Wright Assumes LRE Director's Post
Article Date: Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Written By: Russell Rawlings
Diane Wright |
The North Carolina Bar Association Foundation, in conjunction with the ongoing implementation of its new strategic plan, announces the appointment of Diane Wright as its first director of law-related education.
As the job title implies, the NCBA Foundation will maintain its Lawyers in the Schools program while adding layers of law-related education targeting all areas and age groups of the general public.
Additionally, the Lawyers in the Schools Committee, co-chaired by Kendra Dockery Hill of the N.C. School Board Association and Raleigh attorney Leanor Hodge, will now be known as the Law-Related Education Advisory Committee.
“Momentum 2010 called for the NCBA to hire a full-time, law-related educator tasked with the responsibility for general oversight coordination, implementation and assistance of all of the association’s public education initiatives,” said NCBA President Clark Smith while citing the strategic plan.
“This will help increase public understanding of the law and ensure consistent and successful operation of the various programs within our bar association that seek to educate the public.”
A Durham resident who has devoted the last 10 years of her career to secondary education, Wright holds a bachelor’s degree in historical studies from Richard Stockton College. A 1995 high honors graduate, she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.
Wright earned her master’s degree in American history/European enlightenment in 2003 from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, where she received the James Madison Fellowship.
Following teaching assignments in Vineland, N.J., and Greensboro, Wright has served in the Durham Public Schools since 2000. She comes to the NCBA from Riverside High School, where she and her students have worked closely with the law schools of North Carolina Central University and Duke University.
Wright was a Fellow in the inaugural Justice Teaching Institute, held in October 2005 at the N.C. Bar Center.
“I am extremely pleased to announce the appointment of Diane Wright as our first director of law-related education,” said NCBA Executive Director Allan Head. “Building on the success of our Lawyers in the Schools Committee and its stated commitment to ‘people, programs and publications,’ we are looking forward to great things in the area of law-related education.”
For the first time since its inception in 1998, the NCBA Foundation’s law-related education department will consist of two full-time staff members. In addition to the newly established project director’s position, JoAnn Petilli will continue in her role as an assistant to the director and coordinator of various law-related education initiatives.
Among her numerous contributions, Petilli coordinated the highly successful Justice Teaching Institute. The JTI involved 20 North Carolina public high school social studies teachers who undertook an intensive two-and-one-half day study of the state’s judicial system during which attorneys, judges, law school professors and court administrators served as faculty.
The JTI was underwritten by the NCBA Foundation Endowment.