Judith Murciano, fellowship director in the Bernard Koteen Office of Public Interest Advising at Harvard Law School, received the Suzanne L. Richardson Staff Recognition Award during Class Day exercises. She was selected by the class of 2010 for her demonstrated commitment to the student experience and for her concern for students’ lives and work at the Law School.
Praising her leadership, Dean Martha Minow said: “Judy is always imaginative, tireless, rigorous, and supportive. Her advising and mentoring of our students applying for fellowships has reached new heights during this very challenging year on the job market, and it is wonderful that the Class of ’10 chose to recognize her with this award.”
Every semester for almost two decades Murciano has won teaching awards, and she recently received a Faculty Innovation grant to design several new courses at the University. She was also a recipient of the 2008 Dean’s Award for Excellence at Harvard Law School.
For seventeen years, Murciano has advised students on fellowships and she has supervised public interest programs. She holds a faculty appointment and has been an Allston Burr Senior Tutor at Harvard College. Murciano has taught Constitutional Law and Writing at Harvard College, advised honors theses at Princeton University and researched her Ph.D dissertation on censorship with graduate fellowships at Cambridge and Oxford Universities. She served as legislative director and acting executive director of the New Jersey ACLU, chaired the New Jersey Bar’s Juvenile Justice Committee, and clerked for a criminal court judge in the Bronx. She has also written political essays for The New Yorker and The New York Times, as well as human rights articles for the International Herald Tribune and Radio Free Europe while working for Amnesty International in Paris.
Murciano is the 15th recipient of the staff award, and the seventh since the award was renamed for the late Suzanne Richardson, dean of students at HLS from 1993 to 2004.