April 20, 2022 | Jeanne Leblanc - School of Law

Crawford Black Bar Association to Honor Dean Eboni S. Nelson

UConn Law Dean Eboni S. Nelson will receive the George W. Crawford Black Bar Association's Visionary Award on May 18.

UConn School of Law Dean Eboni S. Nelson

UConn School of Law Dean Eboni S. Nelson (UConn Photo).

The George W. Crawford Black Bar Association will honor UConn Law Dean Eboni S. Nelson with its 2022 Visionary Award at its annual dinner on May 18.

Nelson has overseen several new initiatives at the UConn School of Law since she took office in July 2020. Under her leadership, the law school has established an LLM program in Governance, Risk Management and Compliance; founded the Center on Community Safety, Policing and Inequality; and embarked on a comprehensive strategic planning process.

The Hartford Business Journal named Nelson to its 2022 Power 50 list of area leaders and the Connecticut Bar Foundation appointed her a 2022 James W. Cooper Fellow. In 2021, she was recognized as one of the 100 Most Influential Blacks in Connecticut by the state conference of the NAACP.

Before coming to UConn, Nelson served as associate dean for academic affairs at the University of South Carolina School of Law, where she taught for 13 years and received the Best Classroom Teacher and Outstanding Faculty Service awards. She is a graduate of Wake Forest University and Harvard Law School.

Nelson’s civic contributions include previously serving as chair of the South Carolina Commission on Consumer Affairs and vice chair of the South Carolina State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. She has also been a member of the Law School Admission Council Finance and Legal Affairs Committee and its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, as well as the American Bar Association Sabbatical Review Site Team. She is a member of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Hartford Board of Trustees and the Lawyers Collaborative for Diversity Board of Directors.

The George W. Crawford Black Bar Association dinner will be held at 6 p.m. on May 18 at the Hartford Marriott. The association will also present its Trailblazer Award to Professor Deborah N. Archer, who serves as co-faculty director of the Center on Race, Inequality and the Law at the New York University School of Law and president of the American Civil Liberties Union. Tickets are available until May 10.

The George W. Crawford Black Bar Association is a volunteer statewide organization that has represented Black attorneys in Connecticut since 1977.