Christopher Edley Jr., a regulation professor and former dean of the UC Berkeley Faculty of Regulation who served in senior positions for 5 presidential campaigns together with these of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, has died. He was 71.
His dying was announced Friday morning by present Berkeley Regulation dean Erwin Chemerinsky in a written message to workers.
“Chris and I had been regulation college classmates,” Chemerinsky wrote. “He has been a pricey pal and has supplied me invaluable knowledge and assist in my years as a dean. I do know I communicate for all of us in saying how terribly a lot we are going to miss him.”
Many who admired Edley’s work or had labored alongside him took to social media to precise their response to his dying.
“Chris was a person of extraordinary presents,” wrote Gary Orfield, who co-founded the Harvard Civil Rights Undertaking with Edley. “We tended to chop into issues from completely different angles working towards the identical vacation spot and I discovered lots and significantly loved the seven years we had been repeatedly engaged on launching a serious analysis [and] coverage middle. He’s gone far too quickly and he might be missed on many fronts”
“The passing of Christopher Edley is a giant loss for Social Justice communities. So many Giants leaving us,” wrote Stephen G. Hall, a historian.
Edley had a protracted and profitable profession in academia and public service. He graduated from Swarthmore School in 1973 with a level in arithmetic. He obtained his juris doctorate from Harvard Regulation Faculty in 1978 and his grasp’s in public coverage from the Harvard Kennedy Faculty, in line with his profile. He additionally served as a professor at Harvard Regulation Faculty for 23 years, the place in 1996 he co-founded the Harvard Civil Rights Undertaking, a suppose tank geared toward selling racial and ethnic justice.
He served as an financial coverage and funds official for President Jimmy Carter and President Invoice Clinton. Edley additionally helped lead the Clinton administration’s evaluate of affirmative motion packages.
In a written assertion, Clinton described Edley as a “sensible thoughts and a sort, good coronary heart that he put to make use of to construct a greater, fairer and extra simply America.”
“From his groundbreaking tutorial profession to his service in a number of key roles in my administration, he at all times believed that regulation and coverage are in the end about folks,” Clinton wrote. “He mastered the minute particulars however by no means overpassed the massive image — giving extra folks the prospect to stay their finest lives. He’s gone far too quickly, however his legacy will endure.”
Edley held senior positions in 5 presidential campaigns together with these of Michael Dukkakis in 1988, Al Gore in 2000, Howard Dean in 2004, Obama in 2008 and Hilary Clinton in 2016.
In 2004, Edley turned dean of the UC Berkeley Faculty of Regulation, serving till 2013.
“As dean, he made an infinite optimistic distinction in each side of the regulation college, from the hiring of many terrific college … ,” Chemerinsky wrote, “to dramatically growing assist for public curiosity grants for college students, to the creation of many facilities.”
Edley additionally co-chaired the congressionally chartered Nationwide Fee on Training Fairness and Excellence from 2011 to 2013. The fee advises the secretary of Training on methods to handle training fairness points.
After stepping down as dean, Edley continued to show at UC Berkeley because the Honorable William H. Orrick Jr. Distinguished Professor. He served as president of the Alternative Institute, a company he co-founded in 2015 with Ann O’Leary, a former advisor to Hillary Clinton. The institute’s mission is to extend social and financial mobility and advance racial fairness.
Edley is survived by his spouse, Maria Echaveste, who can be a former advisor and served as deputy chief of workers to President Clinton.
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