Meryl Chertoff
ContributorMeryl Justin Chertoff is Co-Director of The Aspen Institute's Justice and Society Program. She is also Director of the Sandra Day O'Connor Project on the State of the Judiciary at Georgetown Law, an academic institute that studies and educates the public about federal and state courts, and Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown Law.<br /> <br /> She served in the Office of Legislative Affairs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), participating in the agency's transition into the Department of Homeland Security in 2003. Ms. Chertoff has also been a legislative relations professional, Director of New Jersey's Washington, D.C. Office under two governors, and legislative counsel to the Chair of the New Jersey State Assembly Appropriations Committee. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard-Radcliffe College and earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School. She practiced law for a number of years in New York City and New Jersey, and served as law clerk to Honorable Myron H. Thompson (U.S. District Ct., M.D. Ala).