Susan Sturm is the George M. Jaffin Professor of Law and Social Responsibility, the founding director of the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia Law School, and the co-director of the Legal Literacy at Work Initiative. Her work focuses on building the capacity of people and institutions to reduce discrimination, confront racism, transform the justice system, and move toward full participation in educational, legal, and cultural institutions.
Along with numerous scholarly articles, Professor Sturm is the author, with Lani Guinier, of Who’s Qualified: A New Democracy Forum on the Future of Affirmative Action. Her newest book, entitled What Might Be: Confronting Racism to Transform Our Institutions, was published in February 2025 by Princeton University Press.
Professor Sturm collaborates with higher education, legal, artistic, government, criminal justice, and community-based organizations and networks involved in organizational and cultural change. She has been the principal investigator on a grant from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to address race and bias in the Massachusetts Trial Courts, the co-principal investigator in culture change projects with Harvard Business School and the Yale Law Journal, the co-principal investigator for a Ford Foundation grant, in collaboration with Hostos Community College and Bronx Community College, on Building Corridors to College in the South Bronx, a Principal Investigator on a Ford Foundation grant on Building Learning Communities at the Intersection of Education and Criminal Justice, the chair of a Ford Foundation project on Transformational Leadership, and an Aspen Ascend Grant to develop a multi-generational approach to education for communities affected by criminal justice involvement. She has facilitated dialogues about full participation, race, and identity in workshops for the American Association of Law Schools, Imagining America, in law schools across the country, and as part of the Aspen Institute Socrates Program.
Professor Sturm is the author of numerous published reports documenting the transformative role of people who have experienced incarceration, including Leading With Conviction: The Role of Formerly Incarcerated Leaders in Reducing Mass Incarceration and Home Grown Social Capital: How Higher Education for Formerly Incarcerated Women Facilities Family and Community Transformation.
Professor Sturm is the co-designer of courses and workshops on Lawyering for Change, Lawyer Leadership: Leading Self, Leading Others, Leading Change, and Access to Justice for People in Prison. She is the architect and creator of the Centering Change Skills Hub, an online platform aimed at cultivating leadership and building the capacity to address race in law schools, court systems, and communities. She has served as the Vice President and Director of Policy for the Tony award-winning Broadway Advocacy Coalition, and is the co-creator and instructor, with BAC, of Theater of Change: Reimagining Justice, a highly acclaimed course offered at Columbia Law School. Professor Sturm is an inaugural Provost Senior Faculty Teaching Scholar and the recipient of the Presidential Teaching Award for Outstanding Teaching at Columbia University and the College Partner Award from College Initiative and Hudson Link.