Susan Sturm
Special guest
Susan Sturm is the George M. Jaffin Professor of Law and Social Responsibility and the founding director of the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia Law School. Her work focuses on building the capacity of people and institutions to tackle inequality, reduce discrimination, transform the justice system, and promote full participation in educational, legal, and cultural institutions.
Along with numerous scholarly publications, Professor Sturm is the author, with Lani Guinier, of Who’s Qualified: A New Democracy Forum on the Future of Affirmative Action. Her new book, entitled What Might Be: Confronting Racism to Transform Our Institutions, was published in February 2025 by Princeton University Press.
Professor Sturm collaborates with a wide variety of higher education, legal, artistic, government, criminal justice, and community-based organizations and networks involved in organizational and culture change. She is the co-designer of courses and workshops on Lawyer Leadership: Leading Self, Leading Others, Leading Change and Access to Justice for People in Prison. She is the architect and creator of the Centering Change Skills Hub, an online platform aimed at cultivating leadership and building the capacity to address race in law schools, court systems, and communities. She has served as the Vice President and Director of Policy for the Tony award winning Broadway Advocacy Coalition, and is the co-creator and instructor, with BAC, of Theater of Change: Reimagining Justice, a highly acclaimed course offered at Columbia Law School. Professor Sturm is an inaugural Provost Senior Faculty Teaching Scholar and the recipient of the Presidential Teaching Award for Outstanding Teaching at Columbia University.
Susan Sturm has been a guest on 1 episode.
-
Episode 318: What Might Be: Confronting Racism to Transform our Institutions, with Susan Sturm
January 7th, 2026 | 46 mins 20 secs
In this episode of Give and Take, Scott Jones is joined by legal scholar and social innovator Susan Sturm to discuss her powerful new book, What Might Be: Confronting Racism to Transform Our Institutions. Drawing on decades of work at the intersection of law, education, and organizational change, Sturm offers a hopeful yet demanding vision for how institutions can move beyond performative commitments toward genuine transformation. Their conversation explores how racism becomes embedded in institutional structures, why good intentions are not enough, and what it actually takes to create cultures of accountability, learning, and shared responsibility. Sturm challenges both individuals and organizations to imagine “what might be” if we treated racial justice not as a box to check, but as a collective practice that reshapes how we lead, decide, and belong.