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Chris Yerian Staff Attorney
Chris Yerian grew up in Southeastern Ohio. She graduated from Shenandoah High School, where she was kept busy in the band and drama, by volunteering with a local hospital, as the president of her schools S.A.D.D. chapter, by helping establish a peer listening program. She graduated magna cum laude from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio with a Bachelor’s in Science and Religion. At Case Western, Chris was the recipient of a President’s Scholarship; the Ratner Family Prize; and Project Step Up Volunteer Tutor of the Year. She was on the Dean’s High Honors List and a member of the Mortar Board. She kept busy as a Resident Assistant and a Hallinan Center Soup Kitchen Volunteer. After graduating from Vanderbilt Divinity School with an M. Div. in 1999 (Honors on Master’s Thesis/Senior Project), Chris spent a year volunteering with the Martha O’Bryan Center in East Nashville through the Americorps*VISTA program, where she managed a matched-savings program designed to assist the working poor, particularly single mothers, in obtaining assets such as small businesses, homes, and education. She has mentored with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago, taught English as a second language, and assisted with publicity for nonprofit events. Chris was drawn to spending the summer of 2006 at the TJC because of its employees’ passion and its reputation as an outstanding law firm, and also because of her own commitment to justice and serving the poor. She graduated from Vanderbilt University Law School with a J. D. Degree in May 2007. While there, Chris was a member of the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law; Women Law Students Association; Legal Aid Society, and the recipient of a Lightfoot, Franklin & White Best Oralist Award. Chris joined the TJC full-time in September 2007 as the Center’s first Skadden Fellow. She was chosen as a recipient of this highly selective honor, which gives Fellows the freedom to pursue public interest work by fully funding them for two years. Chris explains her pursuit of public interest law in this way: “I obtained a legal education to address problems I saw poor families experiencing. I intend to use my legal skills to ensure that poor children receive the behavioral services they need and to which they are entitled under state and federal law. I am thrilled that the Skadden Fellowship Foundation has decided to pay me to do the work I want to do and that the TJC invited me to work as part of its distinguished staff.” Away from work, Chris enjoys spending time with her husband, gardening, cooking and reading novels. |
