Fellowship PLEDGE

Building on the great success of last year’s program, the Professionals in Legal Education Developing Greater Equity (PLEDGE) Initiative relaunched for 2023-24. The Initiative, created through a partnership between AccessLex Institute and the Southern Education Foundation, is an effort to increase knowledge and skills related to using empirical research methods to design, administer, and assess student success programs. This year’s iteration consisted of the PLEDGE Bootcamp and the PLEDGE Fellowship

The PLEDGE Bootcamp, a two-day, in-person training session focused on building knowledge and skills related to conducting and interpreting high-quality empirical research, was held in April at American University Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C.

The PLEDGE Fellowship is a 14-month professional development program in which three teams of two Fellows will complete a Capstone or empirical assessment of a law studentfacing initiative, while focusing on admission and access, academic performance, or bar exam performance. Fellowship teams receive funding and support premised on enhancing the feasibility and quality of their work.

2023-24 PLEDGE Fellows:

Indiana University Maurer School of Law

• Aviva Orenstein

• Katherine A. Beck

Saint Louis University School of Law

• Belinda Dantley

• Jean Pierre Bonnet-Laboy

Wayne State University Law School

• Michelle D. Taylor

• Tierney Eaton Hoffman