Emily R. Sutcliffe

This graduate student is available to deliver lectures to your K-12 classroom at no charge. All requests MUST be booked through the Middle East Center Speaker's Bureau. 

Emily R. Sutcliffe is Director of Penn Carey Law’s Toll Public Interest Center (TPIC). Emily has led the law school’s efforts to create and greatly expand the Toll Public Service Corps and works to ensure that Penn Carey Law’s ethos of service remains vibrant and attuned to the modern realities of injustice. Before coming to Penn for graduate school, Emily lived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia where she taught English, was an AmeriCorps volunteer working in refugee resettlement with Iraqi and Sudanese populations, and served as a nonprofit consultant for the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office of Faith-Based Initiatives.

Emily regularly serves as a content area expert for the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative and has led trainings in Malaysia, Zambia, and Burkina Faso.

Emily teaches social justice, leadership, and group dynamics courses at the law school and at Penn’s School of Social Policy and Practice and is a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion consultant. She regularly writes and speaks on matters of religion in the United States and the Middle East. Emily serves on several nonprofit boards in Philadelphia and was a founding board member of the Youth Sentencing and Re-Entry Project (YSRP).

Emily’s PhD research critically examines the intricate imbrications of race, religion, and social class on group formation and belonging within various American contexts. Her previous work has examined the Arab Spring and anti-Muslim movements in the Middle East.