Jessica Waters Assistant Professor Justice, Law & Criminology
- Additional Positions at Â鶹Æƽâ°æ
- Director SPA Leadership Program
- Degrees
- JD Â鶹Æƽâ°æ Washington College of Law
BA Â鶹Æƽâ°æ - Bio
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Jessica L. Waters, J.D., has 25 years of experience as a lawyer, scholar, teacher, and higher education executive. She is a nationally recognized expert in U.S. reproductive rights law and policy, working frequently with policymakers, colleges and universities, law firms, trade associations, and non-profit organizations.
Waters recently served as the Â鶹Æƽâ°æ Dean of Undergraduate Education and Vice Provost for Academic Student Services, a role she held for seven years.
Waters currently serves as the Director of the Â鶹Æƽâ°æ School of Public Affairs (SPA) Leadership Program where she focuses on equipping students with experience, skills, and knowledge to prepare them for leadership roles in public service. Professor Waters is also a Faculty Fellow in the Center for University Excellence, which brings university research expertise to pressing problems in the public domain.
Her research focuses on reproductive rights law and policy, particularly exploring questions related to the legal impact of women’s medical decisions during pregnancy and childbirth, abortion regulation and access, state control of reproductive decision-making, employment-based conscience protections for reproductive health care providers, and reproductive rights of employees working for religiously affiliated employers. In December 2024 she testified in front of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee regarding the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE). Her work has been published in the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, the Â鶹Æƽâ°æ Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law, the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, and the Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Waters is a frequent media expert and commentator for local, regional, and national outlets (CNN, Fox News, NPR, NBC, VOA, BBC). She delivered a 2016 TedX talk, Changing the Reproductive Rights Conversation, and has recently authored op-eds for The Hill and USA Today.
Prior to joining to joining the Â鶹Æƽâ°æ faculty full-time, Professor Waters was a litigator at WilmerHale, where she specialized in criminal defense litigation, internal investigations, and reproductive rights litigation and advocacy. She also clerked for the Honorable Emmet Sullivan on the D.C. District Court. Professor Waters also previously served on the Children's Law Center Advisory Board, and as a guardian ad litem in the D.C. courts.
- For the Media
- To request an interview for a news story, call Â鶹Æƽâ°æ Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.
Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities
Honors, Awards, and Fellowships
Outstanding Teaching in a Multi-Year Appointment, Department of Justice, Law and Society (2013)
Â鶹Æƽâ°æ Outstanding Teaching in a Term Faculty Appointment (2013)
School Of Public Affairs Outstanding Teaching in a Term Faculty Appointment (2012)
Chair’s Award for Exemplary Service, Department of Justice, Law and Society (2011)
Work In Progress
Selected Publications
Jessica L. Waters and Madelyn Adams, , The Conversation, (March 2024)
Jessica L. Waters, , The Hill (Feb 2024)
Jessica L Waters, , The Hill (January 2024)
Jessica L. Waters, Untangling The Reproductive Rights and Religious Liberty Knot Yale Journal of Law and Feminism)
Jessica L. Waters and Lynn A. Addington, The Marshall-Brennan Effect: The Benefits of Teaching Constitutional Literacy for Law Students, 90 Denver University Law Review (2013)
Jessica L. Waters, Testing Hosanna Tabor: The Implications for Pregnancy Discrimination Claims and Employees’ Reproductive Rights, 8 Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (2013)
Lynn A. Addington and Jessica L. Waters, Public Interest 101: Using the Law School Curriculum to Quell Public Interest Drift and Expand Students’ Public Interest Commitment, 21 Journal of Gender, Social Policy, and the Law 79 (2012)
Stephanie Sterling and Jessica Waters, Beyond Religious Refusals: The Case for Protecting Health Care Workers’ Provision of Care, 34 Harvard Journal of Law and Gender (2011)
Jessica Waters, In Whose Best Interest?: New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services v. V.M. and B.G. and The Next Wave of Court-Controlled Pregnancies, 34 Harvard Journal of Law and Gender 81 (2011)
Â鶹Æƽâ°æ Experts
Area of Expertise
abortion, reproductive rights, women and politics, women's issues, reproductive rights
Additional Information
Jessica Waters focuses her research primarily on reproductive rights law. Her recent work has explored questions related to the legal impact of women’s medical decisions during pregnancy and childbirth, employment-based conscience protections for reproductive health care providers, and the reproductive rights of employees working for religiously affiliated employers. Her work has been published in the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, the Â鶹Æƽâ°æ Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law, and the Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Prior to joining to joining the Â鶹Æƽâ°æ faculty full-time, Waters was an adjunct professor at Washington College of Law and a litigator at WilmerHale, where she specialized in criminal defense litigation, internal investigations, and reproductive rights litigation and advocacy. She also clerked for the Honorable Emmet Sullivan on the D.C. District Court. Waters previously worked at a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting access to reproductive health care. Professor Waters also serves as the Chair of the Children's Law Center Advisory Board, and is a guardian ad litem in the D.C. courts.
For the Media
To request an interview for a news story, call Â鶹Æƽâ°æ Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.