Education: 1992: J.D., Columbia Law School; 1987: B.S., The Wharton School, The University of Pennsylvania.

Career in Brief: Judith has served as a lawyer, professor, and a civil rights advocate in the movement for racial justice. Judith currently leads the work of Advancement Project to combat structural racism in education, voting, policing, criminal justice, and immigration. Since launching Advancement Project in 1999, Judith has worked with grassroots organizations to wage successful campaigns using litigation, advocacy, and communications. She has authored groundbreaking education reports including Opportunities Suspended and Derailed: The Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track, defining the school-to-prison pipeline and its causes. During the voting calamity in Florida in 2000, Judith helped start Advancement Project's Voter Protection Program, representing the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In the ensuing two decades, Judith has led Advancement Project's partnership with grassroots and national organizations to thwart voter suppression efforts and has pioneered efforts to end the school-to-prison pipeline. For more on Advancement Project, including the range of issues that it addresses through its programs, see Box: About Advancement Project.

Prior to launching Advancement Project, Judith was the recipient of a Skadden Fellowship, thus beginning her legal career with the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, where she ultimately became the Managing Attorney of the Washington, D.C. office and Director of the Fair Housing Program. Judith then spent just under two years at the law firm of Kaye Scholer (now Arnold & Porter) where she and a former colleague from the Legal Defense & Educational Fund started a plaintiffs' side civil rights practice.

Judith has been awarded the Prime Movers Fellowship for trailblazing social movement leaders and has been named one of the "Thirty Women to Watch" by Essence magazine. She serves on the Board of Directors for Friends of the Earth, the Skadden Fellowship Foundation, and Hill Snowdon Foundation. Judith grew up in Hollis, Queens, in a family that was always engaged in thoughtful conversations about race and racism. She was a student activist for racial justice during college and, while in law school, she was both the head of Columbia's Black Law Student Association (BLSA), and the National Chair of the National BLSA.

As Executive Director of Advancement Project, I am responsible for:

I grew up in an all-Black community in Hollis, Queens. My mother was an educator and a community activist focused on trying to improve conditions for Black people. My father served in the segregated Army. Race and racism were always discussed at our house, so that laid the foundation.

I became a student activist in college, combatting racism on campus. After graduating, I joined a training program at a major lending institution and experienced race discrimination first-hand on the job. I knew that I was smart, and that my mother had cultivated an academic achiever. Also, unlike my white colleagues, I had an Ivy League education. But despite clear evidence to the contrary, I was told that I was not a good writer and that my accounting skills were sub-par. As being a smart overachiever was a core part of my identity, this was a terrible blow to my self-esteem.

At one point I was malevolently singled out. The only Black person in the training program, I alone was required to do a client presentation, including a financial analysis and oral presentation, as part of my annual review. The experience was infuriating, and at the time I had no idea that I could address the issue with the bank's Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) office.

I decided that no one else should be treated this way and that I was going to spend the rest of my life combatting racism. This experience was the catalyst for me stepping into my purpose, which is a beautiful thing to find, and I am very thankful for it.

It is very important to acknowledge privilege and be ready to be uncomfortable. Uncomfortable, honest conversations are an integral part of the path forward.

Unlike certain other careers, you should not embark on a civil rights career or become a movement lawyer just because you think it is interesting. To be successful, you must:

Finally, to do this work well, you must be humble, recognizing that you do not know everything, that you are not a savior, and that the work is not about you. You must put those who are impacted at the center of your efforts by listening to them and being responsive to their needs. You must recognize that your mission is to support and strengthen movements, and to support the transference and building of power by providing the tools that impacted people need. It is not about changing the world in some feel-good sense. It is about changing the power dynamics.

I am a thespian at heart so I have enjoyed going to court, especially jury trials (which I do not get to do anymore). But losing is hard. I vividly remember my first loss and how hard I cried. That was the first of many difficult losses. I felt like I was doing God's work, and yet I lost anyway. What I have come to realize is that "winning" can mean different things. You may lose a case but change the narrative.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we "won" by slowing down the process when the rights of Black Americans were being trampled. By slowing things down, we ensured that the voices of Black people could come into the process and be heard.

The composition of the courts is also a challenge. The conservative leaning of our federal courts has made them less receptive to claims around racial discrimination and structural racism than they used to be. This was a significant catalyst for Advancement Project's development of a different model of movement lawyering that focuses on bringing innovative tools to the table to build people power.

Finally, I went from being a new lawyer, to a managing attorney, to helping to form a new organization. You do not learn how to run a business in law school, so that was challenging for me. I had to manage people for the first time and I was not always good at it. It took some time for me to figure it out. It was tempting for me to focus solely on all of the good that I felt I could do for society, but I learned that I also needed to prioritize running the business and making sound business decisions.

While at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, I learned to be an aggressive litigator. We did bold litigation there and asked for bold remedies. That experience prepared me to push my team at Advancement Project to be aggressive. We think of ourselves as rebels leaning into what the law should be instead of settling for the status quo.

It is possible that I would follow in my mother's footsteps and do something in education. My mother was an educator who worked her way up to Superintendent. She was also an educator at home. Growing up, my mother would tape index cards to the kitchen wall with words and definitions on them so that I could learn as I ate my meals. She set me up for success in school, and she was the one who pushed me to go to Wharton. I was raised to value the importance of education. Too many children today attend schools that lack the resources needed to support them. I yearn to fix our public schools so that every child has access to a first class education that promotes greatness.

I could also see myself managing my daughter's singing career (like Beyonce's mother).

The most important thing to do is get involved in movement work and start organizing around whatever issue you are interested in. My experiences as a student organizer in college and in law school were invaluable. I learned how groups are organized, how to set appropriate demands and goals, and I started to understand the power equation, that is, the role that power plays in sustaining racism and the critical task of changing that equation.

There are many ways to become more involved in social justice movements. A first step is to gain an understanding of the connection between the law and these movements. If you work at a law firm, do pro bono work. Even at small law firms you can generally find a case here and there. These experiences allow you to learn and give at the same time.

If you are interested in transitioning your career, get involved first. There are multiple ways that you can get involved as a volunteer before making an extreme change. I regularly receive resumes from lawyers who express interest in a career with Advancement Project and yet they have done nothing to demonstrate their commitment to racial justice. No matter how smart you are, you cannot just show up. You must get involved and solidify your commitment first.

We must address this issue on multiple levels. First, we need to overhaul legal education by:

Law firms and the organizations that hire them also have a role to play. Currently approximately 6% of lawyers in the US are Black, and that percentage is probably lower at large firms. Law firms should strive to create a more inclusive environment by hiring more people of color throughout the ranks of their firms.

In addition, organizations that hire law firms should ensure that they do not feed a racist system by hiring firms that do not promote people of color. At Advancement Project, when we hire outside contractors or accept corporate money, we ensure that the individuals and organizations we work with hold our values. Organizations hiring law firms can combat systemic racism by hiring firms that not only hire people of color, but promote them. Organizations should ask specific questions about diversity when selecting a law firm. Maybe they have Black employees in the copy room. That is good but that is not enough. To combat systemic racism we must change the power structure. That means that firms must have Black partners.

We must also change the law itself, by opposing precedent that maintains the status quo and supports the vast racial disparities that currently exist in our country. We must think boldly, by changing both the law and the power dynamics.

It is important to keep learning and expanding what you know. Do not be myopic. Issues like the environment, public health, and education are not only incredibly important in their own right, but they also intersect with race in significant ways.

Also, no matter how committed you are to the causes you believe in, you must take time for yourself. I am used to being on airplanes regularly and always running to the next thing. The silver lining of the pandemic for me was realizing the benefits of slowing down. One night when I could not sleep due to worry about the impact of the pandemic, I signed up for TikTok, and I have been amazed and delighted by the creativity of so many young people. This app has brought me hours of joy. I also walk as much as I can and plan to start experimenting in the kitchen. Do not forget to take time out to do the things that fuel you and bring you joy.