Sherrilyn Ifill — SPARQNOW

At-a-Glance

Serves as the Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Esq. Endowed Chair in Civil Rights at Howard University.
Former president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, an organization founded by Thurgood Marshall.
Nationally recognized expert on voting rights and judicial selection.
Named one of Time's 100 most influential people in the world in 2021.
Author of "On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the 21st Century", a 2008 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist.
Holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law.

Biography

Sherrilyn Ifill is the Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Esq.

Endowed Chair in Civil Rights at Howard University, where she also leads the 14th Amendment Center for Law and Democracy. She is the former president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, an organization founded by Thurgood Marshall in 1940. Ifill is a nationally recognized expert on voting rights and judicial selection, and in 2021, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.