U City Digest
Drexel Kline Law professor Wendy Greene was named director of the school’s Center for Law, Policy and Social Action in 2022.
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for Natural Hair” Act (CROWN Act). As a legal architect, expert and advisor, Greene has helped advance more than 20 pieces of parallel civil rights legislation domestically and internationally. Currently, 22 states, including California, have enacted the CROWN Act and similar legislation, and the U.S. House of Representatives has passed the federal version twice. Now, as the new director of the school’s Center for Law, Policy and Social Action (CLPSA), Greene embraces a new endeavor: to bring together faculty, students and community members to explore how to use law, policy and advocacy to redress similar systemic injustices and inequalities. “I want it to be a place where people not only envision what we want our society to ultimately look like, but also play an active role in transforming law, society and policy,” Greene said. After taking over as the center’s director last summer, Greene set out to shape it into a hub for the type of public education and advocacy to which she is devoted as a scholar-activist. The position “enshrines the work I’m already doing,” she said, while also allowing her to create opportunities for faculty, students and staff to develop their own social justice-oriented programs and initiatives. “Wendy Greene brings both rigor and passion to her work,” said Drexel Kline Law’s dean, Daniel M. Filler. “Her work bridges the gap from doctrinal analysis to social change—which made her the perfect person to lead CLPSA.” Outreach to the larger Drexel University and Philadelphia communities, civil rights constituencies and the general public are critical components of CLPSA’s agenda under Greene. During the 2022–2023 academic year, the center delivered public programming in collaboration with civil rights organizations including the American Bar Association Section on Civil Rights and Social Justice as well as such institutional partners as Drexel Kline’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee (also known as Dive-In) and Intellectual Life Committee, and the university’s Office for Institutional Equity and Inclusive Culture. Also during the 2022–2023 academic year, the center hosted or co-hosted initiatives that drew nationally recognized scholar-activists to the Drexel Kline Law community. In the spring, Carliss Chatman, a professor at the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of