Tonya Rhodes Jupiter

Tonya Jupiter currently serves as the Associate Dean of Experiential Learning and Public Interest Programs, assuming this role in 2021.  Dean Jupiter oversees the full range of skills training, experiential, and public interest initiatives at Tulane Law School, including Clinics, Trial Advocacy and moot court, externships, Intersession skills boot camps, and Tulane’s pioneering pro bono program. 

Dean Jupiter joined the Office of Experiential Learning in 2016, playing a pivotal role in the reorganization of the Law School’s experiential programs. In her most recent leadership position as Associate Director of the Law School's Pro Bono and Advocacy programs, Dean Jupiter assumed primary in-house direction of our Trial Advocacy program, Pro Bono program, the Intersession boot camps, and a variety of innovative field-learning initiatives. She was instrumental in curricular development, consulting on reforms of the externship program and spearheading an ambitious redesign of our Trial Advocacy program to enhance the quality of these academic experiences. 

As a classroom teacher, Dean Jupiter regularly teaches in the externship program and designed the first stand-alone seminar in the judicial externship. In 2021, Dean Jupiter was elected by the graduating class to receive the Monte Lemann Award for Distinguished Teaching.  

Dean Jupiter has also played a vital leadership role in efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout our experiential program and in the Law School more generally.  She’s had a major impact in helping to recruit a more diverse experiential skills faculty, in integrating DEI education and evaluation into our experiential curriculum, and in mentoring students.  

Before joining the Office of Experiential Learning in 2016, Dean Jupiter taught in our Trial Advocacy and skills programs, having practiced with local government agencies and several local law firms, and having served in the role of senior law clerk for the Honorable Michael Bagneris over a period of 10 years in Civil District Court for Orleans Parish. 

Dean Jupiter is a 1994 graduate of Tulane Law School, where she was a member of the Black Law Students Association, earned an Environmental Law Certificate, and participated as a student attorney in the Environmental Law Clinic.