The digital media company SheKnows named Paula Franzese '80, longtime faculty in Barnard's political science department, to its list of 20 inspiring women transforming the way kids learn. Also the Peter W. Rodino Professor of Law at Seton Hall University, Prof. Franzese received the SheKnows honor for her work at St. Catherine of Siena School in New Jersey, where she volunteer teaches a popular life-skills course. SheKnows, which operates numerous brands drawing 78 million unique monthly users, says of Prof. Franzese: "Her class is always the most popular of the life skills electives at Saint Catherine, with a waiting list for admission. In her own words, she explains her motivation to us, 'The law is the most powerful instrument. As lawyers, we are uniquely able to use the law to be agents of change, champions of the underdog, voices for those yet to find their own and givers of hope. Love is always the motive, and in the right hands the law can be love made visible.'"
Prof. Franzese is one of the country's leading experts in property law as well as in government ethics. She is the author of numerous publications and the creator of the Short and Happy Guide, which includes A Short and Happy Guide to Being a Law Student and A Short and Happy Guide to Being a College Student. She has also received recognition for her higher-education teaching excellence: she was named in the 2013 Harvard University Press book, What the Best Law Teachers Do, and has won the the Student Bar Association's Professor of the Year Award an unprecedented 10 times. In addition to being an alumna and visiting professor, Prof. Franzese is also the mother of first-year Nina Rosella '19. Read more about Prof. Franzese.
