ImeIme Umana via Facebook

The Harvard Law Review has elected the first black woman to serve as president in the legal journal’s 130-year history.


ImeIme A. Umana, a native of Harrisburg, Pa., will serve as the 131st leader of the organization. The Harvard Crimson reports that as an undergraduate at Harvard, she double-majored in government and African-American studies. She graduated in 2014 and is expecting to receive her J.D. in 2018, according to her LinkedIn profile.

In an email to the Crimson, outgoing Law Review President Michael L. Zuckerman wrote that he is excited to see where Umana takes the publication in the coming year.


“ImeIme is one of the most brilliant, thoughtful, and caring people I’ve met, and the Law Review is in phenomenally good hands,” Zuckerman wrote.

Umana was selected from a field of 12 candidates, eight of whom were women and eight of whom were people of color, according to Zuckerman. All candidates for president must answer questions from a forum of editors, write responses to submitted questions and participate in mock editorial activities.

“ImeIme’s election as the Law Review’s first female black president is historic,” Zuckerman wrote. “For a field in which women and people of color have for too much of our past been marginalized or underrepresented, her election is an important and encouraging step toward a richer and more inclusive legal conversation.”

In her job as president, Umana will oversee the work of 90 student editors and staff members as well as communicate with a group of writers that includes faculty members.


“Knowing ImeIme, I can’t wait to applaud her in a year’s time for the extraordinary work that I am certain she will do,” Zuckerman wrote.

The Crimson reports that Umana’s election comes just as the Law Review seeks to accept editors from a wider variety of backgrounds. Last year it elected the most diverse class of editors in its history. In addition, in 2013 the journal expanded its affirmative action policy to include gender as a factor in its admissions process.


Read more at the Harvard Crimson.