Miranda Johnson

Miranda Johnson is a clinical professor of law and the director of the Education Law and Policy Institute. She oversees the law school’s curriculum, events, research, and programs related to education law and teaches doctrinal and experiential learning courses in education law and child and family law. She also leads a team of attorneys and law students who provide legal information and representation in school discipline, special education, and school bullying matters.

Professor Johnson’s expertise and analysis on education law and policy issues has been featured in various media, including WBEZ (Chicago’s NPR affiliate), Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and The Hill. Her areas of research and scholarship include school discipline and school policing reform and race and disability equity. She has presented at national and local conferences and trainings on topics related to education law, school discipline, restorative justice, and law teaching.

Professor Johnson previously served as a law clerk to the Honorable Allyne R. Ross, United States District Judge, in the Eastern District of New York. She then worked as a staff attorney at Advocates for Children of New York (AFC), an organization promoting access to quality educational services for New York City schoolchildren. At AFC, she represented parents of students with disabilities in administrative proceedings to obtain appropriate educational services. She also represented parents and students in federal class action lawsuits to remedy systemic legal violations with respect to education in New York City.

Prior to law school, Professor Johnson was a Fulbright Scholar in Tanzania, where she conducted research related to gender, democratization and development. She also taught social studies at an innovative residential high school serving students who had not succeeded in traditional settings.

Professor Johnson completed a joint law and policy degree program, obtaining a JD, magna cum laude, from New York University School of Law and a Master in Public Affairs from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. At NYU, she was a Root-Tilden-Kern Public Interest Scholar and a Notes Editor for the NYU Journal of International Law and Politics.

When she graduated from NYU, she received the Butler Memorial Award for unusual distinction in scholarship, character, and professional activities. In 2002, Dartmouth College honored her with the Martin Luther King Jr. Social Justice Award for alumni.