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POWER OF DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION INITIATIVES

CELEBRATED DURING UH LAW CENTER VIRTUAL FORUM

urrent students and alumni delivered testimonials on the diversity, equity and inclusion as instrumental to their success, not
Cprofound impact scholarships made on their legal education at only within the school itself, but within Houston as well.
the University of Houston during a Diversity Equity and Inclusion “The legal profession should reflect the community it serves,” said
Leadership Forum & Conversation hosted by Dean Leonard M. rising 3L Emory Powers.
Baynes and Associate Professor Tony Chase. The virtual event held in
June garnered an audience that featured attorneys, judges, legislators, Students also pointed to the tremendous support they receive from
Law Center alumni and faculty members. Law Center faculty in advancing their goals. Alexxa Leon, a rising 3L,
In his opening remarks, Baynes announced his goal of making the recounted receiving a book on academic legal writing from Professor
Meredith J. Duncan, with a note encouraging her to enter the
Law Center “a harbinger of what can be possible with diversity.” Houston Law Review Write-on Competition, where she now serves
The time has never been more important than now,” Chase added. as Senior Articles Editor.
“There are so many ways to lead in this regard, including offering jobs To Nhy Huynh, a rising 3L, described how the ethnic and gender
and mentorship to diverse graduates or financial support to the school.” biases she faces have fueled her success and motivated her to become
While a 2019 American Bar Association survey noted that only 36 first in her class.
percent of lawyers are female, women represent more than 50 percent “I would never know what was waiting behind the door if I did not
of the Law Center’s student population. More than 36 percent of have the courage to knock,” Huynh said. “I knocked, and the Law
the Law Center’s students are underrepresented minorities. In Center answered with a very generous scholarship for me.”
acknowledging these successes, Baynes encouraged attendees to
think about diversity in terms of leadership and preparing the next Additional speakers included Law Center alumni Reginald Garrett
generation of leaders to promote diversity, equity and inclusion. ’05 and Barbara Quackenbush ’75, who described the impact of giving
Law Center students identified the diverse student body, low cost and and receiving scholarships have had on their lives.
financial support as influential to their enrollment at the Law Center For additional information on supporting DEI Initiatives at the Law
instead of other law schools from across the country. They noted Center, please contact the Office of Development. ^

UH LAW CENTER PROFESSOR MICHAELS AMONG TEAM THAT
SECURED GRANT FOR PUBLIC POLICY ALGORITHM PROJECT

aw Center Assistant Professor government and the legal community and industry. Funding began
LAndrew C. Michaels was one October 1.
of four University of Houston In addition to Michaels, CRASA is being developed by principal
scholars who secured a $749,857 investigator Ryan Kennedy, a UH political science professor who
grant from the National Science specializes in computational social science and democracy, and co-
Foundation for a Designing principal investigators Ioannis A. Kakadiaris, a UH computer science
Accountable Software Systems professor whose expertise is in biometrics and pattern recognition,
funding opportunity. The grant, and Lydia Tiede, a UH political science professor whose focus is
distributed over three years, judicial politics and legal reform.
supports a project that aims
to create an accountability At the Law Center, Michaels specializes in intellectual property and
benchmark and software scoring statutory regulation.
Andrew C. Michaels has toolkit for public policy algorithms. “The work is important because the use of algorithms in law and
served as an Assistant Named the Community public policy has expanded dramatically in recent decades,” said
Professor of Law at the Responsive Algorithms for Social Michaels, who became interested in the topic partly due to his history
University of Houston Accountability, or CRASA, the working as a software engineer for a medical records company before
Law Center since 2018. project seeks to establish a model law school.
for accountability that can be The project comes at a pivotal time, as the use of algorithms in
applied across a comprehensive public policy only continues to expand. Algorithms play a key role in
range of public policy algorithms. It will be conducted through a informing policymakers when it comes to criminal justice decisions,
community-based participatory research program focusing on Harris public resources allocation, public education decisions and in some
County, Texas, and will incorporate input from stakeholders in local instances, national defense strategy. ^

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