Martha Davis

Martha Davis "is the Chairperson of the Board for NESRI. She is an Associate Professor at Northeastern School of Law, where she specializes in women’s rights, human rights, employment discrimination, professional responsibility, immigration and poverty law.  Prior to joining the Northeastern faculty, Professor Davis was the Vice President and Legal Director of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund.  She is the author of the prizewinning book, Brutal Need: Lawyers and the Welfare Rights Movement, and has written widely on issues relating to women’s rights, human rights, welfare and violence against women.  She has also served as counsel in many cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and she argued Nguyen v. INS, an equal protection case, before the Court.   In recent years, Professor Davis has been active in the movement to use international human rights arguments to frame domestic litigation, serving as counsel on several amicus briefs addressing international human rights law before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2003, she was awarded a Soros Reproductive Rights Fellowship to study local activists’ use of international human rights norms to address reproductive health and rights of low income women. Professor Davis holds a B.A. from Harvard University, an M.A. (Oxon.) from Oxford University, and a J.D. from the University of Chicago."


 * Director, National Economic and Social Rights Initiative