Shirley A. Jefferson (born 1953) is an American law school administrator and faculty member. She serves as vice president of community engagement and government relations and associate law professor at Vermont Law and Graduate School. A native of Selma, Alabama, who marched to Montgomery as a child, Jefferson is a frequent public speaker on race-related issues, and has pushed for the removal a controversial mural depicting slavery from the Vermont Law School student center since 2020. In 2019, the National Black Pre-Law Conference for Legal Education Access recognized Jefferson with its Legal Education Access and Diversity Champion Award. In 2022, the Vermont Law School Alumni Association named the Dean Shirley Jefferson Distinguished Service Award after her. Early life and education The daughter of a truck driver in Selma, Alabama, Shirley Jefferson was one of nine children, and grew up attending segregated public schools. In March 1965, at the age of 12, she joined the third march from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights, along with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Congressman John Lewis. Her mother died when she was 15 years old. When she was 17, she integrated her high school. After finishing high school, Jefferson moved to Baltimore and worked at McDonald's, and was promoted to manager. She then worked as a supermarket, first as a cashier and then in an office role. Eventually deciding to become a lawyer, she enrolled in Southeastern University in Washington, D.C., while continuing to work for the supermarket. Jefferson received a Bachelor of Science from Southeastern University in 1981, graduating summa cum laude and finishing second in her class. She then accepted an offer to attend Vermont Law School in South Royalton, Vermont, which had begun actively recruiting minority applicants. Only the second African American woman to attend VLS, she struggled initially because her education during segregation had left her poorly prepared for law school. One of her professors, Gil Jukovich, intervened and became a mentor to her. Jefferson earned her juris doctor degree in 1986. While a law student, she interned at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in New York. She also worked with the VLS South Royalton Legal Clinic, and assisted with the case of Bela Kendall, who initiated a lawsuit against the federal government for terminating her worker's compensation payments without enough notice to respond; the case eventually turned into a class action lawsuit. Career After earning her law