Emily R. Sutcliffe

Emily R. Sutcliffe is Associate Dean for Public Interest at Penn Carey Law & Executive Director of the Toll Public Interest Center (TPIC).

Emily has led the law school’s efforts to create and greatly expand the Toll Public Interest Scholars and Fellows programs. Steward of the oldest and largest pro bono requirement in the nation, she works to ensure that Penn Carey Law’s ethos of service and commitment to pro bono not only remain vibrant and attuned to the modern realities of injustice, but that all PCL graduates feel inspired and empowered to utilize their law degrees, regardless of what sector they pursue, to advance the public good.

Emily holds a PhD in Socio-Cultural Anthropology from Penn. She regularly researches, writes, and speaks on matters of race, social class, religion, and belonging in the United States. She teaches courses at the Law School and at Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice. As an extension of her work in TPIC, Emily has served as a content area expert for the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative and has led trainings for human rights attorneys and members of the constitutional courts in Malaysia, Zambia, and Burkina Faso. She is a founding member of Wynford Institute, which delivers socially impactful leadership and group dynamics courses in the USA, India, Nigeria, and Australia. She sits on several nonprofit boards in Philadelphia and was a founding board member of the Youth Sentencing and Re-Entry Project (YSRP).

In the past, Emily worked in refugee resettlement at Nationalities Service Center, was a consultant for the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, and for three years, was a private English teacher for the Al Saud and Al Sudairi royal families in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Emily lives with her husband and their three children in New Jersey.