Kathleen A. Sullivan (1952-2001) was a Clinical Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Her legal career encompassed time as a VISTA attorney and a clinical teacher at Cornell and Brooklyn Law Schools. She was a wife and mother, a scholar, a brilliant teacher, and a committed, respectful and empathetic advocate for those society often ignores.

Kathleen believed that those suffering in poverty and on the edges of our society are entitled to the dignity, respect, autonomy and privacy we all enjoy. Her scholarship flowed inexorably and seamlessly from that basic premise. Kathleen also believed in the restorative, coalescing power of art. Quite simply, she made us better each day by her quiet, emphatic example.

She believed that we can serve the world one moment, one interaction, one person at a time. By her respectful advocacy on behalf of the disadvantaged, her remarkable compassion, her searing intelligence, her unflagging generosity and her unwavering kindness, Kathleen was, for many of us who knew her, the sunlight in our universe.