{"id":65,"date":"2013-03-05T12:30:43","date_gmt":"2013-03-05T17:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/?page_id=65"},"modified":"2016-07-06T10:07:22","modified_gmt":"2016-07-06T14:07:22","slug":"joanne-epps-73","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2013\/features\/joanne-epps-73\/","title":{"rendered":"JoAnne Epps ’73"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dean of Temple University\u2019s Beasley School of Law<\/strong>
\nBy Rhea Hirshman<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo by Bob Handelman<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cGet a passport,\u201d said the dean of Temple University\u2019s Beasley School of Law to JoAnne Epps \u201973 when Epps was the school\u2019s associate dean for academic affairs. \u201cI\u2019m taking you to China.\u201d<\/p>\n

That 1999 trip, Epps\u2019s first overseas, was the beginning of a series of travels and explorations that has taken her all over the globe to teach law, monitor international legal proceedings, and see how the law intersects with the cultures in which it is practiced. By 2008, when she assumed the deanship of the law school, Epps had helped train Sudanese lawyers representing victims of the Darfur crisis, taught jury trial advocacy to over 20,000 members of the Japanese Bar Association, joined other international law faculty in teaching advocacy skills to prosecutors at the United Nation\u2019s ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) in Tanzania, and taught courses in advocacy to Chinese lawyers enrolled in Temple\u2019s \u201crule of law\u201d graduate program and to lawyers from the Beijing Supreme People\u2019s Procuratorate (the Chinese prosecutor\u2019s office).<\/p>\n

Trinity\u2014the importance of institutions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Epps\u2019s route to the Temple law faculty and her foreign travels, and ultimately to the law school deanship, began in suburban Philadelphia, then took her to Trinity, Yale Law School, and positions as deputy city attorney for the City of Los Angeles and assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were lower middle class,\u201d she says of her growing-up years, \u201cnever hungry and always loved, but we never took a vacation. Neither of my parents went to college \u2014 there was only one college graduate in the family. My mother always told me the story of wanting be a doctor, but having her high school counselor literally laugh at the idea of a black girl\u2019s going to medical school. So she encouraged me to dream big.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Epps knew that college was in her future, she didn\u2019t know that the school might be Trinity until she got a call from a Trinity student who had graduated from her high school, but whom she hardly knew. \u201cFor whatever reason,\u201d she says, \u201che had decided that I was just the sort of young woman who should be in Trinity\u2019s first co-educational class, and he offered to bring me up to visit the school on his way back there from spring break.\u201d<\/p>\n

Epps liked what she saw during that visit and, the following fall, she was a Trinity freshman. It was her first time away from her family, and it was a time of turmoil on the Trinity campus. \u201cWhen I got there,\u201d she says, \u201cI saw big signs saying \u2018co-eds go home.\u2019 My dad told me that he would come to rescue me any time. But I stayed and survived and flourished. That time is among my fondest memories. I was deeply influenced by my years at Trinity, learning to figure out who I wanted to be. Trinity showed me the importance of institutions in shaping people.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Yale Law School, and before coming to teach at Temple, Epps spent four years as a deputy city attorney for the City of Los Angeles and then another five as assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. \u201cI loved legal practice,\u201d she says. \u201cBeing a trial lawyer combines intense attention to detail with creativity. In one sense, it\u2019s all about you because your personality is in it\u2014no two people will try a case exactly the same. But what\u2019s most important is that law is a service profession\u2014you are always serving your client. That\u2019s been the guiding principle of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JoAnne<\/a>

Photo by Bob Handelman<\/p><\/div>\n

To make changes in the world<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, Epps serves an institution whose mission is to train the next generation of legal professionals. Although she says that she had never seen herself as an academic, her legal practice often included teaching others, and encouragement from peers led her to think about a career in legal education. In 1985 she began her academic career at Temple, teaching courses in criminal law, criminal procedure, evidence, and trial advocacy. She still offers a class in litigation basics to first-year students every fall. \u201cIt\u2019s important for me to get to know our students,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I believe that leaders of institutions should know what the people around them are thinking and doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under her leadership, in turn, Temple serves both its students and the larger community. Epps notes that while part of her job is being a CEO\u2014running an enterprise with a $40 million budget\u2014her priority is delivering a high-quality education and \u201cmaximizing the opportunities for greatness\u201d for the school\u2019s students and faculty.<\/p>\n

At the same time, she says, \u201cThis institution should be centered in what is happening in the larger world.\u201d She notes that the school is deeply involved in a number of initiatives focusing on the city of Philadelphia, including launching a Center for Social Justice. The center will partner with the city\u2019s public-interest entities to pursue legal and policy responses to a range of social justice concerns. \u201cMy vision for everything we do at Temple,\u201d she says, \u201cis based on both \u2018how will this help our students?\u2019 and \u2018how will this make an impact beyond our walls?\u2019\u201d Epps has been deeply involved in social justice issues throughout her professional life, starting with her Yale Law School days, when she was a national officer in the Black Law Students\u2019 Association, and continuing to the present with her work in helping some of the world\u2019s most war-torn regions to embrace the rule of law.<\/p>\n

In her community, Epps\u2019s activities have included chairing the Mayor\u2019s Task Force on Police Discipline, serving as an outside monitor of Philadelphia\u2019s compliance with a settlement over stop-and-frisk procedures, and service as a member of panels that included the Pennsylvania Commission for Justice Initiatives, the Pennsylvania Women\u2019s Forum, the Advisory Council for the Pennsylvania Prison Society, and the Pro Bono Task Force of The Legal Services Corporation. \u201cI\u2019ve always looked to be involved with organizations whose beneficiaries may need others to help speak for them,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Epps is the author or co-author of numerous academic publications, focusing particularly on evidence, procedure, and advocacy. She is in demand as a speaker locally and nationally, including having testified at the Senate hearings on the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to be associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. She has received dozens of honors, including being named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania, being cited as one of the most 100 influential black lawyers in the U.S., receiving the Sandra Day O\u2019Connor Award from the Philadelphia Bar Association, and receiving the Wiley Branton Award from the National Bar Association for \u201cdemonstrating leadership on the cutting edge of law for civil, social and economic justice.\u201d Trinity honored her with the Alumni Service Award in 1998 and recognition in 2009 for career achievements in law.<\/p>\n

With all her accomplishments, Epps refers to herself as \u201ca pretty ordinary servant\u201d who is keenly aware both of progress made and work still to be done. \u201cI\u2019ve achieved more than I could ever have dreamed of, and met wonderful people, some famous, many not,\u201d
\nshe says. \u201cI have been blessed beyond measure to be in a profession I love, to help make changes in the world, and to work with those launching their own careers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Temple University not only enjoys the leadership of JoAnne Epps \u201973 at the helm of its law school, but now it has chosen another Trinity alumnus as its president, Neil D. Theobald \u201978. Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dean of Temple University\u2019s Beasley School of Law By Rhea Hirshman \u201cGet a passport,\u201d said the dean of Temple University\u2019s Beasley School of Law to JoAnne Epps \u201973 when Epps was the school\u2019s associate dean for academic affairs. \u201cI\u2019m taking … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"parent":7,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":457,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65\/revisions\/457"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-winter2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}