Queena Mewers

As a testament to her dedication to students, Queena Mewers was named Staff Member of the Year in a Student Development Role at the 2020-2021 UCI Law Leadership and Service Awards. This award is voted on by the SBA and student body. Her accomplishment is even more impressive in light of the heavy work load she undertook over the past year as the only member of the ASP department. She created and presented many skills-based presentations for 1Ls and 2Ls, while also overhauling the 3L skills-based curriculum and early bar prep resources.

Queena also recently co-authored, with Rachel Croskery-Roberts, a chapter titled “Helping Traditional Students Become Effective Online Learners in Both Synchronous and Asynchronous Environments,” which will appear in the timely book on online legal education by Tessa L. Dysart and Tracy Norton titled Law Teaching Strategies for a New Era: Beyond the Physical Classroom, with publication by Carolina Academic Press expected in August 2021. This scholarship evolved out of her work on UCI Law’s Teaching and Learning Committee, where Queena took a leadership role in training the faculty to transition to online learning, with many faculty members continuing to view her as a knowledgeable resource on effective online or remote teaching and learning methods. Students also benefitted from her targeted online learning instruction and a Canvas page full of resources.

In recognition of her expertise, in October 2020, Queena was an invited presenter at the “Study Law Anywhere and Everywhere: Best remote learning practices” workshop organized by the National Consortium of Public Interest Law Schools (NCPILS) as part of its Public Interest Symposium. In addition to her expertise in online learning, Queena regularly presents at ASP and legal writing conferences on various topics including improving rule comprehension, crafting effective and actionable self-assessment questionnaires, and demystifying reading and understanding judicial opinions.