SCHOOL OF LAW PROFESSOR HONORED WITH GOVERNOR'S AWARD

Media Contact: Laurie Mellas Ramirez, 277-5915

April 28, 2004

SCHOOL OF LAW PROFESSOR HONORED WITH GOVERNOR'S AWARD

University of New Mexico School of Law Professor Christine Zuni Cruz is a recipient of the 2004 Governor's Award for Outstanding New Mexico Women. She will be honored at a banquet Friday, May 7, at the Hyatt Regency in Albuquerque.

Started in 1986 during Bruce King's second term in office, the prestigious governor's award honors 20 women, selected from statewide nominations, for their exceptional contributions and achievements.

This year, judges appointed by Governor Bill Richardson will award women for their extra efforts to improve the status of women in our state. The nominations are rated on community leadership, effectiveness of advocacy for positive change for women and families and leadership in their careers.

Christine Zuni Cruz came to the UNM law school in 1993 to establish the Southwest Indian Law Clinic , which provides students with a hands-on opportunity to practice Indian law. She has served as a tribal judge, a tribal gaming commissioner and also spent a decade in private practice.

In her research and teaching, Zuni Cruz, a member of Isleta Pueblo, explores law and culture, including the impact of law on Indian families, the practice of Indian law and lawyering for native communities and the internal traditional and modern law of indigenous peoples domestically and internationally. In 2001, she traveled to Greenland where she helped teach an intensive course on international indigenous human rights.

She currently serves as an associate justice on the Isleta Appellate Court.

Zuni Cruz, the first pueblo woman to earn tenure as a law professor, is editor-in-chief of the Tribal Law Journal , an on-line law journal dedicated to the internal law of indigenous peoples.

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