GeDá Jones Herbert

GeDá Jones Herbert is visiting Tulane Law from the Education Rights Institute at the University of Virginia School of Law where she serves as the inaugural Director of Programming. Jones Herbert specializes in ensuring publicly-funded schools comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Jones Hebert previously worked as Education Special Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. At the Legal Defense Fund, she managed a large, nationwide school desegregation litigation docket while also supporting advocacy and education policy efforts.

Before joining LDF, Jones Hebert was an attorney at the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala., focusing on appellate litigation and community education, and drawing the connections from slavery to mass incarceration in America. She began her legal career in private practice but has since focused on civil rights, criminal defense and public policy. As the Law Program Site Manager for Santa Clara County, Calif., at Fresh Lifelines for Youth, Jones Hebert advocated for high school-aged youth who were incarcerated or at risk of becoming system-involved in the courtroom, in schools and with stakeholders throughout the community. 

Priorto law school, she served as an elementary school teacher in Nashville, Tenn., as a 2009 Nashville Charter Corps Member of Teach For America. During this time, she served in the Governor’s Office of State Planning and Policy, where she helped implement Tennessee’s Race to the Top grant award. 

Jones Hebert received her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. She also holds a Master’s degree in School Administration and Leadership from Lipscomb University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Spelman College. She is a longtime New Orleans resident, proud public school parent, wife, active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and board member and former board chair of Rooted School at Southern University at New Orleans.