Emily Nagisa Keehn

Emily Nagisa Keehn is the Assistant Dean for Law Student Affairs, leading the Law Student Affairs and Academic Success and Bar Programs offices. She provides strategic leadership for programs and services that foster academic and bar success, and oversees law student life, academic advising, and student accommodations and well-being. Keehn teaches the course, Contemplative Practice of Law, which helps students to develop mindfulness and meditation practices, develop ethically, and increase their professional resilience.

Previously, Keehn spent a decade as a human rights researcher and practitioner. She was the Assistant Dean of Graduate Programs and a Professor of Practice at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, and Associate Director for Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program where she was also a supervising attorney in the International Human Rights Clinic. Keehn was the head of policy development and advocacy at Sonke Gender Justice, a University of California Global Health Institute Fellow, and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Cape Town Faculty of Law. In South Africa, Keehn gave testimony in Parliament, served on the National Task Team for TB and HIV in Correctional Centers, co-founded the Detention Justice Forum, shaped national policies, and led impact litigation relating to penal systems, gender equality, and health.

The University of San Diego awarded Keehn the Diversity & Inclusion Impact Award and the Community of Human Resources Employee Recognition Award. The Mail & Guardian, the paper of record in South Africa, recognized her portfolio of health and human rights work in prisons with the “Investing in the Future Health Award”. Keehn has a BA in Anthropology from UC San Diego, a JD from UCLA School of Law, and is a member of the State Bar of California, the Pan Asian Lawyers of San Diego, and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association.