Assistant Professor Tiffany Atkins L’11 will help guide the Society of American Law Teachers in its mission to make the legal professor more inclusive and enhance social justice training.
An Elon Law legal writing professor has been elected for a two-year term to the governing body of a national organization that promotes cultural competency and social justice within the legal profession.
Assistant Professor Tiffany Atkins L’11 officially joined this month the Board of Governors of the Society of American Law Teachers, a community of law teachers, law school administrators, librarians, academic support experts, students and affiliates “working for more than 40 years to improve the legal profession, the law academy and expand the power of law to under-served communities.”
The SALT Board of Governors is designed to fulfill SALT’s basic mission of promoting inclusivity and cultural competency in the profession, enhancing social justice training, and advancing the use of the law to serve under-served persons and communities.
SALT also organizes several BA-to-JD pipeline programs, hosts “breaking in” programs for legal educators, coordinates a mentor program for faculty, co-sponsors a diversity in law school leadership conference and hosts its biennial Teaching Conference. Atkins has been a member of the organization since 2016.
“It’s an absolute honor for me to serve on the SALT Board of Governors,” Atkins said. “In my work with SALT over the years, I have found a community of like-minded law professors from across the country who are committed to working within their institutions to create equitable and inclusive environments where minority students and faculty thrive. In my role as a board member, I look forward to continuing this work and helping to shape the programming and initiatives of the organization for the next two years.”
Atkins has been active in the promotion of cultural competency and antiracism education. She was among the educators in a summer SALT webinar in which presenters put forward advice for integrating antiracism education into law school courses, and she was a guest on a summer episode of SALT’s Teaching Social Justice Podcast.
Atkins graduated from Elon Law in 2011 as the recipient of the David Gergen Award for Leadership and Professionalism. She taught in the Legal Method & Communication Program from 2016-2018 as am LMC Fellow, then spent a year at Wake Law’s Legal Analysis, Writing and Research program before rejoining the Elon Law faculty.
Prior to her entry into legal education, Atkins worked for several years in Greensboro at Legal Aid of North Carolina. She is a graduate of UNC Greensboro’s Political Science and African-American Studies programs.