Lani Guinier
Civil Rights Activist, co-sponsored with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Observance Week Committee
The first black woman to join the Harvard Law School faculty, Guinier speaks with eloquence and passion about the need to revitalize public discourse in America and to reemphasize citizen problem solving. A former civil rights lawyer for more than 10 years with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. and the U.S. Department of Justice, Guinier challenges us to rethink the experiences of women and people of color as a signal of organizational failure that can also become a catalyst for institutional transformation.
Guinier is a graduate of Radcliffe College and Yale University Law School, where she was a classmate of the President and Hillary Rodham Clinton. She has served on the boards of several professional associations including the Open Society Institute Board of Trustees and the NOW Legal Defense Fund, Inc. Board of Directors. Guinier has been recognized for her achievements with many awards and honorary degrees, including: the 1994 Harvey Levin Outstanding Teacher Award from the University of Pennsylvania, the 1995 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award from the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, the 1995 Champion of Democracy Award from the National Women's Political Caucus, the 1994 Rosa Parks Award from the American Association of Affirmative Action, and honorary degrees from Swarthmore College, Hunter College, Spelman College, and Northeastern University Law School. She continues to lecture at organizations across the country.
