Dehlia Victoria Umunna is a Clinical Professor of Law and Deputy Director of the Criminal Justice Institute (CJI) at

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

. Professor Umunna is a nationally renowned expert on criminal law, criminal defense and theory, mass incarceration, and race issues.

Early life

Umunna was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England, in 1973 to a Nigerian father and a Sierra Leonean mother, and she grew up in Nigeria. She has two brothers.

Education

Umunna received her BA in Communications from The California State University, San Bernardino, in 1995. She received her JD from

George Washington University Law School The George Washington University Law School (GW Law) is the law school of George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. Established in 1865, GW Law is the oldest top law school in the national capital. GW Law offers the largest range of cou ...

in 1998, where she was awarded the J.B. Shapiro Prize for Public Interest, and her Master's in Public Administration from the

Harvard Kennedy School The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

in 2011.

Career

After graduating from law school, Umunna joined the

Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia The Public Defender Service (PDS) for the District of Columbia provides legal defense to individuals on a court-appointed basis for criminal (at the trial and appellate levels) and delinquency cases indigent adult and juvenile defendants/ responde ...

, where she represented hundreds of indigent juveniles and adults. In 2002, she became a Practitioner in Residence at

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

's Washington College of Law, where she taught and supervised students in the Civil Clinic. Umunna joined Harvard Law School staff in 2007 as a Clinical Instructor at HLS's Criminal Justice Institute (CJI). She was promoted to CJI Deputy Director by then-Dean Martha Minow in 2013. Most recently, Umunna was appointed Clinical Professor of Law at HLS in 2015. She now enjoys teaching, mentoring, and advising students, having been selected by the Harvard Law School Class of 2020 to deliver the first of four speeches in the Law School's "Last Lecture" series. Professor Umunna has been featured in several media outlets, including ''Criminal'' podcast, Black Enterprise, and Special Report Network with Areva Martin.

Published articles

Umunna's article "Rethinking the Neighborhood Watch: How Lessons from Nigerian Villages Can Creatively Empower Communities to Assist Low-Income, Single Mothers In America," was recently published in the ''American University Journal of Gender Social Policy and Law''.

References

California State University, San Bernardino alumni Harvard Law School faculty 1973 births George Washington University Law School alumni Harvard Kennedy School alumni Living people Public defenders English expatriates in the United States British expatriate academics in the United States English people of Nigerian descent English people of Sierra Leonean descent {{US-legal-academic-bio-stub