Charisma Ricksy Nguepdo, a 2L at the University of Houston Law Center, has been named the Houston Law Review’s editor in chief. She is the first African American to hold that position.
“I recognize that my election as the first Black editor-in-chief means that I have now opened a door for other students of color to dream a little bigger,” Nguepdo said in a press release. “My hope is that through my hard work on behalf of the Houston Law Review, students who may have otherwise doubted their ability to join the Law Review will think twice about what is possible for them.”
Nguepdo plans on improving the Law Review’s student body engagement by collaborating with various student organizations to host workshops and panels, as well as to provide opportunities for 1Ls to ask Law Review members questions about law school, joining the Law Review, and how not to get overwhelmed. She also intends to make membership more accessible and to reflect the broader demographics of the law center’s community.
“I am very proud of the Houston Law Review for making an historic appointment of Charisma Nguepdo as its editor-in-chief,” University of Houston Law Center Dean Leonard M. Baynes said in a press release. “Charisma is highly qualified for the position. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Penn State University majoring in African-American Studies and Criminology. She then received her masters of science from Johns Hopkins University School of Education. Before becoming a UH Law Center student, she taught for several years at Teach for America in Cleveland, Ohio, and also taught at prep schools in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.”
Nguepdo is the Black Law Students Association 2020-2021 president. She is a Legal Writing Center fellow; a research assistant to professor Meredith J. Duncan, assistant dean of Diversity, Inclusion, and Metropolitan Programs; and a summer associate of Locke Lord.
For more information about the University of Houston Law Center, go to law.uh.edu.