legal Officer (CLO), and Corporate Secretary. In that role, she reported to the company’s Chair and CEO and was also a member of the leadership team. She led a global team of attorneys and legal professionals, responsible for all legal matters affecting the company. During her four-year tenure as CLO, she managed the legal aspects of the company’s most complex transactions, litigation, and regulatory challenges while also advising the board and executive leadership on governance and compliance.

Prior to joining Cummins, Nicole was Managing Director at Kroll, LLC, a global risk advisory firm, where she led the Washington, DC office and was a Fellow of the Kroll Institute, a think tank associated with the firm.

Before Kroll, she was Senior Vice President at Albright Stonebridge Group, the strategic advisory and commercial diplomacy firm founded by the late Secretary Madeleine Albright. Nicole was nominated by President Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing and Services in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration.

Before that, she was Deputy General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Commerce, also by Presidential appointment. Earlier in her career, Nicole was an equity partner at two global law firms. She currently serves as an independent director on the boards of Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE: FRT) and Kroll, LLC.

Eloise Lawrence

Eloise Lawrence has spent her entire career representing low-income individuals and grassroots community groups. Over the last 15 years, Lawrence has taught and worked alongside HLS students to protect homeowners and tenants from displacement as well as build the movement for housing justice. Lawrence has centered her work around housing justice because it is a fundamental building block of racial and economic justice. Prior to HLS, Lawrence worked on civil rights class actions, affirmative consumer protection actions and a variety of litigation on behalf of environmental justice groups. In addition to her clinical teaching, Lawrence teaches Housing Law and Policy and Introduction to Advocacy: Civil Legal Aid Ethics, Theory and Practice.

Debra Lee ʼ80

Debra Lee is the author of I AM DEBRA LEE and Chairman and CEO Emeritus of BET Networks, a position she held for 13 years. Her 30+ year tenure at BET also included roles as General Counsel and COO, where she championed original programming and amplified Black culture globally. She is also the founder of Leading Women Defined and the co-founder of Monarch Collective—both organizations wholly dedicated to mentoring, supporting, and empowering both women and the BIPOC community at large. Debra also continues to impact business through her extensive board work; she currently sits on the boards of Marriott International, Procter & Gamble, and Warner Bros. Discovery.

Dale LeFebvre ’98

Dale LeFebvre, Executive Chairman and Founder of the 3.5.7.11 private equity firm, is a leading investor, inventor, and philanthropist. Since the firm’s founding in 2008, LeFebvre has invested more than $1 billion in institutional capital for businesses specializing in infrastructure and technology.

An avid inventor, LeFebvre personally holds over 50 domestic and international patents.

Philanthropically committed, LeFebvre currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the National Smithsonian, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Kennedy Center International Committee.

He was a Founding Milestone Donor of the Smithsonian African American Museum.

LeFebvre holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from MIT, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a JD from Harvard Law School. He is an Aspen Institute Crown Fellow and a 2024 Horatio Alger Award winner. He serves on the Board of Lincoln Financial (NYSE:LNC).

Goodwin Liu

Goodwin Liu is an Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court. He was sworn into office in 2011 and retained by the electorate in 2014 and 2022. Before joining the state’s highest court, Justice Liu was Professor of Law and Associate Dean at the UC Berkeley School of Law. His primary areas of expertise are constitutional law, education law and policy, and diversity in the legal profession.

Justice Liu continues to teach constitutional law as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, Columbia Law School, and Stanford Law School. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and serves as Chair of the Academy’s Board of Directors. He is also an elected member of the American Law Institute and the American Philosophical Society. He serves on the Council of the American Law Institute and on the Board of Directors of the James Irvine Foundation. He has previously served on the Yale University Council, the Board of Trustees of Stanford University, the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Science, Technology, and Law, the Board of Directors of the National Women’s Law Center, and the California Commission on Access to Justice.

The son of Taiwanese immigrants, Justice Liu grew up in Sacramento and attended public schools. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Stanford, a masters degree in philosophy and physiology from Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, and a law degree from Yale. He clerked for Judge David Tatel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court. He has also worked in the litigation practice of O’Melveny & Myers, served as Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, and helped launch the AmeriCorps national service program as Senior Program Officer for Higher Education at the Corporation for National Service.

Ruthzee Louijeune ʼ13

Ruthzee Louijeune, serving her second term as City Councilor At-Large and unanimously elected as Boston City Council President, is a grounded, thoughtful, and inclusive leader. A dedicated public servant, Ruthzee is committed to fostering shared prosperity in Boston with a focus on justice and equity.

Born and raised in Mattapan and Hyde Park to working-class Haitian immigrants, Ruthzee’s journey is deeply rooted in the fabric of Boston. Her first job was as a walking tour guide with the youth organization MYTOWN, where she offered a people-centered history of Boston’s neighborhoods.

As a lawyer, Ruthzee fought for families facing eviction and foreclosure in Boston Housing Court. She defended voting rights in cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, helped elect progressive prosecutors nationwide, and served as the senior attorney on Senator Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign. A fierce housing advocate, she drafted agreements that secured millions of dollars for first-generation homeowners as a member of Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance.

In her first term as a City Councilor At-Large, Ruthzee chaired the Committee on Civil Rights and Immigrant Advancement, where she successfully advocated for the expansion of the Office of Returning Citizens, won financial support for immigrants and new arrivals, stood up for the rights of our LGBTQ+ siblings, and convened marginalized communities for a civil rights forum. After a federal court order returned the proposed district map to the council, Ruthzee successfully led the redistricting process to pass a new map. Additionally, she served as Vice Chair of the Committee on Government Operations and Housing and Community Development.

Ruthzee makes history as the first Haitian American elected to Boston municipal government, the U.S. city with the second largest Haitian population per capita, and the first Haitian American to serve as President of the council. An alumna of Boston Public Schools, Columbia University, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Ruthzee is trilingual, fluent in French and Haitian Creole, with conversational proficiency in Spanish.

Alicia Lowery Rosenbaum ʼ95

Vice President and Associate General Counsel Cybersecurity, Salesforce

Ronald Machen ʼ94

Ronald Machen, a member of WilmerHale’s global Management Committee and Chair of the firm’s Litigation/Controversy Department, specializes in litigating complex criminal and civil actions and helping clients navigate high-stakes, crisis situations that garner the attention of multiple regulators, Congress and private litigants. He is an experienced litigator, having tried more than 35 cases to verdict, and is currently litigating matters involving the state and federal False Claims Act, alleged breaches of contract, consumer and securities fraud class actions, sexual discrimination and retaliation, federal patent infringement, and Sarbanes Oxley Act whistleblower retaliation claims. He has conducted numerous high-profile internal investigations, including on behalf of Fortune 100 corporations, the World Bank, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General.

Prior to rejoining the firm in 2015, Mr. Machen served for over five years as the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. As the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia from 2010 to 2015, Mr. Machen led the nation’s largest U.S. Attorney’s Office, where he supervised more than 600 attorneys and support staff and routinely represented the United States in matters of great significance to the entire country. As U.S. Attorney, Mr. Machen embraced a holistic approach to public safety by investing in intervention and prevention programs designed to educate young people, reduce domestic violence, and protect underserved communities. He also created the first Conviction Integrity Unit, focused on identifying past wrongful convictions, in any federal prosecutor’s office. Throughout his career, Mr. Machen has repeatedly been recognized for his professional accomplishments. Most recently, he was recognized by Bloomberg Law in its inaugural list of “Unrivaled 2025” litigators. He has been honored as a Criminal Law Trailblazer by the National Law Journal, recognized by Chambers USA for his white-collar crime and government investigations practice, and selected by his peers as one of the Best Lawyers in America. Recently, he was named as a finalist by The National Law Journal in the 2023 Winning Litigators category and a 2023 Best Mentor Finalist by The American Lawyer.

Kenneth W. Mack ʼ91

Kenneth W. Mack is the inaugural Lawrence D. Biele Professor of Law and Affiliate Professor of History at Harvard University. He is also the co-faculty leader of the Harvard Law School Program on Law and History. His 2012 book, Representing the Race: The Creation of the Civil Rights Lawyer (Harvard University Press), was a Washington Post Best Book of the Year, a National Book Festival Selection, was awarded honorable mention for the J. Willard Hurst Award by the Law and Society Association, and was a finalist for the Julia Ward Howe Book Award. He is also the co-editor of In Between and Across: Legal History Without Boundaries (Oxford University Press, 2024), and The New Black: What Has Changed – And What Has Not – With Race in America (New Press, 2013). His work has been published in the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Journal of American History, Law and History Review and other scholarly journals. He has taught at Harvard, Stanford, and Georgetown Universities, and the University of Hawai’i, and has served as Senior Visiting Scholar, Centre for History and Economics at the University of Cambridge (U.K.). In 2020, he received the Harvard Law School Student Government Teaching and Advising Award. In 2010, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Public Service by Harrisburg University of Science and. Technology. In 2025, he was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2016, President Obama appointed him to the Permanent Committee for the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise. He is also a Member of the American Law Institute. He began his professional career as an electrical engineer at Bell Laboratories before turning to law, and history. Before joining the faculty at Harvard Law School, he clerked for the Honorable Robert L. Carter, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and practiced law in the Washington, D.C. office of the firm, Covington & Burling. More information available at: http://kennethwmack.com.

John Mathews II ʼ07

John Mathews serves as Chief of Staff for the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office, the largest Public Defender’s Office in the nation. In his capacity as Chief of Staff, John leads the strategic development and implementation of Public Defender priorities. Before joining the LA County Public Defender’s Office, John served as Senior Justice Deputy for Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell, where he spearheaded crucial and impactful county and statewide criminal justice reform efforts. Prior to joining Supervisor Mitchell’s team, John led criminal justice reform advocacy campaigns as Director of Community Engagement and Senior Legal Counsel for the Justice Collaborative. John’s legal expertise is enriched by his experience as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Puerto Rico during the Obama Administration, as a litigation associate at Latham & Watkins LLP, and a federal judicial law clerk for the Honorable Raymond A. Jackson.

John received a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA and his J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he served as President of the Harvard Black Law Students Association, editor for the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, and a student attorney in the Criminal Justice Institute. Beyond his professional accomplishments, John continues to play key leadership roles in several organizations, including the Harvard Law School Association and the HLS Black Alumni Network.

Nancy L. McCullough ʼ92

Nancy L. McCullough is the principal of a boutique law practice handling intellectual property matters, in particular for the entertainment, fashion and e-commerce industries, and general business advising, including serving as outside general counsel for diverse clients. Nancy counsels clients on strategic planning and compliant business practices, negotiates and drafts diverse agreements, guides dispute resolution, and advises on IP rights development, acquisition, monetization, and defense.

While in law school, Nancy served as a member of the Board of Editors of the Harvard Law Review, and as the president of the Harvard Committee on Sports and Entertainment law.
Nancy’s career has been highlighted by extensive community service projects, particularly for nonprofit endeavors supporting underserved communities and traditionally-underrepresented group members, believing strongly that equality and fair access to opportunities should be within reach for all.

John V. Meigs, Jr. ʼ95

John V. Meigs, Jr. was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He received his B.A., in Political Science, from Stanford University in 1991, and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1995. John was admitted to the California Bar and began private practice in 1995 as a general litigation associate with the Los Angeles office of Kirkland & Ellis. After a year of private practice, he served as Law Clerk to the Honorable Audrey B. Collins on the United States District Court for the Central District of California. In 1997, John returned to private practice, and joined Quinn, Emanuel, Urquhart, Oliver & Hedges, where he specialized in entertainment litigation matters, representing both studios and individual clients in the motion picture and television industries. He segued into an entertainment transactional practice in 2000 when he joined the Legal Affairs department of Twentieth Century Fox Television.

In 2001, John joined the Beverly Hills entertainment boutique firm now known as Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller, Gellman, Meigs & Fox LLP where he is a Partner and represents writers, actors, directors and producers in both motion pictures and television. John works with clients such as Issa Rae, Prentice Penny and Jay Ellis (creator/star, showrunner and male lead, respectively, of “Insecure”), Kaley Cuoco (“Big Bang Theory” and “The Flight Attendant”), Winston Duke (“Black Panther” and “Us”), Steven Caple Jr. (director of “Creed 2” and “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts”), Brett Mahoney (current showrunner of “Ghost: Power Book II”), Damson Idris (lead of “Snowfall” and co-lead of “F1”), Michelle Buteau (creator and star of “Survival of the Thickest”), Karen Pittman and Michael Cooper, Jr. (adult female lead, and young male lead of “Forever”), J.D. Pardo (lead of “Mayans M.C.”), Dave Burd aka Lil’ Dicky (co-creator and star of “Dave”); Betty Gilpin (“Emmy-nominated co-lead of “GLOW” and “American Primeval”), Larenz Tate (“Love Jones” and “Power”), producer DeVon Franklin (“Miracles from Heaven”), Xolo Mariduena (“Cobra Kai” and the first Latinx DC superhero in “Blue Beetle”), Leila Mottley (novelist/screenwriter “Nightcrawling” and “The Girls Who Grew Big”) among many others.

Valerie Mitchell Johnston ʼ93

Valerie Mitchell Johnston (HLS ‘93) is the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Sesame Workshop where she leads the legal function and business affairs partnership across all areas of the Workshop, supporting the organization’s corporate governance, strategic transactions, philanthropic development, social impact work, media and education endeavors, risk management, and people and culture related initiatives. Valerie first worked at Sesame Workshop more than fifteen years ago where she served as Senior Counsel and later as Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs. Prior to her Sesame Workshop homecoming, Valerie served as the Deputy General Counsel of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts where she supported the organization’s world class cultural programs, fundraising efforts, and educational initiatives. Prior to her time at Lincoln Center, Valerie served as Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs for HIT Entertainment, the media company behind iconic properties like Barney the Dinosaur and Thomas the Tank Engine. During Valerie’s tenure at HIT, the company was acquired by Mattel, Inc. where Valerie served as lead counsel for the Entertainment Distribution Group and head of the New York legal team. Valerie began her legal career in the NY offices of Paul Weiss and later at Proskauer law firms. After a brief stint at CMP Media, a tech-oriented publisher, Valerie first joined Sesame Workshop.

Spencer Overton ʼ93

Spencer Overton is the Patricia Roberts Harris Research Professor and the founder and faculty director of the Multiracial Democracy Project at GW Law School. The Project is currently working with 15 national civil rights organizations, HLS Professor Guy-Uriel Charles, and the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute to develop strategies in the event the U.S. Supreme Court continues to scale back the Voting Rights Act—building on the proportional representation scholarship of the late HLS Professor Lani Guinier. He is the author of the book Stealing Democracy: The New Politics of Voter Suppression and several law review articles on technology, race, and democracy, including “Analyzing the Benefits of AI to Racially Inclusive Democracy,” “Overcoming Racial Harms to Democracy from AI,” and “State Power to Regulate Social Media Companies to Prevent Voter Suppression.”

Overton served in senior democracy policy roles on the 2007-08 Obama presidential campaign, transition team, and in the Obama Administration. He also served for nine years as president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies—America’s Black think tank—where he rebuilt the organization as a hub for research on technology, economic, and workforce policy, as well as diversity in political appointments. His work on national election reform commissions resulted in Iowa restoring voting rights to over 80,000 returning citizens and to Democrats moving diverse states like South Carolina and Nevada to the front of the presidential primary calendar. He practiced law at Debevoise & Plimpton, clerked for Judge Damon Keith of the U.S. Court of Appeals, and is a graduate of HLS and Hampton University.

Chaka Patterson ʼ94

Chaka Patterson is the Founder & CEO of ChakaStrategy, a firm dedicated to empowering lawyers to talk like CFOs and think like GCs. Through instructor-led courses, customized workshops, and executive coaching, ChakaStrategy elevates legal professionals and teams to drive business results. Previously, Chaka served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary at Adtalem Global Education, overseeing business development, M&A, governance, investor relations, risk, compliance, and high-stakes litigation. He managed all Board affairs, including strategy sessions and quarterly presentations.Chaka has also been Vice President, Treasury & Investor Relations at Exelon Corporation, where he directed $1 billion in daily cash operations, managed $8 billion in bond offerings, and served as the company’s principal liaison to Wall Street, credit agencies, and investors. As a partner at Alston & Bird, Jenner & Block, and Jones Day, Chaka counseled Fortune 500 clients on complex transactions, corporate governance, multi-billion-dollar acquisitions, and major litigation. His experience navigating critical legal and business challenges makes him a trusted advisor to boards, C-suite leaders, and legal teams. Chaka holds a JD from Harvard Law School and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Roger L. Patton ʼ88

Roger L. Patton is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School, where he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He is an entertainment lawyer and entrepreneur based in Los Angeles, leading the Law Offices of Roger L. Patton and advising clients across music, film, television, and new media.

He is also Co-Founder, General Counsel, and Global Head of Business Development for Africa Creative Agency (ACA), a Pan-African talent agency and production company with offices in Johannesburg and Nairobi. ACA represents global stars such as Grammy Award winner Tyla and BET Award winner Nasty C, and has expanded into film and television with the award-winning feature Fight Like A Girl, starring Ama Qamata (Blood & Water). ACA holdings also include Africa Creative Publishing, Exodus Records, and the Wav Music Festival launching January 2026.

Previously, Patton was General Counsel and EVP of Business Development for Hidden Beach Recordings, helping launch the career of Jill Scott, and a partner at Beverly Hills law firm Bloom, Hergott, Cook, Diemer & Klein, representing clients including Babyface, Snoop Dogg, En Vogue, and TLC. His career also includes senior roles at Warner Bros. Pictures and service as Chief Entertainment Counsel for President Bill Clinton’s Inaugural Committee.

Imani Perry ʼ00

Imani Perry is the author of nine books, including the New York Times bestseller and National Book Award winning: South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation. Her other award winning titles include May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem and Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry. Perry received a J.D. and Ph.D. from Harvard, and served as a Professor at Rutgers School of Law and Princeton University’s Department of African American Studies before joining the faculty at Harvard. Perry is a 2023 recipient of the MacArthur “genius” fellowship.

Stephanie Phillipps ʼ76

Stephanie Phillipps was a partner for over 30 years at the law firm of Arnold and Porter in Washington, DC. Stephanie advised wireless, cable, satellite, media and internet service providers on a broad range of transactions, negotiations and regulatory issues. Stephanie focused in particular on government approvals of mergers and acquisitions, regulatory implications of business transactions, consumer protection and compliance. Currently, Stephanie is a senior advisor at Grain Management, a private equity company specializing in telecom sector transactions, and serves as an independent board member at ESAB Corp, a global industrial company in the gas control and welding sectors. Stephanie also serves on a number of nonprofit boards, including the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and Music, the Ellington Fund and the Harvard Law School Black Alumni Network. Stephanie attended the College (1973) and the Law School (1976).

Shemin V. Proctor ʼ90

Shemin is the former Managing Partner of the Washington, DC office of Andrews Kurth Kenyon, and she divides her time between the Washington and Houston offices. She represents major energy companies, including natural gas and oil pipelines, energy marketing and trading companies, and midstream service providers, in proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and has represented natural gas pipelines before the federal courts. Shemin has counseled clients in numerous rate, restructuring, tariff, certificate, complaint and enforcement matters in natural gas, oil and electric proceedings before the FERC, other agencies and federal courts. Shemin also works with clients seeking to construct natural gas storage and liquefied natural gas facilities. In addition, she has counseled energy companies on natural gas matters arising from bankruptcy and has experience in the antitrust area. She also has significant experience counseling clients on regulatory considerations in public offerings and M&A transactions.

Intisar A. Rabb

Intisar A. Rabb is a Professor of Law, a Professor of History, and the faculty director of the Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School. She has held appointments as a Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, as an Associate Professor at NYU Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and at NYU Law School, and as an Assistant Professor at Boston College Law School. She previously served as a law clerk for Judge Thomas L. Ambro of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, as a Temple Bar Fellow in London with the American Inns of Court, and as a Carnegie Scholar for her work on contemporary Islamic law. In 2015, in partnership with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, support from the Luce and MacArthur Foundations, and collaborations with myriad scholars and institutions, she launched SHARIAsource – an online portal designed to provide universal access to the world’s information on Islamic law and history, and to facilitate new research with the use of data and AI tools. She has published on Islamic law in historical and modern contexts, including the monograph, Doubt in Islamic Law (Cambridge University Press 2015), the edited volumes, Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts (with Abigail Balbale, Harvard University Press, 2017) and Law and Tradition in Classical Islamic Thought (with Michael Cook et al., Palgrave 2013), and numerous articles on Islamic constitutionalism, on Islamic legal canons, and on the early history of the Qur’an text. She received a BA from Georgetown University, a JD from Yale Law School, and an MA and PhD from Princeton University. She has conducted research in Egypt, Iran, Syria, and elsewhere.

Desiree Ralls-Morrison ’92

As McDonald’s EVP, Chief Legal Officer, Desiree Ralls-Morrison oversees the company’s global legal operations, responsible for supporting the company’s strategies, anticipating, and managing risk, and advancing McDonald’s brand and values. She also advises both the Board of Directors and CEO.Prior to joining McDonald’s, she was the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Boston Scientific Corporation; General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Boehringer Ingelheim USA, Inc.; and General Counsel of the Consumer Group at Johnson & Johnson. Desiree was named one the most powerful women in Corporate America by Black Enterprise Magazine and one of the top innovative General Counsels around the world by Financial Times. Under Desiree’s leadership, McDonald’s was named 2022 Best Legal Department by Corporate Counsel. She serves on the Board of Directors for DICK’S Sporting Goods, Inc. and is a Founding Member of the New Commonwealth Racial Equity and Social Justice Fund (NCF), which was curated as a funding and support resource for Black, Latino, and Indigenous entrepreneurs, innovators, and non-profits. She earned her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School and her Bachelor of Arts in economics and political science from Wesleyan University.

Natosha Reid Rice ’97

Natosha Reid Rice ’97 was Habitat for Humanity International’s first Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer where she leads the development and execution of Habitat’s global diversity, equity and inclusion strategy. Previously, as Associate General Counsel at Habitat, Natosha initiated and managed financing programs and strategies to generate sources of capital to enable Habitat affiliates to build affordable housing with families throughout the U.S. In addition to her work at Habitat, Natosha served as an Associate Pastor at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA for 11 years before now serving as All Saints’ Episcopal Church’s Minister for Public Life. Prior to joining Habitat, she was an associate in the commercial real estate practices of Alston & Bird LLP and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison. While at these firms, her practice focused on commercial real estate development transactions, loan workouts, acquisitions, dispositions and leasing. Natosha services on the Executive Committee of the global Harvard Alumni Association.

Stephanie Robinson ʼ94

Stephanie Robinson, Esq. is a legal scholar, strategist, and media commentator committed to making democracy more accessible and actionable. Teaching at Harvard Law School, she challenges future leaders to think critically about the intersection of law, politics, race, and media. She also made history as Harvard University’s first African-American Faculty Dean.A former Chief Counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Stephanie has played a pivotal role in shaping national policy by crafting laws that impact millions. As President and CEO of The Jamestown Project, she has championed democracy and civic engagement, ensuring that marginalized voices are heard.Her influence extends far beyond academia—she has engaged millions as a political commentator on The Tom Joyner Morning Show and as host of Roundtable with Stephanie Robinson. She has advised political leaders and consulted on presidential campaigns. Her legal expertise has guided billionaires, celebrities, corporations, and policymakers through high-stakes challenges.Stephanie’s impact reaches beyond borders, from helping draft Kenya’s Model Constitution, to participating in international dialogues on justice and democracy. A bestselling author and sought-after strategist, she continues to shape national conversations on race, policy, and political participation. An alum of Harvard Law School (J.D.) and the University of Maryland (B.A., Magna Cum Laude), Stephanie is also a loving wife and mother to two accomplished sons.

Ronald S. Sullivan ʼ94

Jesse Climenko Clinical Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

Lacey Schwartz Delgado ’03

Lacey Schwartz Delgado is an Emmy-nominated producer, writer, director, outreach strategist who draws on her interdisciplinary background to create compelling stories that span documentary and fiction and work with innovative organizations and brands. Schwartz Delgado is the co-founder of the production company Truth Aid, which produces inspiring and empowering multi-media content to affect social change. Little White Lie, her debut film, a story about uncovering secrets and coming to terms with your identity, has been distributed worldwide and is now available on iTunes and Amazon prime. She was also the executive producer of the narrative film Difret which was the first film to win audience awards at both the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals. She also directed and produced the viral digital series The Loving Generation for topic.com. Lacey also produced How it Feels To Be Free, which premiered on PBS’s American Masters and was nominated for an Emmy for best documentary film/series. In July 2021, she hosted, directed and produced BET’s Content for Change Black X Jewish a 30-minute special that examines the connections between anti-semitism and racism and how Black and Jewish communities in America can come together to fight against hate. Schwartz Delgado has a BA from Georgetown University, a JD from Harvard University, and is a member of the New York State bar. A native of Woodstock, NY, she and her husband, Lt. Governor of NYS Antonio Delgado, reside in Rhinebeck, NY with their twin boys, Maxwell and Coltrane, and dog, Leroy. For more information on Lacey, please visit LaceySchwartzDelgado.com.

Congresswoman Terri A. Sewell (AL-07) ʼ92

Congresswoman Terri A. Sewell is in her eighth term representing Alabama’s 7th Congressional District. She is one of the first women elected to Congress from Alabama in her own right and is the first Black woman to ever serve in the Alabama Congressional delegation.Congresswoman Sewell sits on the exclusive House Ways and Means Committee where she serves as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Oversight She also sits on the Committee on House Administration where she serves as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Elections. Sewell has held several leadership positions during her time in Congress, including Freshman Class President in the 112th Congress. In the 119th Congress, she was selected by Democratic leadership to serve as a Chief Deputy Whip, and sits on the prestigious Steering and Policy Committee which sets the policy direction of the Democratic Caucus. Congresswoman Sewell is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus where she is Chair of the Voting Rights Task Force. She is a member of the New Democrat Coalition; Co-Chair of the Congressional Voting Rights Caucus; Vice-Chair of the Congressional HBCU Caucus; and Co-Chair of the Rural Caucus. A proud product of Alabama’s rural Black Belt, Congresswoman Sewell was the first black valedictorian of Selma High School. She is an honors graduate of Princeton University and Oxford University in England and received her law degree from Harvard Law School.

Patience Singleton ʼ96

Patience Singleton currently serves as the External Vice President of the Harvard Law School Black Alumni Network. She has more than 25 years of experience and expertise in banking, consumer financial services, and affordable housing policy development. Most recently, she has served in senior policy positions in federal banking and housing agencies. Ms. Singleton was a Political Appointee in the Obama Administration where she served as an Advisor and Liaison in the Office of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary. Prior to her work at HUD, she was a Counsel on both the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services and the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. She began her career as an attorney in the financial institutions practice group of a major Washington, D.C. law firm.

Ms. Singleton is active in numerous public service, civic, and educational organizations and has served on the boards and in committee positions of several entities, including the Wellesley College Alumnae Association Board (2011-2015), Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, and the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). Since 2014, she has represented residents of Washington, D.C. as an elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in Ward 4 where she resides with her family.

Patience is a magna cum laude graduate of Wellesley College and earned a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School and M.P.P. degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. While at Harvard, Patience served as the President of the Harvard Black Law Students Association and a Technical Editor of the Harvard Civil Rights Civil Liberties Law Review. She was also a recipient of the Patricia Roberts Harris Graduate Fellowship.

Casselle Smith ʼ10

Casselle Smith is a partner in Troutman Pepper Locke’s Government Investigations + White Collar practice group. Casselle represents publicly traded and closely held companies in sensitive, high-stakes internal and regulatory investigations and enforcement matters across a broad spectrum of commercial enterprises and industries – including financial services, energy, and life sciences. These matters often involve allegations of corporate malfeasance, professional misconduct, market manipulation, compliance and operational failures, and violation of the federal securities laws.A significant aspect of Casselle’s practice involves representing public companies and senior executives in connection with SEC investigations, such as recent matters concerning cybersecurity intrusions, SPAC mergers, initial public offerings, and off-channel communications. Casselle also has extensive experience representing major broker-dealers and investment advisers in regulatory investigations involving all facets of their respective operational footprints – including matters arising from routine regulatory exams and more targeted investigations triggered by acute concerns of customer harm.Casselle has been recognized by Chambers USA, Best Lawyers in America, Lawyers of Color Hot List, and the DC Bar’s Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll. During her time at HLS, Casselle was an active member of BLSA’s executive board and served as president of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau.

A. Benjamin Spencer ’01

A. Benjamin Spencer, a nationally recognized scholar of civil procedure and federal jurisdiction, is the Dean of William & Mary Law School and the Marshall-Wythe School of Law Trustee Professor of Law.

Dean Spencer is the author of multiple volumes of the renowned Wright & Miller Federal Practice & Procedure treatise, in addition to numerous articles published in journals including the Michigan Law Review, the Chicago Law Review and the UCLA Law Review. He is one of the nation’s most-cited civil procedure scholars, with a widely used civil procedure casebook and recently completed service as a Major in the U.S. Army Reserve, Judge Advocate General’s Corps. In 2017, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts appointed him to the U.S. Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, service he completed in 2023. Dean Spencer currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Southern Company Gas, a subsidiary of The Southern Company (NYSE: SO).

Prior to becoming Dean of William & Mary Law School, Spencer served on the faculty at the University of Virginia School of Law as the Justice Thurgood Marshall Distinguished Professor of Law. During the 2019-2020 academic year, he was the Bennett Boskey Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and also a visiting professor at the University of Chicago. Spencer previously served in tenured or tenure-stream appointments at Washington & Lee University School of Law and the University of Richmond School of Law. He also formerly worked as an Associate in the law firm Shearman & Sterling and as a law clerk to Judge Judith W. Rogers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Spencer holds a B.A. from Morehouse College, a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a Master of Science from the London School of Economics, where he was a Marshall Scholar.

Deirdre Stanley ’89

Deirdre Stanley is an independent director and a former public company chief legal officer, with over 20 years of C-suite experience spanning the information technology, media and consumer packaged goods sectors. From 2019 through April 2024, she served as EVP and General Counsel of The Estee Lauder Companies, a global manufacturer, marketer and retailer of prestige beauty products. From 2002 through 2019 she was EVP and General Counsel of Thomson Reuters, an information technology company powered by the world’s most global news agency. Recognized as a strategic and transformational general counsel, Deirdre’s experience includes management of regulatory, government affairs, privacy and business development functions. She is a director of Consolidated Edison, Inc. since 2017, where she chairs the management development and compensation committee. She is also a Trustee of the Hospital for Special Surgery and The Dalton School.

Deirdre’s awards and recognitions include the Harvard Law School Association of New York’s 2023 Leadership Award; the Jewish Theological Seminary’s 2022 Rifkin Award; Inside Counsel’s 2011 Transformative Leadership Award and the National Law Journal’s 2009 20 Most Influential General Counsel Award.

Deirdre is an A.B. graduate of Duke University and holds a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School, where she was a member of the Harvard Law Review. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Executive Leadership Council.

Deirdre lives in New York, New York with her husband, Dr. Shaun Massiah, and son.

Bryan Stevenson ʼ85

Bryan Stevenson is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organization in Montgomery, Alabama. Under his leadership, EJI has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill, and aiding children prosecuted as adults.

Mr. Stevenson has argued and won multiple cases at the United States Supreme Court, including a 2019 ruling protecting condemned prisoners who suffer from dementia and a 2012 ruling that banned mandatory life-imprisonment-without-parole sentences for children 17 or younger. Mr. Stevenson and his staff have won reversals, relief, or release from prison for over 140 wrongly condemned prisoners on death row and relief for hundreds wrongly convicted or unfairly sentenced.

Mr. Stevenson has initiated new anti-poverty and anti-discrimination efforts that challenge inequality in America. He led the creation of EJI’s Legacy Sites, including the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and Freedom Monument Sculpture Park. These national landmark institutions chronicle the legacy of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation, and the connection to mass incarceration and contemporary issues of racial bias.

Mr. Stevenson’s work has won him numerous awards, including the prestigious MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Prize; the ABA Medal; the National Medal of Liberty from the American Civil Liberties Union after he was nominated by Supreme Court Justice John Stevens; the Public Interest Lawyer of the Year by the National Association of Public Interest Lawyers; and the Olaf Palme Prize in Stockholm, Sweden. Mr. Stevenson was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Science in 2014. In 2023, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Biden.

Mr. Stevenson has received over 50 honorary doctoral degrees. He is the author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Just Mercy, which was adapted as a major motion picture. Mr. Stevenson is also the subject of the Emmy Award-winning HBO documentary True Justice. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Tania Tetlow ’95

Tania Tetlow has served as the 33rd president of Fordham University since July 2022, becoming the first layperson and first woman to hold the office. A legal scholar and former assistant U.S. attorney, she is dedicated to the transformative power of Jesuit education. Under her leadership, Fordham has deepened its investment in STEM while strengthening its foundation in the humanities and professions. She oversaw the successful completion of the $350 million Cura Personalis Campaign and secured a record-breaking $100 million gift to support science education and facilities.

Previously, Tetlow was president of Loyola University New Orleans, where she led a financial turnaround, improving the university’s bond rating and expanding programs. She also served as senior vice president and chief of staff at Tulane University and spent a decade as a Tulane law professor, specializing in constitutional law, criminal procedure, and domestic violence policy.

Before her academic career, Tetlow served as an assistant U.S. attorney, prosecuting violent crime and fraud cases. She clerked for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and worked in complex litigation. She holds a B.A. from Tulane University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she was a Harry S. Truman Fellow.

Michaele N. Turnage Young ʼ06

Michaele N. Turnage Young serves as Senior Counsel and Co-Manager of the Equal Protection Initiative at the Legal Defense Fund, where she litigates education cases.

Ms. Turnage Young serves as co-lead counsel in NAACP v. U.S. Department of Education, a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Education’s attempts to prohibit and chill lawful efforts to ensure that Black students are afforded equal educational opportunities. The Court enjoined the U.S. Department of Education from requiring every state education agency in the country to certify compliance with its misinterpretation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Court’s decision, which recognized NAACP’s likelihood of success on its claim that the certification requirement is unconstitutionally vague, has led multiple school districts to reinstate policies and practices that further equal opportunity.

Ms. Turnage Young serves as lead counsel in Arnold v. Barbers Hill Independent School District, a hair discrimination case wherein the Court enjoined enforcement of a dress code provision that would have confined students who wore uncut locs to in-school suspension and excluded them from school activities. The Court’s decision, which recognized LDF’s clients’ likelihood of success on their claims, has led multiple school districts to revise their dress codes.

Ms. Turnage Young represented Harvard student and alumni organizations as amici curiae in SFFA v. Harvard from 2018 until the case closed in 2024. In addition, Ms. Turnage Young has represented thousands of Black children and their parents in school desegregation cases. After the onset of the pandemic, she advocated for schoolchildren, leading thousands of students to begin receiving meals and instruction.

Prior to LDF, Ms. Turnage Young was a Trial Attorney with the Educational Opportunities Section of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. She received her law degree from Harvard Law School, where she served as a student attorney with the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau and as an editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. Ms. Turnage Young earned her undergraduate degree from UCLA.

Kristin Turner ʼ17

Kristin Turner is the founder of MisfitMinds Collective, a civic media studio and community bridging personal transformation and social change. Before launching MisfitMinds, she worked in electoral politics—serving as Deputy Director of the Super PAC and later as Senior Director of Campaign Operations at EMILY’s List. Prior to that, she cut her teeth in the space as National Director of Ballot Access and Voter Protection on the 2019-2020 Warren for President campaign. Kristin began her career as the inaugural Access to Justice Technology Fellow from HLS, joining the founding team of Upsolve—a Y Combinator-backed, NYT Good Tech Award-winning nonprofit expanding access to bankruptcy relief.A member of the Harvard Law School Class of 2017, she served as President of the Harvard Black Law Students Association and was involved with Harvard Defenders and the HLS Parody. She received both the inaugural Access to Justice Fellowship and the Dean’s Award for Community Leadership. She holds a B.A. in Political Science and Spanish from the University of Southern California.

Dehlia Umunna

Dehlia Umunna is a Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the Faculty Director of the Law School’s Criminal Justice Institute (CJI). Her teaching interests and research focus on criminal law, criminal defense and theory, policing, mass Incarceration, and race Issues. In addition to her work at HLS, Professor Umunna serves as a faculty member for Gideon’s Promise and is a frequent presenter and lecturer at public defender training conferences, criminal defense attorney trainings, prosecutor trainings, and social justice reform panels around the country.

In 2007, she joined HLS as a clinical instructor at the Criminal Justice Institute. She was promoted to Deputy Director in 2013 and appointed to the faculty as a Clinical Professor of Law in 2015. In 2024, she ascended to the role of Director of CJI. At HLS, Professor Umunna not only supervises third-year law students in representing adult and juvenile clients in criminal proceedings, but also dedicates herself to coaching the HLS National Criminal Justice Trial Advocacy and Black Law Students Association Trial Teams.

Prior to Harvard, Professor Umunna spent several years as a trial attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS). From 2002 to 2007, she was an adjunct professor and practitioner in residence at American University’s Washington College of Law. Professor Umunna holds a J.D. from George Washington University Law School and a Master’s in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Professor Umunna was appointed by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to the newly established Bar Admissions Curriculum Committee. In 2022, Senators Warren and Markey appointed Professor Umunna to the critical Advisory Committee on Massachusetts Judicial Nominations.

Professor Umunna’s work as a legal scholar, educator, and advocate has made her a highly sought-after lecturer and presenter. Her opinions on cases have been featured on NPR, CNN, the Washington Post, and other outlets. She was selected by the HLS Class of 2020 to deliver the Last Lecture and was included in the Wall Street Journal’s Most Influential Lawyers of 2024. Beyond her professional achievements, Professor Umunna is the proud mother of daughter, Ifeanyi, and son, Edozie.

David B. Wilkins ’80

Professor Wilkins is the Lester Kissel Professor of Law, Vice Dean for Global Initiatives on the Legal Profession, and Faculty Director of the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School. He is also a Senior Research Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a Fellow of the Harvard University Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics.

Professor Wilkins has written over 80 articles on the legal profession in leading scholarly journals and the popular press and is the co-author (along with his Harvard Law School colleague Andrew Kaufman) of one of the leading casebooks in the field. His current scholarly projects include Globalization, Lawyers, and Emerging Economies (where he directs over 50 researchers studying the impact of globalization on the market for legal services in rapidly developing countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe); After the JD (a ten-year nationwide longitudinal study of lawyers’ careers); The Harvard Law School Career Study (examining, among other things, differences in the experiences of male and female graduates and the careers of lawyers who do not practice law); and The New Social Engineers (charting the historical development and current experiences of black lawyers in corporate law practice).

Professor Wilkins teaches several courses on lawyers including The Legal Profession, Legal Education for the Twenty-First Century, and Challenges of a General Counsel. In 2007, he co-founded Harvard Law School’s Executive Education Program, where he teaches in several courses including Leadership in Law Firms and Leadership in Corporate Counsel.

Professor Wilkins has given over 40 endowed lectures at universities around the world and is a frequent speaker at professional conferences and law firm and corporate retreats. His recent academic honors include the 2012 Honorary Doctorate in Law from Stockholm University in Sweden, the 2012 Distinguished Visiting Mentor Award from Australia National University, the 2012 Genest Fellowship from Osgoode Hall Law School, the 2010 American Bar Foundation Scholar of the Year Award, the 2009 J. Clay Smith Award from Howard University School of Law, and the 2008 Order of the Coif Distinguished Visitor Fellowship. In 2012, Professor Wilkins was elected as a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Timothy A. Wilkins ’93

Tim Wilkins (’93) led Freshfields’ global client sustainability team for 7 years where he advised clients on environmental, social and governance matters and led the firm in partnerships with clients, public policy makers and regulators on sustainability legal issues. Prior to taking this role, Wilkins served as an M&A partner, advising on high-profile cross-border mergers in the firm’s New York and Tokyo offices. Tim is currently a Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School and Adjunct Professor at Georgetown Law School, teaching seminars on Big Business and Big Law in Sustainability. Wilkins has been active in board service for various civic organizations including Chairing of the Board of New York Public Radio and serving on the Board of The New York City Economic Development Corporation Board as a Mayoral Appointee and as member of the New York Public Theater Board of Trustees. Tim previously served as the Vice-Chair of the Legal Services Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, where he worked as an investment banker and lawyer for 11 years. He has been selected seven times as a Top 100 Ethnic Minority Executive by Empower. Wilkins is a graduate of Harvard College (magna cum laude), Harvard Business School ‘93 and Harvard Law School ‘93, where he was a Ford Foundation Fellow in Public International Law.

Melvin Williams, Jr. ʼ89

Melvin Williams, Jr. is an accomplished leader with broad leadership and tremendous perspective across Fortune 50 companies, government, financial services, and private partnerships. With over 35 years of demonstrated success advising domestic and international clients in the private and public sectors. Melvin is a recognized, sought-after, trusted advisor and co-leader in building winning strategies in capital markets that grow wealth and minimize risk.

Melvin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kingman Canterbury Holdings, parent company of Silver Horizons Group LLC, a care and wellness brand transforming how families thrive at home through premium services and innovative, tech-enabled solutions; and Air Be Our Guest LLC, a boutique vacation rental brand offering thoughtfully curated stays with elevated comforts and a consistent guest experience.

Previously, Melvin was the Chief Legal Officer of Chicago Trading Company (“CTC”), sitting at the intersection of tech and finance of this well-recognized top-tier proprietary trading firm providing liquidity on all major exchanges.

Melvin was a two-time appointee in President Obama’s administration, serving as General Counsel of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and later as the General Counsel of the Small Business Administration. Melvin represented the U.S. in negotiations with foreign leaders in Asia, Africa and the Middle East and had the distinct honor of being awarded the Order of Merit by the President of Benin.

Melvin spent over a decade as a senior lawyer at Citigroup, representing the company in all aspects of regulatory enforcement during a critical time as it grew from Smith Barney into a global financial supermarket.

Melvin received his A.B., with Highest Distinction, in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Melvin clerked for US District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall in Los Angeles.

Melvin also serves on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Botanic Garden and is an Assistant Scoutmaster in his local Scouting Troop. A self-described “train nerd,” Melvin lives in the Chicago area with his wife, and their two children who are twenty years apart.

Bianca Williams-Alonzo ʼ26

Bianca Williams-Alonzo is a third-year law student at Harvard Law School, where she serves as President of the Harvard Black Law Students Association. Originally from Los Angeles, California, she earned her B.A. in Political Science and History from Columbia University, where she was a member of the varsity track and cross-country team. Before law school, Bianca worked as an executive assistant at Essie Justice Group, an organization dedicated to empowering women with incarcerated loved ones through collective advocacy. During her 1L summer, Bianca interned with the Special Litigation Unit of the Legal Aid Society in New York City. She spent her 2L summer at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, also in New York City.