BREAKING THE CYCLE
Transforming Education, Policy and Our Community
BREAKING THE CYCLE
TRANSFORMING EDUCATION, POLICY AND OUR COMMUNITY
Intimate Partner Violence (“IPV”) is physical and/or emotional abuse or aggression in a romantic relationship and impacts 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men. IPV is a significant public health crisis with enormous individual and societal costs. The CDC reports that over half of female murder victims in the United States are killed by a current or former partner, and IPV life-time economic costs, as a result of medical and criminal justice expenses and lost work, total $3.6 trillion.
But, IPV is preventable.
By integrating IPV education into all areas of higher learning, starting with the law school curriculum, systemic change can happen.
The University of Louisville’s Brandeis School of Law will form strategic alliances across the university and throughout Mary Byron’s hometown of Louisville, Kentucky to make IPV education accessible to all and transform our community and then the world.
JOIN US
1 in 4 women and 1 in 9 men experience severe violence from an intimate partner.
Only 25% of IPV crimes are reported. At a minimum, that’s approximately 60 million victims in the U.S. alone.
In homes experiencing IPV, 50% of children living in the homes are also victims, which leads to a ripple effect of behaviorial, emotiona, and educational issues including truancy.
IPV homicides account for 15% of murders nationwide. 60% of incarcerated men and 50% of incarcerated women have a history of IPV victimization.
IPV costs the US economy an estimated $5.8 billion annually in lost productivity and medical expenses.
IPV QUICK STATS
Join us in establishing the Mary Byron Endowed Chair of Intimate Partner Violence (“Byron Chair”) and the Mary Byron Center as the University of Louisville becomes the first university to combat the IPV inter-generational endemic through education, collaboration and action.
BRANDEIS
LAW
SCHOOL OF
THE MARY BYRON ENDOWED CHAIR OF INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE
The Byron Chair will teach law and policy of IPV at UofL’s Brandeis School of Law and perform a curriculum overview to integrate IPV legal education throughout the law school curriculum. Externally, the Byron Chair will engage in meaningful transdisciplinary collaboration to infuse IPV education into curricula across our university.
Only curricular reform can educate our next generation to recognize IPV and develop strategies to combat it on a personal and systemic level.
THE MARY BYRON CENTER
The Mary Byron Center will be the first of its kind as no other university is integrating IPV lessons into its core education, and then providing experiential learning opportunities for students to help those impacted by IPV and work to end this world-wide crisis.
Building upon our existing Robert and Sue Ellen Ackerson Law Clinic, which represents clients who have suffered from IPV in various Jefferson County Courts, the Mary Byron Center’s experiential learning collaborative partners will include but not be limited to:
• The Department of Classical and Modern Languages
• The Schools of Dentistry, Medicine and the Department of Psychiatry
• UofL Health—UofL Hospital
• The Raymond A. Kent School of Social Work and Family Science
• The College of Education and Human Development
• The UofL College of Business
The Clinic will grow into an interdisciplinary entity designed to make systemic change, provide wrap-around services for clients and teach those providing services their role in combating IPV. IPV is a learned behavior passed on from generation to generation. By teaching about its breadth and impact in all areas of academia, this generation of students will learn how to disrupt the pathways that have historically triggered IPV.
The Mary Byron Center will also facilitate an annual conference designed to bring together aspiring and practicing law professionals from across the globe. This conference will provide opportunities for other universities to learn about our unique approach to teaching and combatting IPV so that they, too, can integrate IPV studies into their core curriculum.
BRANDEIS SCHOOL OF LAW
PREPARING CIVIC LEADERS
Brandeis by the Numbers
6,000+ 30 Based on fall 2018-22 data 10 months after graduation Within 2 years of graduation
8 AVERAGE ENROLLMENT ALUMNI DUAL-DEGREE PATHWAYS LAW-RELATED PUBLIC SERVICE HOURS PER GRADUATE EMPLOYMENT RATE* BAR PASSAGE RATE
*Based on a three-year average
UNLEASHING EXCELLENCE
The University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law is Kentucky’s oldest law school and the fifth oldest law school in the nation. Founded in 1846, our school is named for United States Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, who has invested heavily in the school including the arrangement of the school to receive original briefs filed with the Supreme Court, a practice that continues to this day.
In addition to our deep roots, Brandeis has a thriving alumni network of more than 6,000 alumni. Our graduates lead successful careers in legal firms, courts of law and non-profits across the United States. This makes us well positioned to drive innovative and systemic change across the legal profession.
Brandeis is one of the only law schools in the nation that requires 30 hours of approved lawrelated public service prior to graduation. Our curriculum is supplemented by an extensive skills program, a downtown Law Clinic and Entrepreneur Clinic, externship opportunities, expansive moot court and professional skills competitions. In addition, we are led by faculty with real-world, practical and applied expertise.
LEADING THE PROFESSION
Brandeis Dean Melanie B. Jacobs is an internationally and nationally recognized expert in Family Law and has published extensively on the subject. As a former chair of the Association of American Law Schools’ Family and Juvenile Law Section and a notable feminist voice in legal scholarship, Dean Jacobs is propelling Brandeis forward as a national leader across the law profession.
LET’S CONNECT
Thank you for your interest in the Mary Byron Endowed Chair and Center, which will be transformational not only for our University but also for Greater Louisville and beyond.
Melanie
Jennifer
UofL
B. Jacobs, Dean and Professor of Law
Tuvlin, Senior Director of Development
Louis D. Brandeis School of Law
jennifer.tuvlin@louisville.edu 502-852-7189
347 87% 96%
BREAKING THE CYCLE
Transforming Education, Policy and Our Community
The Mary Byron Project Foundation is the cornerstone donor and impetus for creating the Mary Byron Chair and Mary Byron Center here at the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law.
The Mary Byron Project is sunsetting but rebranding as the Mary Byron Center. Thanks to the Mary Byron Project’s foresight and generosity, Mary’s hometown will continue to be at the forefront of combatting IPV through innovative partnerships designed to disrupt the pathways to this generational endemic.
Thank you for your interest in learning more about Mary’s story.
WHO WAS MARY BYRON?
On her 21st birthday, Mary was shot seven times point blank by her exboyfriend who was unknowingly released from jail after being arrested for kidnapping and raping Mary. Louisville was stunned and outraged. County officials, victims’ advocates and IT engineers worked diligently to design a system that would alert people who needed to know critical information to help them stay safe such as whether their offenders are in jail, where they are held, and when they are released.
Exactly one year after Mary’s murder, Louisville became the first community in the United States to institute an automated telephone notification system for victims and concerned citizens. That system is VINE, Victim Information and Notification
Everyday—The National Victim Notification Network. VINE is a free service that provides real-time, reliable status updates via email, text or phone on an inmate’s release, transfer or escape to all registrants. It is used in 48 states and covers over 2,900 incarceration facilities. VINE has transformed countless survivors’ wellbeing and the Mary Byron Center aims to continue this trajectory for a safer society.
Seven years after their daughter's murder and six years after the creation of VINE, Mary’s parents created the Mary Byron Project, an organization dedicated to ending intimate partner violence through appellate advocacy, legislative and policy work, and education and training. For over 20 years, the Mary Byron Project has been championing innovative IPV intervention programs and providing the infrastructure to duplicate, and grow, successful efforts nationwide.
As the Mary Byron Project rebrands as the Mary Byron Center at the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law, the University invites you to help us leverage Mary Byron’s legacy to educate our community about intimate partner violence and empower the collaborations essential to eliminating its detrimental impact.
