Tracey L. Meares is an American legal scholar and author. She is the

Walton Hale Hamilton Walton Hale Hamilton (October 30, 1881 – October 27, 1958) was an American law professor who taught at Yale Law School (1928–1948). In 1919, Hamilton coined the term "institutional economics". Life and work Born in Tennessee, Hamilton recei ...

Professor of Law at

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 ...

. Previous to joining the Yale Law School faculty, she was Max Pam Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Studies in Criminal Justice at the

University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the Law school in the United States, law school of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It employs more than 180 full-time and part-time facul ...

. At both Chicago and Yale, she was the first African-American woman to be granted tenure.

Early life and education

Meares was born to Robert and Carolyn Blackwell, who still live in Springfield, Illinois. Meares attended and graduated from a high school in the Springfield Public School District 186 in 1984 as one of two "Top Student"(s). In 2022, she was named the valedictorian, a delay that she attributes to racism. Meares holds a B.S. in general engineering from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

in 1988, and a J.D. from the

in 1991.

Career

Meares' first positions included a stint clerking for

Harlington Wood, Jr. Harlington Wood Jr. (April 17, 1920 – December 29, 2008) was an Law of the United States, American lawyer, United States federal courts, jurist, Politics of the United States, political figure and an Amateur theatre, amateur actor. He served as ...

when he was on the

United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (in case citations, 7th Cir.) is the U.S. United States federal court, federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the United States district court, courts in the following United Stat ...

, as well as a position at the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...

's Antitrust Division, where she was a

trial attorney A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as wel ...

. She taught at the University of Chicago Law School from 1995 to 2007, after which she joined Yale Law School as the Walton Hale Hamilton Professor of Law, a position she has held ever since. She also served as Yale Law School's Deputy Dean from 2009 to 2011 and co-founded The Justice Collaboratory along with Tom Tyler. As of 2021, she is a co-

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

of the ''

Annual Review of Criminology The ''Annual Review of Criminology'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Annual Reviews. It was established in 2018 and covers the field of criminology. Its founding co-editors were Joan Petersilia and Robert J. Sampson. , the co-ed ...

''.

Awards and positions

Meares has been a member of the National Research Council's Committee on Law and Justice, and was appointed by then-Attorney General

Eric Holder Eric Himpton Holder Jr. (born January 21, 1951) is an American lawyer who served as the 82nd United States attorney general from 2009 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Holder was the first African Ameri ...

to serve on the

Office of Justice Programs The Office of Justice Programs (OJP) is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that focuses on crime prevention through research and development, assistance to state, local, and tribal criminal justice agencies, including law enforc ...

' Science Advisory Board. She is also a member of the

Joyce Foundation The Joyce Foundation is a non-operating private foundation based in Chicago, Illinois. As of 2025, it had assets of approximately $1.24 billion. Former U.S. President Barack Obama served on the foundation's board of directors from 1994 through ...

's Board of Directors. In 2014, then-President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

appointed her to the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing when he created it by signing an executive order. She was elected an American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellow in 2019.

References

External links

Faculty page
*
Tracey L. Meares
on

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meares, Tracey L. Living people Yale Law School faculty University of Chicago Law School alumni University of Illinois alumni University of Chicago Law School faculty Year of birth missing (living people) Annual Reviews (publisher) editors