Dear SLS Community,

I retire from the law school this summer with so much gratitude – to the wonderful staff and faculty colleagues who have allowed me to partner with them and who have supported my work, to my students and alumni who have taught me and learned with me, and to all of the members (old and new) of the Levin Center team who made my work deeply fulfilling as well as fun.

My retirement party was a bit of an overwhelming blur but I thank all those who joined us, especially the alumni who travelled from afar, as well as those who could not but sent many calls, notes, and emails.

For those who were not at the event, I share excerpts from my remarks below.

I was raised by a mother and maternal grandmother whose constant questions were: “Are you being useful?” and “How can you be helpful?” It was hammered into me young that being of service to others was the greatest expression of being fully human.

Thanks so much for allowing me to be a pebble in your oceans. Thank you for the tidal waves you have become and will be as powerful and positive forces for change.

I have been honored and humbled to serve the Stanford Law School community, and grateful for the work and teaching I have been allowed to pursue. I am so excited to watch and support the next phase of growth and expansion under Anna Wang’s leadership.

With great fondness and much appreciation,
Diane

With great thanks to the students, staff, and faculty who joined the Levin Center staff in evaluating a deep pool of talented candidates, we are thrilled to announce that we have identified the next executive director of the Levin Center. Shannon Al-Wakeel will join SLS in August following three years as managing director of the Center for Public Interest Advocacy and Collaboration at Northeastern Law School, where she developed and orchestrated interdisciplinary research, student opportunities, and events that furthered its public interest mission.

“I’m excited to join the Levin Center and Stanford Law School in the critical work of continually strengthening public interest culture, education and practice,” said Shannon Al-Wakeel. “Public service and public interest values aren’t confined to certain settings; they can animate such a wide spectrum of legal pursuits. I look forward to working with the extraordinary SLS community, at the forefront of legal education, to maximize our profession’s impact as a force for public good.”

Shannon’s career has also encompassed movement lawyering, systemic policy advocacy, and direct legal representation, as well as nonprofit formation and leadership. Shannon was founding executive director of Muslim Justice League (MJL), a Boston-based non-profit advocating for rights that are threatened in the name of national security, which she co-founded with three other Muslim women in response to the federal “countering violent extremism” campaign launched in 2014. Her work with MJL expanded free representation for people pressured to speak with FBI and other Joint Terrorism Task Force agents and cultivated resistance to surveillance, coercion, and criminalization of Muslim and other “suspect” communities. Previously, her work as a Kaufman Public Interest Fellow with Massachusetts Law Reform Institute’s Immigrants Protection Project, and then as state policy director of Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, contributed to the advancement of immigrants’ rights at municipal, state and federal levels.

Shannon received a bachelor of fine arts focused on printmaking from the University of Pennsylvania in conjunction with Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and her law degree with honors from Harvard Law School. She is a member of the Massachusetts Bar and has served on the Boards of Directors of the New England Muslim Bar Association, Massachusetts Coalition for Adult Education, and ACLU of Massachusetts. She presently serves on the Board of Directors of Defending Rights and Dissent, an organization working to strengthen participatory democracy by protecting the right to political expression.

Anna Wang, the Levin Center’s current executive director who will become associate dean in August upon Diane’s retirement, said, “Shannon brings a wealth of experience in nonprofit and law school center management and operations, an impressive record of public interest work in immigrant and refugee rights, an incredibly thoughtful and conscientious perspective, and an unwavering dedication to students. I am confident Shannon will be a wonderful addition to the Levin Center team and the SLS community.”