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Elisabeth J. Medvedow, the executive director of Boston-based civic and justice education nonprofit Discovering Justice, has been appointed as the inaugural executive director at the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy at Boston College Law School, effective May 18.
Medvedow has a long and successful record of nonprofit management, from her leadership at Discovering Justice – an organization founded with the support of the US District Court in Boston – as well as her previous position as executive director of the Women’s Bar Association and Women’s Bar Foundation in Massachusetts.
Her arrival heralds a new era for the Rappaport Center, which moved earlier this year from Suffolk University to BC Law, funded by a $7.53 million gift from the Phyllis & Jerome Lyle Rappaport Foundation. The gift was the largest in the 85-year history of BC Law and supports the Rappaport Center and the Jerome Lyle Rappaport Visiting Professorship in Law and Public Policy at BC Law.
The center comprises the long-running Rappaport Fellows Program, which provides 12 paid summer internships to Greater Boston-area law students interested in public service, and the Rappaport Distinguished Public Policy Series, which will conduct scholarly research and host lectures, debates and roundtable discussions on public policy issues with the region’s leading policymakers and thought leaders. Former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger will chair the center’s advisory board.
“I am thrilled to welcome Lissy to the Rappaport Center,” said Law Professor Michael Cassidy, faculty director of the Rappaport Center. “Her decades of experience in government and public policy positions and her leadership in the Boston bar make her the perfect fit as our new executive director. She is a passionate advocate who will be an essential member of the Rappaport team, and I look forward to working with her.”
“I am proud to become a member of the Boston College Law School community, which has always been a leader in public service,” said Medvedow. “The Rappaport Center’s ability to effect change and influence our future leaders inspires me, as does helping to introduce students to the breadth of public policy issues, especially focused on urban environments. Bringing together thought leaders in the public policy arena to engage in symposia, conferences, and respectful discourse to solve problems and motivate change will be a highly fulfilling next step in my own career.”
Medvedow is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Northeastern University Law School. Following law school, Medvedow clerked for Judge Raya Dreben of the Massachusetts Appeals Court and Judge Joseph McNaught of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Before going into non-profit management, she served for more than 10 years as assistant attorney general in the Appellate Division of Massachusetts Attorney General’s office.