Stephanie Ledesma Washington

Professor Stephanie Ledesma Washington most recently retired from Law School Administration as the first and only appointed Associate Dean of Experiential Education of Thurgood Marshall School of Law, where she served in that capacity for the greater part of a decade. Professor Washington also achieved tenure and expedited full professorship status under the extraordinary merit criteria during her residence at the same law school institution.  Currently, Professor Ledesma serves as a Professor of Law at Southern University Law Center where she continues to focus on implementing best practices in adult education, specifically legal education, and where she continues to make positive contributions to the advancement of humanity through the preservation of human dignity and human rights by the compassionate and equitable application of the rule of law.

Prior to entering the legal academy as a Professor of Law, Professor Washington was nationally known as one of the then, few trial attorneys in the nation that was Certified as a Child Welfare Law Specialist through the National Association of Council for Children, specializing in Child Welfare Litigation where she tried many cases related to child abuse, neglect, and the protection of constitutional rights of families, especially families of racial minorities and families of indigence to juries and judges.

Professor Washington is committed to lending her time and talent to training the world’s attorneys, barristers, judges, legal advocates and other dignitaries as she often serves as a faculty member, team leader, Co-Program Director and Program Director for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, NITA.  Professor Washington serves as Co-Director of the NITA: Building Trial Advocacy Skills program in Dallas, annually; she serves as the Director of the NITA: Deposition Skills and Trial Advocacy Skills programs in Houston, annually; and as a NITA faculty member and volunteer faculty member for Lawyers Without Borders, Professor Washington serves:  in custom programs specifically designed for individual law firms; public programs designed for individual licensed attorneys; public interest law firms, designed for public interest law firms, agencies and government agencies all across the United States and thus far in Nigeria, Namibia and Kenya, Africa.

Professor Washington is a published scholarly author, and she has served as a keynote and guest speaker at countless national and state-wide programs and continuing legal education events.

Professor Washington is the parent of two amazing children, Xavier and Kalani, the puppy- mom to the beloved “Flash” and proud and honored to be the wife and partner of the Honorable Michael D. Washington.