Professor Kim D. Ricardo Awarded Inaugural Lucy Sprague Professorship In Public Interest
Lucy Sprague Professorship in Public Interest Heading link
Kim D. Ricardo, professor of law and associate dean of experiential education, has been awarded the inaugural Lucy Sprague Professorship in Public Interest.
The three-year opportunity, termed through 2027, is the law school’s first donor-funded professorship and was designed to continue advancements in public service and to ensure that education and research around public interest is readily available.
Professor Ricardo’s personal and professional commitment to deepening society’s collective understanding of how group-based differences such as race, gender, and class impact the unequal distribution of resources, paralleled with her mission to advance social justice causes and uplift the voices of marginalized groups through her volunteer work made her eligible to serve in the endowed professorship.
“As the inaugural Lucy Sprague Professor in Public Interest, I will work towards expanding the meaning of public interest and public service,” Professor Ricardo said. “When students ask, ‘How can I use my law degree?,’ I want them to consider how their individual aspirations cohere with the forging of a more robust public good because the legal profession, after all, is a service profession.”
Many students in Professor Ricardo’s Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure classes become interested in careers in public service, allowing her to regularly advise those with aspirations of joining the public defender or prosecutor’s offices.
For students who choose to seek employment at private firms versus servicing the public directly, she advocates for providing pro-bono services or donating to non-for-profit organizations, a concept she is no stranger to as a volunteer attorney for the Resurrection Project’s Immigration Justice Initiative and a long-term board member of the Chicago Dancemakers Forum where she regularly consults on legal issues.
“Public interest lawyers ensure that legal advocacy addresses broader societal issues and uphold justice for the most vulnerable members of our communities. The professor who imparts this vital knowledge does more than teach – they inspire a generation to champion the common good,” UIC Law Dean Nicky Boothe said. “Professor Ricardo’s dedication to shaping mindful advocates for public interest law makes her an ideal recipient for the Lucy Sprague Professor in Public Interest Award, for her work transcends the classroom and ignites real change in society.”
Since receiving tenure at UIC Law in 2014, Professor Ricardo has:
- Served as Chair of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Co-Chair of Campus Climate (DEICC) Committee
- Served as the Faculty Advisor for two student organizations, the Asian Pacific Law Students Association and Outlaw
- Served as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina
- Received a fellowship from of the University of Illinois’ OpEd Project Public Voices program
- Served as Co-Principal Investigator of a $250,000 grant from the Society of Family Planning (SFP) to conduct research that advances healthcare and impacts reproductive justice policies and practices
Professor Ricardo plans to continue her scholarly research and public advocacy around reproductive justice worldwide and advancing DEI initiatives during her professorship, highlighting her goal to create a new course that will address how law and culture contribute to the formation of racial identity and policymaking in the United States, focusing on the experience of Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) with a commitment to the inclusion of Native Hawaiians and Desi Americans.
“A recent American Bar Foundation study reported that AAPI attorneys are increasingly engaged with social and political issues and indicate an increased desire to change and improve society,” Professor Ricardo said. “I will dedicate some of my time as the Lucy Sprague Professor in Public Interest to supporting efforts to reduce barriers to professional advancement for AAPI attorneys.”
Professor Ricardo feels “deeply honored” by the appointment and is “grateful to the Sprague Family for their ongoing support to the law school in memory of Lucy Sprague,” citing the annual Lucy Sprague Public Service Scholarship celebrations as one of her favorite moments of each year.
“The work that each Lucy Scholar continues to do in service of the public has been inspiring and I intend to follow their lead,” Professor Ricardo said.