Program Directors
Margaret Satterthwaite, Faculty Director
Satterthwaite graduated from NYU School of Law in 1999, where she was a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar. She is a Faculty Director of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at NYU School of Law, Associate Professor of Clinical Law, and co-director of the International Human Rights Clinic. Her scholarship focuses on human rights and counter-terrorism, economic and social rights, and the rights of migrants. Satterthwaite joined the NYU faculty in 2006 after many years in the human rights field. Her human rights career began before law school: between 1990 and 1996, she co-founded and then directed Amnesty International USA's program on the human rights of those persecuted on the basis of their sexual orientation. After receiving her law degree, Satterthwaite clerked for Judge Betty Fletcher of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The following year she was the Furman Fellow at the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (Human Rights First). In 2002, Satterthwaite clerked at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Between 2002 and 2003, Satterthwaite was a human rights consultant with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). In 2003, she was hired as Research Director of NYU's Center for Human Rights and Global Justice. She has served on the Board of Directors of Amnesty International USA, worked as an investigator for the Truth and Justice Commission in Haiti, and conducted human rights work in countries such as Nigeria, Northern Ireland, and Yemen.
Denise Tomasini-Joshi, Executive Director
Denise is the Assistant Dean of the Public Interest Law Center and the executive director of the Root-Tilden-Kern Scholarship Program. Prior to leading PILC, she served as Legal Officer with the Open Society Justice Initiative, where she lead efforts to implement alternatives to pretrial detention. She helped implement the first pretrial services program in Latin America, located in Morelos, Mexico. Her role at Open Society Justice Initiative involved forging partnerships across a wide and complex range of justice professionals while developing and executing strategic plans, training programs, and collaboration protocols among multiple government agencies. She worked closely with NGOs and governments in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Kenya, Malawi, Mexico, Peru, Russia, and Ukraine. Denise also served as a senior policy analyst with the Council of State Governments’ Criminal Justice and Mental Health Consensus Project, where she developed and implemented protocols for collaboration among criminal justice and mental health agencies and presented at conferences nationwide. Denise has spoken and published widely on issues of mental health and criminal justice. Denise began her legal career as an attorney at the Columbia University/Goddard Riverside Tenant Assistance Project and at MFY Legal Services. Denise is a graduate of Purdue University, Columbia Law School and Columbia School of International and Public Affairs. She is originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico.