New Director for Law School Initiative

New York – The Center for Reproductive Rights today announced that Diana Hortsch, the former director of New York University School of Law’s Global Public Service Law Project, will direct its recently established Law School Initiative. The Initiative promotes legal scholarship and teaching on reproductive health and human rights in the United States. ,”The Center for Reproductive Rights is pleased to have such a talented individual from the legal community—Diana Hortsch—joining the Law School Initiative,” said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights. , ‘We are confident that she will make a strong contribution towards meeting our goal of shaping a new generation of legal thinking about reproductive health and human rights.”Ms. Hortsch possesses significant experience teaching human rights and developing programs for law students. , Most recently, she performed civil society and human rights-related work for the Ford Foundation. , For several years prior, she directed NYU’s Global Public Service Law Project, an international legal program that included academic, grant-making, and training components. , A former lecturer at NYU Law School, she is now an adjunct professor at the school’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, where she teaches a course on the accountability of human rights organizations. , Ms. Hortsch also earned her J.D. degree from NYU in 1998. ,As director of the Law School Initiative, Ms. Hortsch will promote greater engagement on reproductive rights issues within the legal academy by supporting teaching and scholarship on reproductive health and human rights. , She will also help to fulfill the Initiative’s goal of encouraging dialogue on constitutional protections for reproductive rights and health, emphasizing the use of a human rights framework, among other tasks.”I am thrilled to be leading the Center’s Law School Initiative, and I look forward to helping it grow in coming years,” said Ms. Hortsch. “The Initiative represents human rights advocacy at its most forward-thinking and demonstrates the Center’s commitment to laying the legal groundwork for a more expansive understanding of reproductive rights as human rights.”In May 2008, the Center launched the first of the Initiative’s programs—a joint fellowship program with Columbia Law School for outstanding law school graduates pursuing academic careers in reproductive health and human rights.

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