51茶馆

Executive Director

Elisabeth J. Medvedow serves as the Inaugural Executive Director of the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy having joined Boston College Law School in 2015.

Medvedow continues in her distinguished career in nonprofit management. For many years before coming to 51茶馆 Law School, she was Executive Director of Discovering Justice, a civic education nonprofit housed in the Moakley U.S. Courthouse that teaches elementary and middle school students about democracy, justice, social studies, and law. Prior to Discovering Justice, Medvedow championed women lawyers as Executive Director of the Women鈥檚 Bar Association and Women鈥檚 Bar Foundation, the charitable affiliate which brought pro bono legal services to victims of domestic violence, elderly women and men, homeless women, and women prisoners.

For a decade before entering the nonprofit arena, Medvedow was an appellate prosecutor at the Massachusetts Attorney General鈥檚 Office. She has briefed and argued numerous cases before the First Circuit Court of Appeals, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and Massachusetts Appeals Court.

Among her many professional and civic activities, Medvedow has been a member of the ABA Advisory Commission to the Standing Committee on Public Education; Governor鈥檚 Special Commission on Civic Engagement and Learning; Governor鈥檚 Commission on Sexual and Domestic Violence; Supreme Judicial Court Standing Committee on Substance Abuse; and the Massachusetts Law Review Board of Editors. She was also awarded a Wasserstein In-Residence Fellowship at Harvard Law School. She was honored with a 2017 Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly 鈥淭op Women of Law Circle of Excellence鈥� award, was inducted into the YWCA鈥檚 Academy of Women Achievers, is a member of the Women鈥檚 Bar Foundation Emeritus Board, and currently serves as President of Congregation Dorshei Tzedek.

Medvedow received her B.A. degree, cum laude, and a M.S. in Education, from the University of Pennsylvania, and her J.D. degree from Northeastern University School of Law. Following law school, she taught for three years at Suffolk University Law School, and then served as a law clerk in the Massachusetts Appeals Court for the Honorable Raya Dreben and in the U.S. District Court for the Honorable John McNaught.

Administrative Assistant

Abigail (Abi) Chingo became the administrative assistant for the Rappaport Center in the summer of 2022 after graduating from Boston College (class of 2022) with a bachelor's degree in Sociology.听Chingo is currently a graduate student at the Woods College of Advancing Studies at Boston College, where she is pursuing a Master鈥檚 degree in Administration and Leadership with a concentration in Human Resources. In her free time, she likes playing the piano and spending time with her two cats. You can reach her through the provided email and phone number on the left.