News Archive
Professor Silva to Receive IUPUI Chancellor's Faculty Award for Excellence in Civic Engagement
03/15/2023
IU McKinney Professor Lahny Silva will receive the IUPUI Chancellor’s Faculty Award for Excellence in Civic Engagement. The honor is in recognition of Professor Silva’s scholarship and work in the re-entry community in the metropolitan Indianapolis area. She will receive the award at the Chancellor’s Academic Honors Convo in April.
Professor Silva is the director of the Re-Entry Clinic at IU McKinney. Clinic students, who must be certified legal interns, work as mentors to federal probationers and provide community outreach and legal representation in underserved areas in Indianapolis.
“Congratulations to Professor Silva for this well-deserved honor,” said IU McKinney Dean Karen E. Bravo. “She is passionate about dismantling the roadblocks to a successful re-entry into society that can keep the formerly incarcerated from making a better life for themselves and their families and from making a positive contribution to their communities. Her devotion to this work is inspirational to IU McKinney students and the entire law school community, as well as to communities throughout our city and state. I’m happy for her the university recognizes its importance.”
Professor Silva is also the faculty supervisor for the Second Chance Re-Entry Assistance Program, or S.C.R.A.P., a student organization at IU McKinney. Working with people who were formerly incarcerated, students provide driver’s license reinstatement assistance and help finding employment.
The Chancellor’s Faculty Award for Excellence in Civic Engagement honors faculty members on the IUPUI campus who demonstrate high standards of civic engagement, professional service, or service learning. The commitment to this work must be of long duration through effective partnerships and contribute to the faculty member’s growth and development as a teacher, researcher, and scholar.
“It is such an honor to receive the Chancellor’s Faculty Award for Excellence in Civic Engagement,” Professor Silva said. “It is truly my privilege to serve the most vulnerable in our community and it is my only hope to instill that sense of service in my law students as they move forward in their careers.”
Professor Silva was honored in 2022 with the Charles R. Bantz Chancellor’s Community Fellowship in recognition of her scholarship and work. The fellowship provided a $40,000 grant to support Professor Silva’s work with the IU School of Social Work to provide resources to members of the reentry community and help them overcome civil legal barriers as they navigate a successful reintegration process. She was the first faculty member from IU McKinney to be honored with this award.
