Akwa Ibom Produces First Black Woman President of Harvard
The prestigious Harvard Law Review has elected Ime Ime Umanah, a Nigerian from Akwa Ibom State, as its first black woman president in its 130-year history as a world renowned institution of higher learning.
Umanah, 24, from Abak Local Government is a daughter of the late Dr. Ime Sampson Umanah, a Nigerian immigrant.
She grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and she is a joint degree candidate at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Umanah was chosen by the Harvard Law Review’s 92 student editors in what is widely considered the highest-ranked position that a student can have at the cut-throat law school.
She is the first African-American woman to lead a journal that has the largest reach of any law journal in the world.
The difficult election process required a thorough dissection of her work and application, and a 12-hour long deliberation of her portfolio.
The first black man to be elected president was Barack Obama, 27 years ago, while it has been 41 years since the first woman, Susan Estrich, was elected.
