Cheryl Hanna

Professor Cheryl Hanna is an expert on constitutional law, the United States Supreme Court, and women and the law. Professor Hanna received her BA degree in sociology and anthropology, magna cum laude, from Kalamazoo College and her JD degree, cum laude, from Harvard University. Upon graduation, she served on the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign, and then as an assistant state's attorney in Baltimore City before joining the Vermont Law School faculty in 1994. She has also been a visiting professor at the University of California-Hastings College of the Law and at Seattle University School of Law.

Professor Hanna's scholarship focuses on the social status of women and girls in America. She is the co-author of Domestic Violence and the Law: Theory and Practice (Foundation Press), the leading casebook on violence against women.  Her extensive scholarship has been published by the nation's leading law journals, including the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, and the Michigan Journal of Gender and the Law. Her work has been cited by the United States Supreme Court, as well as by the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Newsweek, Glamour Magazine, CSB News, and Fox News. Professor Hanna is a frequent commentator for the media, including Vermont Public Radio, WCAX-TV 3 News (Burlington, Vermont), and Seven Days (Vermont). She is also active in legal practice as both a consultant on constitutional cases and in representing the interests of public interest organizations through the filing of amicus briefs in cases before state and federal courts.  She is a member of the United States Supreme Court bar.

Among her many accomplishments, Professor Hanna received the Irving R. Kaufman Fellowship in 1993 for young lawyers who hold significant promise in public interest lawyering. In 1998, she received the Vermont Women in Higher Education's Margaret R. Williams Emerging Professional Award, and the Vermont Law School Student Bar Association Faculty Award the following year.  She again received that award in 2006. In 2001-2002, she was a fellow at the Snelling Center for Government, Vermont Leadership Institute. In 2004, she received the first Phenomenal Woman Award given by the Vermont Women's Law Group, and again received that award in 2007, 2009 and 2010. She was also awarded an honorary Schweitzer Fellowship for work with the Schweitzer Fellowship Program. In recognition of her contributions to the state, Professor Hanna was chosen as an associate member of the Center for Research on Vermont at the University of Vermont.

Active in both the local and national organizations, Professor Hanna has served on the Council for the Future of Vermont and the Girl Scout Council of Vermont. She is currently the vice-chairperson of the board for the Snelling Center for Government. She has chaired the Association of American Law Schools' Section of Law and the Social Sciences, served as an advisor to the Vermont Judicial College, and as a member of the Vermont Gender Bias Study Implementation Task Force. She has also served on the board of trustees of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. She frequently trains leaders in Vermont and elsewhere on ethical decision-making and is a trusted advisor to the Vermont State legislature. She lives in Burlington with her husband Paul and her two children and is the proud leader of Daisy Girl Scout Troop 782.