Prof Tanya Washington

Tanya Washington is a Professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law.   She earned her Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Maryland School of Law and clerked for Associate Judge Robert M. Bell on the Maryland Court of Appeals.  After practicing as a toxic tort defense litigator in the Baltimore office of Piper & Marbury, she completed the Albert M. Sacks Fellowship in Criminal Justice, the Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Fellowship in Social Justice and earned her LL.M. from Harvard Law School.

Professor Washington has taught Civil Procedure I and II, Family Law, Education Law and Race and Law at Georgia State College of Law for the past 20 years. Her research and scholarship focus on issues related to educational equity and affirmative action; domestic violence; racial (in)justice; inclusion and diversity; marriage equality; and children’s constitutional rights.  Her articles and op-eds have been published in law journals and periodicals across the nation and Professor Washington has co-authored five (5) amicus briefs filed in U.S. Supreme Court cases, including in the Court’s marriage equality decision, Obergefell v. Hodges.  Her co-authored brief was cited by Justice Kennedy in the majority opinion of that landmark ruling.

Her work as an activist educator also includes serving for 2 years as Director of the John Lewis Fellowship Program, a Humanity in Action program funded by a grant to the National Center for Civil and Human Rights from the Mellon Foundation. She served on the Board of Freedom University and currently serves as Board Chair for the Housing Justice League and the Center for Civic Innovation.  Professor Washington’s work as a public intellectual has been recognized and celebrated by the Gate City Bar, with the President’s Award for Excellence, and by Georgia State University, with the Alumni Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching and Scholarship and with the College of Law Kaminshine Service Award.  She served as the inaugural President of the Faculty of the African Diaspora Association (FADA) for Georgia State University, and she frequently conducts team building and diversity trainings and workshops for organizations, law firms and university departments.