Diann Y. Rust-Tierney

Diann Y. Rust-Tierney is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law. She previously served as Executive Director of the Racial Justice Institute and Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Her roles include the Robert F. Drinan S.J. Visiting Professor for Human Rights at Georgetown (2021) and recipient of the inaugural Steven M. Polan Fellowship in Constitutional Law and History at the Brennan Center for Justice.

• Education: JD from University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law; BA from College of Wooster.
• Key Affiliations: UDC Law, Georgetown Law (visiting), Brennan Center for Justice.

Her scholarship focuses on Eighth Amendment interpretation, capital punishment abolition, and intersections of racial disparities, structural racism, and democracy threats. She has led national efforts to end capital punishment through strategic policy advocacy, media engagement, and legislative strategy.

Rust-Tierney's work spans over three decades in civil rights advocacy, including roles at the ACLU (1985–2004) as Chief Legislative Counsel and Director of the Capital Punishment Project. She developed seminal research on public attitudes toward the death penalty and litigated Title IX/Title VII cases as a Staff Attorney at the National Women’s Law Center.

• Awards: Distinguished Fellow of the Georgetown Human Rights Institute; Steven M. Polan Fellowship.
• Grants/Advocacy: National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty leadership (2004–2022), ACLU Washington Office strategy development.

Her recent publications analyze structural racism in capital punishment systems and pathways to democracy preservation through legal reform.