About me
Karla McKanders is Director of the Thurgood Marshall Institute at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and a leading legal scholar on immigration and racial justice. Prior to joining LDF, she served as Associate Director of Vanderbilt University Law School’s Clinical Program and was the Founding Director of its Immigration Practice Clinic, where she taught immigration law, refugee law, and race in the law. As a law professor, she directed immigration clinics for nearly two decades and litigated cases before U.S. immigration and federal courts. Her research examines how U.S. laws reify race by codifying cultural norms that reinforce racial divisions, with a focus on immigration systems. A Fulbright Scholar, she conducted fieldwork in Morocco on the rights of asylum seekers of African descent. She earned her J.D. from Duke University School of Law and her undergraduate degree from Spelman College.
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