Michelle J. Anderson (born January 30, 1967) is an American lawyer who is the 10th President of

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...

. She is a scholar on

rape law Rape is a type of sexual assault initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, under threat or manipulation, by impersonation, or with a person who is incapa ...

Education

Anderson graduated from the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...

, in 1989 with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

with honors in community studies as a resident of

Merrill College Merrill College is a residential college at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The theme of the college, and the name of its freshman core course, is "cultural identities and global consciousness." Location Merrill is located at the far ...

. She won the Chancellor's Award for outstanding academic achievement. While a UC Santa Cruz student, Anderson spent eighteen months "bleaching, dieting, training, tanning, and feigning fundamentalist beliefs to get into the running" for the

Miss California The Miss California competition selects the representative for the state of California in the Miss America competition. The pageant began in Santa Cruz in 1924 and was held there in 1925. During the years 1926 through 1946 in years when the M ...

beauty pageant, becoming Miss Santa Cruz County. During the televised pageant, just prior to the announcement of a winner, Anderson unveiled a banner that read "pageants hurt all women." She attended

Yale Law School Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...

, where she was notes editor of the ''

Yale Law Journal ''The Yale Law Journal'' (YLJ) is a student-run law review affiliated with the Yale Law School. Published continuously since 1891, it is the most widely known of the eight law reviews published by students at Yale Law School. The journal is one ...

''. Anderson was an intern in the chambers of Judge Ellen Bree Burns on the

United States District Court for the District of Connecticut The United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (in case citations, D. Conn.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Connecticut. The court has offices in Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven. Appeal ...

. She worked with

Harold Koh Harold Hongju Koh (born December 8, 1954) is an American diplomat, lawyer, legal scholar, politician, and writer. Except for his periods of government service, he has taught at Yale Law School from 1985 to the present, including as the law school ...

Michael Ratner Michael Ratner (June 13, 1943 – May 11, 2016) was an American attorney. For much of his career, he was president of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a non-profit human rights litigation organization based in New York City, and presi ...

, and students in the Yale Law School International Human Rights Clinic on litigation on behalf of Haitian refugees. Anderson was also a visiting scholar at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

, South Africa.

Academic career

After graduating from Yale Law School in 1994, Anderson clerked on the

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts for the following federal judicial districts: * Distric ...

for Judge William A. Norris. After clerking, she worked as a Fellow and Supervising Attorney at the Appellate Litigation Clinic at

Georgetown University Law Center Georgetown University Law Center is the Law school in the United States, law school of Georgetown University, a Private university, private research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law ...

from 1995-97. There, she also earned a

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is a postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in another subject. In many jurisdi ...

in Advocacy. Anderson joined the faculty of

Villanova University School of Law The Charles Widger School of Law (known as Villanova Law) is the law school of Villanova University, a private Roman Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania. It was opened in 1953 and is approved by the American Bar Association (A ...

in 1998, where she taught Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Feminist Legal Theory, and Children and the Law for eight years, earning top rankings as a professor. She has been a visiting professor at

, the

University of Pittsburgh School of Law The University of Pittsburgh School of Law (Pitt Law) is the law school of the University of Pittsburgh, a public research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1895 and became a charter member of the Association of American ...

, and

. She served as Dean at

CUNY School of Law The City University of New York School of Law (CUNY School of Law, pronounced Help:IPA/English, /ˈkjuːni/, Help:Pronunciation respelling key, KYOO-nee) is a Public university, public law school in New York City. It was founded in 1983 as part ...

from 2006-2016. Under Anderson's leadership, CUNY Law moved from a converted junior high school in

Flushing, Queens Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of Queens. The neighborhood is the fourth-largest central business district in New York City. Downtown Flushing is a major commercial ...

, to a new,

LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a Green building certification systems, green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating ...

gold-certified building in

Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a neighborhood within the New York City borough of Queens. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; Sunnyside to the east; and Newtown Creek, which separates Queens from Greenpoint, Brook ...

. Under her leadership, CUNY Law achieved excellent national recognition, including top rankings for public interest law, clinical programs, and diversity of the student body and faculty. During her tenure, CUNY Law also launched the Pipeline to Justice Program, the Incubator Program, the Community & Economic Development Clinic, the Center for Urban Environmental Reform, the Center on latino/a Rights and Equality, and the Sorensen Center for International Peace and Justice. Anderson was a member of the

New York City Bar Association The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, commonly referred to as the New York City Bar Association (City Bar), founded in 1870, is a voluntary association of lawyers and law students. Since 1896, the organization has been headquartere ...

's Task Force on New Lawyers in a Changing Profession. She has written on the importance of matching underemployed attorneys with low and moderate-income communities that have great need for legal services they can afford. Along with the New York City Bar Association and some of the city's largest law firms, CUNY Law launched the Court Square Law Project in 2016. She has been called "one of the legal academy's most perceptive and prolific legal scholars in the area" of

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act of sexual abuse in which one intentionally Physical intimacy, sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or Coercion, coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their w ...

. Anderson's work traces the history and evolution of rape law and contrasts it with the reform surrounding campus sexual assault. Her scholarship covers the resistance requirement in rape law, rape shield laws, marital rape laws, the corroboration requirement, prompt complaint requirement, and cautionary instructions in rape law, campus sexual assault codes, the place of prostitution and similar prior sexual history in rape cases, and the legal impact of negative social attitudes toward acquaintance rape victims. She has written about

sex education Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including human sexual anatomy, Human sexual activity, sexual activity, sexual reproduction, safe sex, birth ...

's influence on cultural norms of gender in sexuality, the sexual assault of political detainees under South African apartheid, and the traditional constructs of stranger rape and their impact on rape jurisprudence She has also written a new model for how to define rape legally, which focuses on negotiating desires and boundaries. In 2015, Anderson engaged in an "Intelligence Squared
debate
on campus sexual assault with

Jed Rubenfeld Jed L. Rubenfeld (born 1959) is an American legal scholar and professor of law at Yale Law School. From 2000 to 2020, he served as the Robert R. Slaughter Professor of Law at Yale University. Rubenfeld is an expert on constitutional law, privacy, ...

Jeannie Suk Jeannie Suk Gersen (born 1973) is an American legal scholar at Harvard Law School. She became the first Asian American woman awarded tenure at Harvard Law School in 2010. Biography Suk attended Hunter College High School, graduating in 1991. In ...

, and Stephen Schulhofer. Anderson's research has been published in the ''

'', ''Boston University Law Review'', ''

George Washington Law Review ''The George Washington Law Review'' is a bimonthly law review edited and published by students at the George Washington University Law School. The ''Law Review'' was established in 1931 and is a continuation of the ''Constitutional Review'', publ ...

'', ''

Hastings Law Journal The ''UC Law Journal'' is the oldest law journal at the University of California, College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly University of California, Hastings College of the Law). It began in 1949 in San Francisco, California as the ''Hastings ...

'', ''

Rutgers Law Review The ''Rutgers Law Review'' was a quarterly, scholarly journal focusing on legal issues, published by an organization of second- and third-year law students at the former Rutgers School of Law–Newark, in Newark, New Jersey. It was the flagship l ...

'', ''

Southern California Law Review The ''Southern California Law Review'' is the flagship scholarly journal An academic journal (or scholarly journal or scientific journal) is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published ...

'', and ''University of Illinois Law Review''.

President of Brooklyn College

Anderson became the 10th President of

in August 2016. In her first year as president, Anderson invited

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician and activist who is the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from the state of Vermont. He is the longest-serving independ ...

by writing him a letter and telling him to “come home.”

Honors

Anderson is a member of the

American Law Institute The American Law Institute (ALI) is a research and advocacy group of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars limited to 3,000 elected members and established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of United States common law and i ...

, an Adviser to the ALI's Model Penal Code: Sexual Assault and Related Offenses Project, and a Consultant to its Project on Sexual & Gender-Based Misconduct on Campus. She is a former Policy Chair of the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence. In 2007, the

Feminist Press The Feminist Press at CUNY is an American independent nonprofit literary publisher of the City University of New York, based in New York City. It primarily publishes feminist literature that promotes freedom of expression and social justice. The ...

gave Anderson the Susan Rosenberg Zalk Award. In 2011, ''

Education Update ''Education Update'' is an American non-profit monthly newspaper, published in New York City. It focuses on issues related to education and has a circulation of approximately 100,000. The publisher, retired education professor Pola Rosen, bega ...

'' newspaper gave her the Distinguished Leader in Education Award. In 2013, the

Center for Women in Government and Civil Society The Center for Women in Government & Civil Society (CWGCS) is a policy research center at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, University at Albany, University at Albany (SUNY). CWGCS was founded in 1978, and is a member organiza ...

at the

University of Albany The State University of New York at Albany (University at Albany, UAlbany, or SUNY Albany) is a public research university in Albany, New York, United States. Founded in 1844, it is one of four "university centers" of the State University of N ...

gave her the Public Service Leadership Award. In 2014, the

gave her the Diversity & Inclusion Champion Award. In 2016, City & State gave her an Above and Beyond Award for Women of Public and Civic Mind. In 2017, Brooklyn Legal Services gave her
Champion of Justice Award

References

External links

*

at

Avvo Avvo.com is an American online marketplace for legal services, that provides lawyer referrals and access to a database of legal information consisting primarily of previously answered questions. Lawyer profiles may include client reviews, discipl ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Michelle University of California, Santa Cruz alumni Yale Law School alumni American beauty pageant contestants American feminists 1967 births People from Valdosta, Georgia CUNY School of Law Deans of law schools in New York (state) Women deans (academic) Georgetown University Law Center alumni Living people American legal writers American academic administrators American women legal scholars American legal scholars Lawyers from Brooklyn Academics from Brooklyn Presidents of Brooklyn College