Sherrilyn Ifill | |
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President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund | |
In office 2012–2022 | |
Preceded by | John Payton |
Succeeded by | Janai Nelson |
Personal details | |
Born | December 17, 1962 New York City, New York, U.S. |
Relatives | Gwen Ifill (cousin) |
Education | Vassar College (BA) New York University (JD) |
Sherrilyn Ifill (born December 17, 1962) is an American lawyer and the Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Esq. Endowed Chair in Civil Rights at Howard University. She is a law professor and former president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.[1] She was the Legal Defense Fund's seventh president since Thurgood Marshall founded the organization in 1940. Ifill is a nationally recognized expert on voting rights and judicial selection.[2] In 2021, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world on its annual Time 100 list.