Lia Epperson

Career After graduating from Stanford Law School, Epperson worked as a law clerk for Timothy K. Lewis of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. In 1991, Epperson began working as an associate at Morrison & Foerster in Palo Alto, California. Epperson litigated commercial and civil rights.

Epperson began her career in academics in 2005, serving as an associate professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, where she taught constitutional law until 2010. While at Santa Clara, Epperson served on the Board Nominating Committee of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and the Justice Fund Honorary Committee of the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center. In addition, Epperson served as senior associate dean of faculty and academic affairs at the school. Epperson received the school's Excellence in Teaching Award in February 2022.

On several occasions, Epperson has been a panelist and correspondent on C-SPAN, discussing the Supreme Court case Ricci v. DeStefano as well as public school integration.

As of January 2025, Epperson was a member-at-large, representing Washington, D.C., for the national board of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Publications Books Racial Discrimination in Education The Child: An Encyclopedic Companion (Richard A. Shweder ed., U. Chi. Press 2009). The Rehnquist Court, the Resurrection of Plessy and the Elusive Definition of “Societal Discrimination" Awakening From the Dream: Pursuing Civil Rights in a Conservative Era (Denise C. Morgan et al. eds, Carolina Acad. Press 2006). Biography of Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander African American Lives (Henry Louis Gates & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham eds., Oxford U. Press 2004).

Articles Resisting Retreat: A Trench-Level View of the Struggle for Equity in Educational Opportunity in the Post-Brown Era, 66 U. Pitt. L. Rev. 131 (2005). True Integration: Advancing Brown's Goal of Educational Equity in the Wake of Grutter, 67 U. Pitt. L. Rev. 175 (2005-2006). Undercover Power: Examining the Role of the Executive Branch in Determining the Meaning and Scope of School Integration Jurisprudence, 10 Berkeley J. Afr.-Am. L. & Pol'y 146 (2008). Equality Dissonance, 7 Stan. J. Civ. Rights & Civ. Liberties 101 (2011). New Legal Perspectives: Implications for Diversity in the Post-Grutter Era Diversity in American Higher Education: Toward a More Comprehensive Approach (Lisa M. Stulberg & Sharon L. Weinberg, eds., Routledge Press 2011). Legislating Inclusion, 6 Harv. L. & Pol. Rev. 801 (2012). Bringing the Market to Students? School Choice and Vocational Education in the 21st Century, 87 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1861 (2012). The Promise and Pitfalls of Empiricism in Educational Equality Jurisprudence, 48 Wake Forest. L. Rev. 101 (forthcoming 2013). Brown's Dream Deferred: Lessons on Democracy and Identity from Cooper v. Aaron to the School-to-Prison Pipeline, 49 Wake Forest L. Rev. 687 (2014). Beware the Unintended Consequences: Government Transparency, Racial Data Collection, and Minority Rights in the United States and Abroad, Revue Internationale des Gouvernements Ouverts (2016).

Briefs Brief for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. and the American Civil Liberties Union as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondents, Grutter v. Bollinger, 5 Rutgers Race & L. Rev. 149 (2003).

Personal life

Epperson married Benjamin Jealous, the former president and chief executive officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), in July 2002. Epperson and Jealous met in 1993, when Epperson replaced Jealous as the intern at the New York national office of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The couple divorced in 2015. Epperson and Jealous remain amicable, and co-parent their two children. Epperson is the sister of CNBC correspondent Sharon Epperson.

Honors and awards In 2013, she was the Honorary Chair for the Women in NAACP program at the NAACP National Convention.