Assistant Professor Tammi Shimere Etheridge will lead courses in torts, food and drug laws, and health law starting this summer after previously teaching and mentoring law students at Howard University and Villanova University.
A Greensboro native with scholarly interests in the areas of administrative law, food and drug law, and health law is joining the Elon University School of Law faculty in a tenure-track appointment that includes teaching torts to first-year students.
Tammi Shimere Etheridge, currently an assistant professor at Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C., returns to North Carolina this summer with practice experience in complex commercial litigation and product liability law, plus teaching experience and a publication list that includes articles in law journals at Georgetown and Michigan.
Etheridge said she is enthusiastic to be a part of Elon Law’s growing national reputation for teaching and scholarship while bringing her practice and teaching experience back to her hometown.
“Sociology tells us that many members of diasporic groups long for home after they have relocated. I am no exception,” Etheridge said. “Greensboro is my home and I am delighted at this opportunity for a homecoming. Teaching at Elon Law endows me with a unique opportunity to give back to the community that raised and nurtured me while also continuing to prepare the next generation of lawyers. I could not be more excited about this turn of events.”
An alumna of Grimsley High School in Greensboro, Etheridge graduated with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before earning her Master of Public Policy from the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and her Juris Doctor from the University of Minnesota Law School.
An accomplished leader in law school, she was a member of the Journal of Law and Inequality, served as president of the Black Law Students Association, mentored students as a teaching assistant, and volunteered as the student director of the Community Practice and Policy Development Clinic.
Her work led to the law school’s Contracts Book Award, the Dean’s Distinguished Scholarship, and the George Ludcke Public Service Fellowship, plus recognition in the community, including the Michael J. Davis Scholarship from the Minnesota Association of Black Lawyers and a first-year clerkship with Medtronic from Twin Cities Diversity in Practice.
Etheridge clerked after law school for the Hon. Joseph R. Goodwin in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia before joining big law and practicing complex commercial litigation, multidistrict litigation, and product liability law. Her teaching experience includes an appointment as a visiting assistant professor at the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law.
Etheridge is currently a Visiting Fellow with the Nebraska Governance and Technology Center at the University of Nebraska College of Law.
“At Elon Law, we are proud of our faculty who bring to the classroom an impressive balance of practice experience and dedication to teaching, both of which help prepare our students for professional success,” said Elon Law Dean Luke Bierman. “It is clear from her professional background that Professor Etheridge is exactly the type of law professor who inspires law students to achieve their full potential.
“We are more than pleased that her move home will make us not only a better law school for our students, but a better Greensboro for our neighbors and friends, with all of her knowledge and pride in the city we all call home.”