The Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy celebrated its tenth anniversary at Boston College Law School in 2024. It marked another milestone at the end of the fall semester with the retirement of its inaugural executive director, Elisabeth “Lissy” J. Medvedow, who had served in the role since the Center’s inception. Amanda Teo, a career public servant who has managed and advised two of the state’s largest public law offices, succeeds her.
With a gift from the Phyllis & Jerome Lyle Rappaport Foundation, the Rappaport Center relocated from Suffolk Law to BC Law in late 2014, its mission to convene regional and national policy makers, as well as scholars, legislators, and practitioners from various sectors, to engage in conversations on important public policy issues.
One Center hallmark is the Rappaport Fellows Program, which provides funded summer internships for twelve law students across Massachusetts who are passionate about public service and public policy. With the establishment of the Jerome Lyle Rappaport Distinguished Visiting Professors in Law and Public Policy, the Center also brings public sector luminaries to campus for entire semesters, among them Martin O’Malley, former Baltimore mayor, governor of Maryland, and presidential candidate; governors Jane Swift of Massachusetts and Dannel Malloy of Connecticut; the Hon. Geraldine S. Hines, first African American woman associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court; Doug Jones, former US Senator from Alabama; and Jeffery Robinson, CEO of The Who We Are Project.
In 2019, Medvedow launched the Rappaport Senior Fellows initiative to bring cutting edge practitioners and academics to BC Law for a three-day residency, during which they deliver a community lecture, meet with students, staff, and faculty, and participate in a Rappaport Center program. The Rappaport’s visiting professors and senior fellows exemplify the center’s commitment to tackling community-level issues from state and local government perspectives.
During Medvedow’s nearly ten years of leadership, the Rappaport Center held 124 programs, awarded fellowships to 120 law students, and welcomed nine visiting professors and twelve senior fellows. Programs and conferences have explored issues including criminal justice, environmental justice, racial equity, education, campaign finance, voting rights, and more. In her last semester, Medvedow convened panels on the 2024 election, environmental justice, Civil Gideon, and LGBTQ+ rights, and held a symposium addressing re-entry for formerly incarcerated individuals. A lawyer who spent her entire career in the public and nonprofit sector, Medvedow leaves a memorable legacy.
Teo, the center’s new executive director, most recently served as Counsel to the US Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, where she advised the leadership team on strategic planning and cross-functional policy initiatives. At the US Attorney’s Office, she served in the Civil Rights Unit, and later was Chief of Staff in the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Princeton University, Teo earned MA and JD degrees from Harvard, where she taught for almost a decade.