Loyola University Chicago

Miranda B. Johnson

Title/s: Associate Director, Education Law and Policy Institute

Office #: Corboy 1126

Phone: 312.915.7952

E-mail: mjohnson11@luc.edu

About

Prior to assuming the position of Associate Director of the Education Law and Policy Institute, Miranda served as the Salisbury Clinical Teaching Fellow in Child and Family Law in Loyola's Civitas ChildLaw Clinic. In that capacity, Miranda supervised law students in the representation of children in child protection and child custody cases and in the representation of parents and students in school discipline and special education cases. She also participated in teaching the Clinic's seminar on child representation, focusing on substantive knowledge, skills development, and ethical concerns in child advocacy.

Before joining Loyola, Miranda worked as a staff attorney at Advocates for Children of New York (AFC), an organization promoting access to quality educational services for New York City school children. At AFC, Miranda represented parents of students with disabilities in administrative proceedings to obtain appropriate educational services. She also represented parents and students in federal class action lawsuits to remedy systemic legal violations with respect to education in New York City.

Miranda completed a joint law and policy degree program, obtaining a JD, magna cum laude, from New York University School of Law and a Master in Public Affairs from Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. At NYU, Miranda received a William and Mary Sterling Scholarship and was part of the Root-Tilden-Kern Scholarship program for public interest students. While in law school and graduate school, she interned with Human Rights Watch and UNICEF and worked with the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI) as part of NYU's International Human Rights Clinic. She also co-led a project for the Kenyan Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the UNICEF-Kenya Country Office to apply a human rights-based framework to primary education.

Upon graduation from law school, Miranda completed a federal court clerkship for the Honorable Allyne R. Ross in the Eastern District of New York.

Prior to law school, Miranda was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to conduct research for one year on small-scale women's income generating groups in Tanzania. She subsequently worked in Tanzania for two additional years as a program officer on gender and development issues. Before working in Tanzania, Miranda taught social studies at a residential high school serving students who had not succeeded in traditional settings.

When she graduated from NYU, Miranda received the Butler Memorial Award for unusual distinction in scholarship, character and professional activities. In 2002, Dartmouth College honored her with the Martin Luther King Jr. Social Justice Award for alumni.

Degrees

A.B., magna cum laude, Dartmouth College, 1997
M.P.A., Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, 2006
J.D., magna cum laude, New York University School of Law, 2006

Professional & Community Affiliations

Member, Education Advisory Committee, Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc. (March 2013 - present)

Member, School Discipline Working Group (February 2012 - present)

Courses Taught

Legal Issues in Student DisciplineSpecial Education Dispute Resolution

Publications

Reviewer and Contributor, Manual for Representing Children at Chicago Public Schools Expulsion Hearings. Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc. (Jan. 2012).

Co-author (with Andrew Egan, et. al), Free To Learn: A Rights Based Approach to Universal Primary Education in Kenya (Feb. 2006), available at http://wws.princeton.edu/research/final_reports/f05wws591i.pdf.

Book Review, European Conquest and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Paul Keal, in New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, Vol. 26: 653, 2004.

Co-author (with Aggripina Mosha), Promoting Women's Access to Politics and Decision-making: The Role of TGNP and Other Advocacy Groups in the 2000 General Elections in Tanzania. Dar es Salaam: TGNP, 2004.

Co-author (with Mary Rusimbi), "Key Strategies and Tools Adopted to Take Forward the Gender Budget Initiative (GBI) in Tanzania" in Gender Budget Analysis in Tanzania 1997-2000. Dar es Salaam: TGNP, 2003.

Co-author (with Deus Kibamba), "Governance and Civil Society Interventions in Land Reform Processes in Tanzania" in Land Research Paper Series. Harare: MWENGO, 2003.

Trainings, Conferences, and Presentations

Presenter, "School Discipline and School-Related Issues in Sentencing" (March 21, 2012). Training for the Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender, Juvenile Justice Division.

Moderator, "Breaking Barriers: Education" (February 24, 2012). Panel presented as part of the 2012 Norman Amaker Public Interest Law and Social Justice Retreat.

Presenter, "Representing Students at Chicago Public Schools Expulsion Hearings" (January 11, 2012). Training for pro bono attorneys organized by the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Moderator, "Special Education and Discipline" (November 2, 2011). Conference entitled "Special Education in Charter Schools: Challenges and Opportunities" presented by the Loyola University Chicago School of Law ChildLaw and Education Institute.

Moderator, "Moving Forward: Illinois Approaches to Legislation, Education and Prevention" (October 29, 2010). Conference entitled "Cyberbullying and Sexting" presented by the Loyola University Chicago School of Law Children's Legal Rights Journal.

Source: Luc