3 minute read
Kraybill Awarded Ivy Person Award
Nomination by Fatima Rodriguez and Pedro Naveiras
Dr. Jeanine Kraybill came to Kern County in 2015 as an associate professor at California State University, Bakersfi eld. She joined the Political Science Department and quickly made an impact by becoming the faculty advisor for the Pre-Law Society and Director for the Pre-Law Program at CSUB in addition to her teaching duties with the university’s pre-law curriculum.
Advertisement
In the years since Dr. Kraybill has joined the Kern County community, she has demonstrated the type of commitment and dedication usually only seen in those who have served our community their entire lives. She has spent countless hours mentoring and guiding her students to reach their full potential in their careers. Dr. Kraybill’s efforts and labor can be witnessed by seeing her students graduate CSUB (many fi rst generation), fi nish law school, and become attorneys.
As former students and now professional colleagues, we appreciate the contributions that Dr. Kraybill has made to the legal community through her mentorship, academic support, and advocacy for students to return to Kern County and serve their community. As a professor, she goes above and beyond what is asked of her to ensure that all her students (former and present) are successful. Dr. Kraybill has helped numerous students create a plan for their legal career by pairing them with local attorneys and judges for mentoring, setting them up with internships, and advising them on how to enter the legal profession. Dr. Kraybill has played an instrumental role in perpetuating community orientated young professionals to stay and give back to Kern County. Through this work, several former students of hers have returned to Kern as attorneys who are now able to mentor the newest generation of future legal professionals.
With the support of numerous Kern County Superior Court Judges including Judge Charles Brehmer, Judge Judith Dulcich, and Judge Colette Humphrey, she has also helped established the CSUB Chapter of the California Judges Association Justice Norman L. Epstein Mentoring Program where students are able to observe court proceedings in Kern County to encourage them to pursue careers in the law. Dr. Kraybill also helped organized the CSUB Legal Information and Support Clinic with support from several local attorneys and legal offi ces in Kern County including H.A. Sala, retired Kern Superior Court Judge Louie Vega, David Torres, Alekxia Torres- Stallings, Vanessa Sanchez, Xochitl Garcia, the Kern County District Attorney’s Offi ce, the Kern County Public Defender’s Offi ce, the Kern Superior Court, and Greater Bakersfi eld Legal Assistance. The legal clinic focused on criminal, immigration, and housing law within the Kern County Area. In addition, her work did not slow during the global pandemic with the CSUB Pre-Law program still offering virtual speed mentoring events, events on diversity in the law, women in law, and many more. Some events even provided local attorneys with MCLE credits. entering the legal profession and established lawyers, judges, and other legal professionals is the reason that we strongly endorsed Dr. Kraybill’s nomination for the Ivy Person Award. She embodies the standards of excellence that the Ivy Person Award is meant to recognize, and we could not think of a more qualifi ed candidate for the Kern County Bar Association to acclaim and commend than Dr. Jeanine Kraybill.
About the Ivy Person Award
Ivy is remembered for many things, as the fi rst fulltime Executive Director of the KCBA (1977-1998), for her compassionate, caring, and loving nature, for her strong opinions, her proper and traditional ways, and her love of the color purple -- to name a few. Ivy’s son Patrick said, “She loved the legal fi eld and felt that all attorneys were her sheep to watch over.”
In 2008, the Kern County Bar Association created the Ivy Person Award. The award is given each year to a non-attorney who demonstrates the highest standards of excellence in the legal profession. The honoree is selected from across the legal community from candidates such as paralegals, legal secretaries, court reporters, court clerks, trustees, process servers, etc.
