Twila L. Perry, professor and the Alexander T. Waugh Scholar at the Rutgers University School of Law in Newark, New Jersey, received the 2012 Clyde Ferguson Award, one of the highest honors bestowed by the Association of American Law Schools. The award honors the late C. Clyde Ferguson who taught at Harvard Law School and was the first tenured African American professor at Rutgers Law. Professor Perry is the first African American woman to gain tenure at the Rutgers law school.
Professor Perry is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College. She earned a master of social work degree at Columbia University and a juris doctorate at New York University.