Savala Nolan

Savala Nolan

Executive Director, Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice, Berkeley Law
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Savala Nolan joined the Henderson Center in January 2016, where she leads over 50 lectures, symposia, teach-ins, and skills-building workshops a year for law students, scholars, and activists. She spearheaded the creation of a Race and Law concentration, successfully endowed a new racial justice fellowship, and works closely with affinity groups and law journals to prepare students for a thriving social justice practice.

Nolan is the author of Don’t Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender and the Body. She and her writing have been featured in The New York Times Book Review, Vogue, Harper’s Magazine, Time, NPR, Forbes, and more. She is a regular keynote speaker and panelist on social justice issues including implicit bias, structural racism, understanding Whiteness, and the importance of social justice work for all lawyers.

In addition to leading the Henderson Center, Nolan is a member of the Equity and Inclusion Committee. She previously served as an equity advisor to Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

Prior to joining the Henderson Center, served as a law clerk in the Obama Administration’s Office of White House Counsel, where she prepared research memoranda on constitutional matters. Before law school, Nolan worked at the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy.