Sherrilyn Ifill
Sherrilyn Ifill | |
|---|---|
| President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund | |
| In office 2012–2022 | |
| Preceded by | John Payton |
| Succeeded by | Janai Nelson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | December 17, 1962 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Relatives | Gwen Ifill (cousin) |
| Education | Vassar College (AB) New York University (JD) |
Sherrilyn Ifill (born December 17, 1962) is an American lawyer and the Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Esq. Endowed Chair in Civil Rights (Vernon E. Jordan) at Howard University. She is a law professor and former president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. She was the Legal Defense Fund's seventh president since Thurgood Marshall founded the organization in 1940. Ifill is a nationally recognized expert on voting rights and judicial selection. In 2021, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world on its annual Time 100 list. In 2025, she was elected to the American Philosophical Society.