Prof. Michelle Ghetti was recently appointed to a second term on the Louisiana Advisory Committee to the United States Civil Rights Commission. The commission was created by the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and is an independent, bipartisan, fact-finding agency that focuses on providing insight and research relative to the development and enforcement of national civil rights policies and laws. The commission maintains 51 state-level advisory committees comprised of citizen volunteers with familiarity with local and state civil rights issues. The Louisiana Advisory Committee, like the committees of other states, assists the commission in research, investigations, and information dissemination.
Ghetti’s reappointment came at the request of Commissioner Gail Heriot, who is a law professor at the University of Diego and a former civil rights attorney with the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Other members of the Louisiana Advisory Committee are Robert Lancaster, Chair (LSU Law, Baton Rouge); Andrea Armstrong (Loyola Law, New Orleans); James Baehr (AUSA E. District, New Orleans); Yakima Black (Interim President, LATAN, Baker); Randy Boudreaux (Attorney, New Orleans); Marjorie Esman (Director, La. ACLU, New Orleans); George Fowler (Attorney, New Orleans); Robert Garda (Loyola Law, New Orleans); Enrique Hurtado (financial advisor, Baton Rouge); Saru Matambanadzo (Tulane Law, New Orleans); H. Naci Mocan (LSU School of Business, Baton Rouge); Cyndi Nguyen (executive director, Vietnamese Initiatives in Economic (VIET), New Orleans); Robert Scott (President of PAR, Baton Rouge); Gina Womack (executive director of Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC), New Orleans).
Prof. Ghetti is the Louisiana Health and Ethics Outside Counsel endowed professor of Law at the Southern University Law Center where she teaches and writes in the areas of criminal practice, legal ethics, domestic violence, and freedom of religion. She serves on numerous policy making committees and task forces, is a frequent speaker at local, national and international conferences, and has written and testified on behalf of or against numerous pieces of legislation. She also previously served as a United States Supreme Court fellow assigned to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. To view her research click here.