Karla McKanders, Associate Professor of Law
Name: Karla McKanders
Education background: B.A., Spelman College; J.D., Duke University Specialty: Civil Rights; Immigration and Asylum Law; and Policy
Becoming an Advocate: While growing up in Michigan, Karla McKanders listened intently to stories told by her grandparents, who had lived through the turbulent civil rights movement in the 1950s and ’60s.
In the two and a half years she has been a member of the UT College of Law faculty, McKanders has quickly developed a national reputation for her research about issues affecting the nation’s growing immigrant community. Her work has reached as far as Central America and Africa.
Converging Interests: Even as a clerk for a federal judge in her home state, immigration cases were of interest to McKanders, as was working side-by-side with students. “I saw too many badly written briefs and bad arguments—you name it,” she says. “I decided I wanted to have an impact on students.”
In 2006 McKanders became a Reuschlein Clinical Teaching Fellow at Villanova University where she worked with Asylum, Refugee and Emigrant Services, which handles asylum cases before immigration judges, asylum officers and the Board of Immigration Appeals. She joined the UT clinical faculty in 2008.
“Tennessee has a national reputation for its clinical programs, and I liked the fact there is no divide between the clinical faculty and doctrinal faculty,” she says.
Teaching through Advocacy: While at UT, McKanders’ students have helped Knoxville-area immigrants with various issues. “The best thing about working with students is being there when they have their first practical experience and seeing the light bulb go on,” McKanders says.