MORGANTOWN -- The distinctions keep coming for decorated U.S. Army veteran and West Virginia associate professor of law and public health scholar Jennifer D. Oliva.
The WVU Law Class of 2018 has tabbed Oliva as Professor of the Year, a distinction that carries the honor of honoring her as the May 11 commencement speaker.
“I’m from a small, rural community in southern Delaware,” Oliva told The West Virginia Record. “I’ve experienced a lot of wonderful opportunities in my life, including the chance to travel all over the world as an Army military police officer, to study abroad in the United Kingdom and to work with amazing people in a variety of professional settings, both public and private. Law school teaching, however undoubtedly, is the most rewarding job I’ve ever had.”
Oliva, who doubles as director of WVU’s Veteran Advocacy Law Clinic, said she considers a professor’s ability to connect with students to be one of the most important attributes they can bring to the classroom.
“I hope I won the award because the students believe that I am deeply invested in both their long-term professional success and personal well-being,” she said. “It is truly wonderful to think that perhaps my enthusiasm for teaching has had a positive impact on the students in their day-to-day experience in law school.”
Olivia said she has a singular approach to interacting with all of her many students.
“My teaching is driven by my desire to instill in all of my students an intellectual inquisitiveness about the law, a passion to practice, and a deep sense of communal responsibility,” she said. “Adult graduate students are much more likely to learn concepts and principles that tie to their own experiences and allow them to expand existing knowledge. As a result I incorporate experiential learning techniques and exercises into the classroom as often as possible and deploy a practice-driven, problem-based, hands-on approach.”
Oliva is one of only four national Bellow Scholars selected by the American Association of Law Schools, which conducts legal scholarship that promotes social justice. Her focus is interdisciplinary research aimed at aiding veterans released from prison and then returning to society to lead productive lives.
Her work has also been published or will be published in the Northwestern Law Review, the North Carolina Law Review, the George Mason Law Review, the West Virginia Law Review, The Conversation and the Oxford Human Rights Hub.
