Law & Public Policy Program Director
Noelia Rivera-Calderón (they/them) is a Practice Professor of Law and Director of the Temple Law & Public Policy (LPP) Program. Having started their career in policy as a student in this same program, Professor Rivera-Calderón now supports students in growing their skills at the intersection of law, imagination, and strategy. Professor Rivera-Calderón’s practice interests include education justice and mental health liberation.
After graduating with a B.S. in Social Studies Education from Boston University, Professor Rivera-Calderón taught middle school social studies in North Philadelphia. This work sparked their interest in education policy. At Temple Law School, they served as Program Director of School Discipline Advocacy Service. As a National Women’s Law Center intern, they authored a 2019 report with K-12 student co-authors, We Are Not Invisible: Latina Girls, Mental Health, and Philadelphia Schools. The report inspired policy change efforts at the federal, state, and local levels. In recognition of this work, Professor Rivera-Calderón was named a National Jurist Law School Student of the Year Finalist and a Temple University Alumni Association 30 Under 30.
Following law school, Professor Rivera-Calderón continued at the National Women’s Law Center through a Pride Law Fund fellowship focusing on the educational experiences of LGBTQ+ students of color. They subsequently clerked in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, then joined civil rights organization Advancement Project in 2021 as the Right to Education Fellow and Staff Attorney. Partnering with the Philadelphia-based Sanctuary Schools campaign, they secured a settlement with systemic change components on behalf of an immigrant student who experienced discrimination and harassment at school.
Professor Rivera-Calderón continues to partner with youth organizing groups on their education justice campaigns, providing legal, policy development, education, and research support. Most recently, they co-authored (with an LPP Scholar) the 2026 report Youth Healing Chi: A Call to Action for Mental Health Liberation in Chicago Public Schools.
Founder of the Law and Public Policy Program
The Program was founded by Professor Nancy J. Knauer. Now retired, she taught in the areas of political & civil rights, property, and taxation. For the past twenty-five years, Professor Knauer’s scholarship explored the impact of law and public policy on the lives of LGBT people. She is the author of Gay and Lesbian Elders: History, Law and Identity Politics in the US and more than forty academic articles, books, and book chapters. She has received numerous awards for teaching, service and scholarship. She is the co-founder of the Aging, Law & Society Collaborative Research Network of the Law & Society Association and served on the Executive Committee of the Family Law Institute of the National LGBT Association.
Professor Knauer’s innovative approach to legal education earned a profile in the book What the Best Law Teachers Do, published by Harvard University Press in 2013. The book featured 26 law professors who were selected from more than 250 nominees teaching at over 100 law schools. She has written two articles about the Program: a short Essay for the Law Teacher and a longer law review article about learning communities.
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