Judith Winston, Principal and Senior Consultant, has more than 25 years of experience as a lawyer and law professor specializing in federal education and civil rights law and policy.

Immediately prior to co-founding WWA, she served for eight years as the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Education with responsibility for a staff of over 100 lawyers and paralegals. As General Counsel, Winston provided advice and counsel on:

• Federal education and administrative law issues
• Constitutional, civil rights and affirmative action issues
• Regulatory and legislative matters

She also represented the Department in interagency matters in consultation with senior officials in the White House, Department of Justice and other cabinet-level departments.

During two of the eight years she served as General Counsel, Winston served concurrently as the Under Secretary of the Department. In this capacity, Ms. Winston was a principal advisor to the Secretary on education and management policy. She represented the Department on the President’s Management Council, and worked with the Secretary and Deputy Secretary on strategic initiatives that helped define a broad, coherent vision for achieving the national education goals and the Secretary’s priorities.

Ms. Winston has served as an Assistant General Counsel in the U.S. Department of Education and was directly responsible for providing advice, counsel and representation in matters involving special education programs, bilingual education and English-language learners, and civil rights (Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and related civil rights statutes). She is a former Deputy Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, former Deputy Director for Public Policy of the Women’s Legal Defense Fund (now the National Partnerships for Women and Families) and former Executive Assistant and Legal Counsel to the Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She has also served as an Associate Professor and Research Professor of law at the Washington College of Law at American University . She has also served as a program director and research associate in urban education at the Council of Great City Schools. Winston is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia. She is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Howard University.

Her areas of substantive expertise include:

• Education law and policy
• Civil rights compliance
• Affirmative Action
• Educational equity
• Employment discrimination