Shirley Jefferson has been appointed vice president for community engagement and government affairs at Vermont Law and Graduate School (VLGS). This appointment makes her the school’s first vice president of color.
Jefferson’s role is newly created. She will report directly to the VLGS president.
Jefferson – a 1986 VLGS graduate – has been a longtime professor and administrator at VLGS. Prior to this appointment, she was associate dean for student affairs and diversity. Other roles she’s held at the school include special assistant to the admissions department and director of alumni affairs.
Jefferson is also an adviser on race and the law and equitable access to legal education and member of the Vermont State College Board of Trustees and Vermont State Policy Advisory Commission.
She is a multiple-time winner of the Women’s Law Group Phenomenal Woman Award, recipient of the Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO) Edge Diversity Award, and National Black Pre-Law Conference and Law Fair Legal Education Access & Diversity Champion award winner.
Jefferson graduated summa cum laude from Southeastern University.