2026 Awards: Celebrating Clinical Excellence

Congratulations to this year’s honorees, recognized by CLEA and the AALS Sections on Clinical Legal Education and Externships.

AALS Externship Section Career Achievement Award

• Avis Sanders American
• Beth Schwartz Fordham
• Cynthia (Cindy) Wilson Northwestern
• Daisy Floyd Mercer
• Jodi Balsam Brooklyn
• Judge John C. Cratsley Harvard
• Leah Wortham Columbus
• Margaret (Meg) Reuter Missouri – Kansas City
• Marjorie Silver Touro
• Nancy Maurer Albany
• Robert (Bob) Jones, Jr. Notre Dame
• Susan Brooks Drexel
• Elizabeth (Liz) Solar Baltimore
• Timothy Floyd Mercer

From the Awards Committee

Awards Committee Co-ChairsDena Bauman
UtahGautam Hans
Cornell

The Awards Committee has awarded the CLEA Outstanding Advocate for Clinical Teachers Award to Julie Dahlstrom and the Excellence in a Public Interest Case or Project Award to George Washington University Law School’s Health Justice Policy & Advocacy Clinic.

Outstanding Advocate Award

Julie Dahlstrom (BU) will receive this year’s Outstanding Advocate for Clinical Teachers Award.

A years-long leader in the field of experiential legal education, Professor Dahlstrom directs the Immigrants’ Rights and Human Trafficking Program at Boston University (BU) School of Law, where she serves as Associate Dean of Clinical & Experiential Education. In addition to her impressive body of clinical work and scholarship, Professor Dahlstrom has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the field—nationally, regionally, and at BU. She has regularly served on AALS, CLEA, and clinical conference committees and is currently Secretary and Co-Chair Elect of the AALS Clinical Section Executive Committee. Professor Dahlstrom has also been a leader in the New England legal community, serving on prominent government and public interest boards and commissions. At BU law, Professor Dahlstrom’s clinical colleagues credit her with adding tremendous pedagogical depth and breadth to the clinical program through her development of innovative curricula, expansion of the program’s pedagogical training opportunities for clinical teachers, and unparalleled mentorship of new faculty. She has also been a fierce advocate for clinical teachers and was instrumental in drafting and securing passage of new promotion and reappointment guidelines with greater protections for BU experiential faculty.

We are excited to celebrate Professor Dahlstrom in Portland and grateful to the clinical faculty who nominated her. Congratulations, Professor Dahlstrom!

Excellence in a Case or Project

George Washington University Law School’s Health Justice Policy & Advocacy Clinic will receive this year’s Award for Excellence in a Public Interest Case or Project for its “patients to policy” advocacy.

Between Fall 2024 and Spring 2026, the Clinic’s students—led by Professor Emily Benfer—engaged in creative, highly effective, and multipronged advocacy work that ultimately: (1) prevented the eviction of an individual client, Ms. S, and her family, who would be unhoused today but for the students’ representation; (2) defeated a quickly moving and well-supported federal bill aimed at widespread and expedited eviction of federally assisted housing tenants; and (3) spearheaded a comment campaign to halt a 2026 federal Interim Final Rule rescinding the rights of tenants nationwide.

The Clinic’s “patients to policy” work to protect low-income tenants serves as an inspiring model for engaging students in complex and fast-paced problem-solving. The impact of the Clinic’s work—on Ms. S’s family and on students alike—has been profound, as students noted:

“The Health Justice Policy Advocacy Clinic gave this family a voice. It gave them hope. It gave them support. It gave them access to representation that local nonprofits could not provide because of the limitations of their grants. The Health Justice Policy Advocacy Clinic gave me a chance. It gave me knowledge. It gave me mentorship. It gave me the ability to consider how policy and community organizing influences how I can represent clients at the individual level.”

“On a personal level, this clinic helped me grow into the lawyer I want to be. At the start of the semester, I struggled with imposter syndrome and was unsure whether I could meaningfully contribute to a fight of this magnitude. What Professor Benfer and this clinic gave me was the space to learn, take initiative, make mistakes, and grow…I showed up every day as my full, genuine self, and this clinic rewarded that authenticity with trust, responsibility, and impact.”

CLEA is delighted to honor this project and congratulates Professor Benfer and her students.

Honorable Mention

We also acknowledge the honorable mention for this award: the University of Denver Immigration Law and Policy Clinic’s victory in the case of Jeanette Vizguerra v. Choate. Led by Professor Elizabeth Jordan, two generations of the Clinic’s student attorneys successfully secured the release of Jeanette Vizguerra—a longtime, nationally prominent immigration activist—from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody through sustained, multifaceted, and novel habeas corpus litigation in the United States District Court of the District of Colorado.

Congratulations to Professor Jordan and her students.

We look forward to celebrating the groundbreaking work of our colleagues and their students at the AALS Clinical Conference in a couple of weeks!