Clinic Faculty and Staff

Professor Janel George

Professor George’s work and scholarship focus on racial stratification in public education and the role of the law in perpetuating it. She is the founding director of the Racial Equity in Education Law and Policy Clinic (REEL Policy Clinic), which is Georgetown Law’s newest clinic. Professor George’s scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in the Columbia Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, the Fordham Urban Law Journal, and the Clinical Law Review, among others. She has also produced commentary that has been published in Ms., CNN, Education Week, Teen Vogue, and other outlets.

She began her legal career as a Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellow with Georgetown University Law Center. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, where she served as a Managing Editor of the Wisconsin Law Review, and Spelman College. She has served as an adjunct professor with Georgetown Law and Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, as well as a congressional staffer and senior counsel with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. As legislative counsel on Capitol Hill, her portfolio included issues of health care, civil rights, immigration, and education. At LDF, she worked with a large coalition, the Dignity in Schools Campaign, to reform discriminatory school discipline practices. She has co-authored policy reports on Black girls and education, and as a policy advisor at the Learning Policy Institute, on magnet schools and the federal role and school integration.

Amber Koonce

Amber Koonce is an Adjunct Professor of Law and the Senior Director of Legal Research and Development at PolicyLink, where she counsels on legal strategies and policy interventions to promote the full effectuation of the 14th Amendment, an inclusive economy, and representative democracy.  Prior to this role, Amber was Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund where she litigated matters of economic justice, employment, and equal access to education.  In that role, Amber represented Nikole Hannah-Jones in her tenure dispute with UNC; filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court’s UNC affirmative action case; filed a complaint challenging the censorship of Black history and other inclusive topics in South Carolina public schools; and represented a class of Black parents and students seeking the complete desegregation of their school system in Alabama.  Amber also served as Lead Counsel for Community Development Financial Institution advocacy; co-authored Economic Justice guidance for Businesses and Funders, overviewing Title VI, Title VII and Section 1981 compliance in a post-SFFA landscape; and filed an amicus brief defending NASDAQ’s diversity disclosure rule for corporate boards.  Amber has presented to a number of organizations on these matters, including the National Association of Counsel for Children, the Affirmative Action Coalition at UNC-Chapel Hill,  the Black Limited Partners Association, Opportunity Finance Network, Hope Policy Institute, and Open to All, among others.  Amber clerked for the Honorable William A. Fletcher on the Ninth Circuit and graduated from Yale Law School.

Zha’Mari Hurley

Zha’Mari Hurley is the Supervising Attorney and Teaching Fellow in the Racial Equity in Education Law and Policy Clinic. She joins the clinic as a racial justice attorney who has dedicated her career to using law and policy as tools for dismantling systemic racism and protecting fundamental civil rights. Prior to joining the Clinic, Zha’Mari was Counsel at State of the People, where she worked alongside community organizers and advocacy organizations to provide legal guidance for local initiatives aimed at empowering underserved communities. In her earlier role as Associate Policy Counsel at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, she managed several policy portfolios, including educational opportunities, where she advocated before Congress, the White House, and federal agencies on issues impacting marginalized communities.

Zha’Mari began her legal career as a Law Fellow at the National Education Association, the largest labor union for public school teachers. In this role, she supported affiliates in litigation and policy responses to state efforts to restrict discussions of race and gender in classrooms and protect educators’ rights in the workplace. While earning her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, Zha’Mari interned at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., ACLU’s National Prison Project, ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office, and the U.S House of Representatives’ Committee on Homeland Security. She is also a summa cum laude graduate of Howard University with a degree in Political Science.

Rayna Zhou

Rayna serves as the Office Manager for three of Georgetown Law’s experiential programs. She manages the day-to-day operations of the Health Justice Alliance Clinic, the Racial Equity in Education Law and Policy Clinic and Georgetown’s DC Street Law Program. Previously, she worked on Georgetown’s main campus after graduating from the School of Foreign Service.