Stanford Law School’s new associate dean of student affairs, Jory Steele, is a familiar face on campus. She earned her undergraduate degree at Stanford in 1993, and since the summer of 2014 she has served as a lecturer in law and as director of pro bono and externship programs for the John and Terry Levin Center for Public Service and Public Interest Law at the law school.

“After a nationwide search, we found the perfect new dean of students right here at Stanford Law School.  Jory brings a wealth of experience to this position.  She is an accomplished civil rights lawyer and has worked closely with our students these last two years.  She is also wise, empathetic, resourceful and completely devoted to creating the best student experience possible.  We could not be more delighted to welcome her as our new dean of students,” said M. Elizabeth Magill, Richard E. Lang Professor of Law and dean of the law school.

“I am thrilled to be guiding students at this important time in their lives on the same campus where I determined my own path in life,” Steele said.

Steele brings extraordinary experience to her new role at Stanford Law School. After graduating from Stanford with B.A. degree in international relations in 1993, she studied for 18 months in South Africa on a Fulbright Fellowship at the University of the Western Cape. She then earned two graduate degrees from Columbia University: a master’s degree in international affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs and a J.D. from Columbia Law School. She later became a member of the California Bar.

She also carries a strong commitment to justice to her new job. She received a Skadden Fellowship with the Legal Aid Society – Employment Law Center in San Francisco Center and worked there for nearly six years on litigation, representing employees in racial and sexual discrimination cases.

Steele devoted the next 10 years to the ACLU of Northern California in San Francisco, where she was both the managing attorney and director of education equity, focusing on the school-to-prison pipeline, policing in schools and school finance.

During her two years as director of pro bono and externship programs at Stanford Law School, Steele completely restructured the pro bono program, shaping it to meet students’ needs and expanding it to include more second- and third-year students, as well as LLMs.