Part-time Student to Receive National Leadership Award

Rutgers Law part-time student Jibri Douglas will receive the 2024 National LGBTQ+ Bar Student Leadership Award next month. The award is the National LGBTQ+ Bar’s highest honor for law students. The two law students selected annually have demonstrated leadership within their school and in the surrounding community, especially in the area of LGBTQ+ equality. Jibri (they/them) is a transmasculine, non-binary law student from Newark, New Jersey. They are a rising 4LE evening/part-time at Rutgers Law in Camden.

In 2010, Jibri graduated from the University of Georgia with a bachelor’s degree in Health Promotion and Behavior. In 2017, Jibri graduated with a Master of Public Health degree from Drexel University with a concentration in Health Management and Policy and a certificate in LGBTQ Health. Jibri worked for nearly 15 years in public health, becoming a subject matter expert in public health practice, diversity, equity, and inclusion, eliminating health disparities in healthcare, global health, and HIV/AIDS prevention and education.

Today, Jibri is pursuing a career shift into the legal field. As a law student, they served on the e-board for the Black Law Students Association and the Philadelphia LGBTQ Bar Association. Jibri is also a Distinguished Social Justice Scholar who dedicates their time to pro bono projects ranging from expungements and pardons to transgender name and gender marker changes. Outside of law school, Jibri is a competitive powerlifter in the LGBTQ Powerlifting Union and the International Association of Trans Bodybuilders & Powerlifters and plays softball in the City of Brotherly Love LGBTQ Softball League.

As a practicing attorney, Jibri plans to start their career in big law, gain invaluable commercial litigation experience, and clerk for a US District Court Judge. Then, Jibri hopes to combine their litigation experience and passion for public health to fight against codified disenfranchisement in our legal system for Black and Brown individuals and LGBTQ communities of color as a civil rights trial attorney. Jibri's goal is to become the first Black Trans/Non-Binary US District Court Judge.