Aviva Abramovsky has been named the twelfth president and chief executive officer of the National Judicial College. Upon assuming her new role, she will become the first woman to lead the institution.
Based in Reno, Nevada, the National Judicial College is a non-profit, non-partisan educational institution that teaches courtroom skills to judges across the United States and abroad. According to its website, the National Judicial College reaches some 10,000 judicial officers per year through its courses, programs, and web events.
“Being raised by a criminal law professor and an administrative law judge, I have tremendous respect for the judiciary and the valuable service they provide to our country and their communities each day,” said Abramovsky. “Their jobs are often difficult and undervalued, and the NJC is here not only to develop judges who strive to be the best they can be, but to build a community that supports and inspires the judiciary.”
Abramovsky has been serving as a professor and dean of the University of Idaho College of Law. Before joining the University of Idaho faculty, she was dean of the University at Buffalo School of Law, the only law school within the State University of New York System. Earlier, she was the Kaufman Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, associate dean for international initiatives, and associate dean for special projects at the Syracuse University College of Law in New York.
Abramovsky’s legal expertise centers on insurance law, commercial law, regulation of financial entities, and legal ethics. Before transitioning her career to academia, Abramovsky worked in private practice with Anderson Kill & Olick in New York, focusing on insurance law in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Abramovsky earned her bachelor’s degree in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania.