Leadership Through Giving
Paying a debt of gratitude
Clinical Professor Sue Tomkins '92 with Jasmine Liverpool ’14, who this summer worked in the Domestic Violence Unit of the Kings County District Attorney’s Office in her native Brooklyn.
Alumni who worked in the Law School’s Women, Children, and Social Justice Clinic as students tend to be fiercely loyal to the clinic and its faculty. Now, with an ambitious fund-raising goal, organizers are hoping that their enthusiasm is catching.
A goal of $100,000 was announced when the two awards were established late last year. That amount will endow an annual award of $3,000 as the Suzanne E. Tomkins Women, Children and Social Justice Fellowship, and $1,000 annually for a student receiving the Catherine Cerulli Women, Children and Social Justice Research Award.
The awards recognize the work of Tomkins, who co-directs the Program for Excellence in Family Law and co-founded the clinic in 1992; and Cerulli, who now directs the Susan B. Anthony Center for Women’s Leadership at the University of Rochester.
The Tomkins fellowship will fund a law student to work on a specialized project that will promote the mission of the clinic, provide education and training to the student and provide a service to people in need. The Cerulli award will assist a student in conducting research on family violence issues.
Paige Rizzo Mecca ’99, co-chair of the fund-raising committee with her classmate Mia McFarlane Markello ’99, says she was moved by the testimony of Jasmine Liverpool, the first recipient of the Tomkins fellowship. Liverpool, who spoke at a recent fundraising event in Professor Sue Mangold's home, worked this summer in the domestic violence bureau of the King’s County district attorney’s office. “What Jasmine said struck a chord with me,” Mecca says. “She never knew if she could do this kind of work until she had this placement. Then, she said, ‘I realized I am a lot stronger than I thought I was.’ I think it has a lifelong impact that Sue has been able to create such passion in her students for this kind of work.”
“The clinic affects so many people,” Markello adds, “whether you’re learning to become an attorney who’s representing victims, or work in an agency, or go on to become a judge. This work changes your perception of domestic violence and the issues of power and control that it involves.”
The fund-raising committee also includes Erin Barclay ’98, Jen DeCarli ’98, Sheila Sullivan Dickinson ’00, Tara M. Flynn ’92 and Bridget O’Connell ’98.
Donors may find further inspiration in an upcoming transition: Tomkins has announced her retirement from the Law School at the end of this academic year.
Dr. Catherine (Kate) Cerulli '92, co-founder of the Women, Children, and Social Justice Clinic, with Amy Schwartz and Leticia Astacio, at a wine and cheese fundraising event on Oct. 4. Hosted by the Greater Rochester Association for Women Attorneys, the event was to benefit the Catherine Cerulli Women, Children and Social Justice Research Award.