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IU McKinney Professor Lahny Silva received the IUPUI Chancellor’s Faculty Award for Excellence in Civic Engagement and was named a Chancellor’s Professor at the Chancellor’s Academic Honors Convo on April 25. The honors are in recognition of Professor Silva’s scholarship and work in the re-entry community in the metropolitan Indianapolis area.

In the photo at left, Professor Lahny Silva, right, is with Interim Chancellor Andrew R. Klein.

Professor Silva is the director of IU McKinney’s 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 recognition,” 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. The Chancellor’s Professorship is the most distinguished appointment a faculty member can attain at IUPUI and recognizes senior faculty members who display a record of extensive accomplishment and leadership in teaching, research, and campus service. Recipients retain the title throughout their appointments at IUPUI.

“I am thrilled to be the recipient of 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. Being named a Chancellor’s Professor is the highlight of my professional career and I am so very humbled to be nominated by my colleagues for such a prestigious distinction. And I am honored to be joining the ranks of such a prestigious and revered group of professors, including McKinney’s own Professor Florence Roisman.”

In the photo above, from left, are IUPUI Interim Chancellor Andrew R. Klein; Professor Joel Schumm, J.D. ’98; Professor Lahny Silva; and Dean Karen E. Bravo.

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.