Jennifer Rosen Valverde, Esq., M.S.W., is a Distinguished Clinical Professor of Law in the Education and Health Law Clinic (EHLC) at Rutgers Law School, and holds a secondary appointment as Professor in the Rutgers School of Public Health. Professor Valverde co-teaches a course on Special Education Law, and supervises graduate students in law, social work, public health and, at times, medicine, in the EHLC as they collaborate with each other, with families, and with the Greater Newark community to address the non-medical causes of poor health and well-being, i.e. social determinants of health. Professor Valverde and her students provide assistance to children with disabilities and their families in the areas of special education, public benefits, and more, through multi-tiered interventions following a preventive law approach. The assistance and advocacy take many forms, including social work case management services; legal advice and consultation; direct legal representation in meetings with school districts and state agencies, mediation, the N.J. Office of Administrative Law, and the federal court system; and policy advocacy at the local and state levels.
Professor Valverde has published numerous articles on special education law, cross-systems educational advocacy, social determinants of health, and interprofessional collaboration. She frequently provides training to attorneys, state agency staff, medical and health professionals, and social service organizations, and presents at local and national conferences on these and related topics. Before joining Rutgers in 2001, she represented children at the Cook County Office of the Public Guardian and the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc. Professor Valverde received her B.A. in sociology from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and is a magna cum laude graduate of the Loyola University–Chicago Schools of Law and Social Work.