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.
Deb Ellis, Assistant Dean for Public Service
Ellis directs the Root-Tilden-Kern Public Service Scholarships, the Public Interest Law Center (PILC), and oversees the Judicial Clerkship Office. She graduated from NYU School of Law in 1982, where she was a Root-Tilden Scholar, and from Yale College in 1978. After law school, she clerked for Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr., of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in Montgomery, Alabama. Prior to heading PILC, Ellis had a varied public interest career, including service as Legal Director of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, where in 1992 she argued Bray v. Alexandria Women’s Health Clinic before the U.S. Supreme Court. She also served as Legal Director of the ACLU of New Jersey, and as a Staff Attorney at the ACLU Women’s Rights Project and at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Ellis has extensive teaching experience, including two years as an Acting Assistant Professor in NYU’s Lawyering Program, and as an Adjunct Professor at NYU School of Law, Rutgers Law School, and Yale College. She has spoken and published widely on women’s rights and public interest legal careers.