Lawrence, Kan.

A University of Kansas law professor has joined a distinguished handful of scholars, writers and artists who have been named Fletcher Fellows.

Stacy L. Leeds, professor of law and director of KU' Tribal Law and Government Center, is among four academics in the country to receive the honor this year. The Fletcher Fellowship program, a charitable initiative created in 2004 and named for Alphonse Fletcher Sr., commemorates the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board. This year' selection committee chose the four recipients from a pool of more than 80 applicants.

“Receiving the fellowship is a tremendous honor, and I am humbled by the generosity of the Fletcher Foundation," Leeds said. "The fellowship will support research and scholarship on tribal sovereignty and the unique legal history of freedmen citizenship within the Cherokee Nation."

The award comes with a $50,000 stipend for work that contributes to improving racial equality in American society and furthers the broad social goals of the U.S. Supreme Court' landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

Leeds joined the KU law faculty in 2003 after serving as assistant professor and director of the Northern Plains Indian Law Center at the University of North Dakota School of Law. Her law teaching career began at the University of Wisconsin School of Law, where she received her LL.M. as a William H. Hastie Fellow. She earned her bachelor' degree from Washington University in St. Louis and her law degree from the University of Tulsa.

Leeds is a former justice on the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court, the only woman and youngest person ever to serve in that capacity. During that time, Leeds authored the majority opinion in Allen v. Cherokee Nation, a judicial decision that upheld the tribal citizenship rights of the "freedmen" and is considered a decision parallel to Brown v. Board.

Leeds is chair of the American Bar Association' Judicial Division' Tribal Courts Council and a member of the Advisory Board for the National Judicial College' Tribal Judicial Center. She is chief judge of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation District Court, chief justice of the Supreme Court for the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma and associate justice on the Kaw Nation Supreme Court.