St. John’s Law Dean Jelani Jefferson Exum

Dean Jelani Jefferson Exum has been busy with the following activities:

• She chaired the 2025 AALS Workshop for Pretenured Law School Teachers of Color at the 2025 AALS Annual Meeting in San Francisco. The workshop brought together diverse panels of experienced and successful law professors to discuss their journeys as teachers and legal scholars and offer ways to successfully meet challenges as they arise in the context of scholarship, teaching, service, and the tenure process.
• She participated in the United States Sentencing Commission Drug Sentencing Roundtable discussion. The Commission invited several sentencing experts to discuss possible revisions to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines related to drug offenses.
• She was appointed by Chief Judge Rowan D. Wilson to be a member of the New York State Justice Task Force. The Task Force proposes recommendations for changes to the criminal justice system with the goal of improving its fairness and effectiveness for all New Yorkers, including preventing wrongful convictions.
• She joined the Neighborhood Defender Service (NDS) Board of Trustees and was also elected to serve as Board Secretary. NDS is known nationally and internationally for its innovative, community-based, holistic public defense practice.