Diann Rust-Tierney served as the Executive Director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty from 2005 to 2021. In that role, she developed, implemented, and coordinated national policy and legal strategy to end the US death penalty.
Professor Rust-Tierney served as the Robert F. Drinan S.J. Visiting Professor for Human Rights for the academic year 2021-2022, focusing on the relationship between capital punishment and the legacy of the American racial caste system.
She is now the Georgetown University Racial Justice Institute Executive Director and Adjunct Professor of Law. As a Georgetown Law Human Rights Institute Fellow, she teaches a seminar on Human Rights Advocacy: Lessons Learned from the Campaign to End the Death Penalty.
Professor Rust-Tierney has testified before Congress and spoken extensively on the death penalty, race, women’s rights, policy advocacy, and human and civil rights campaigns.
Professor Rust-Tierney earned her JD from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and her BA from the College of Wooster. She has been a member of SAG-AFTRA since 2001 and has appeared in television, film, theatre, and commercial projects.