Cheryl Anthony Epps

Southside High, Dinwiddie County (1966)
Lawyer

Cheryl Anthony Epps was valedictorian of the class of 1966 at Southside High School. She won a competitive academic scholarship to Howard University, where she graduated with a B. A. degree in 1970. Having won a Ford Foundation Fellowship for graduate study at Howard, she earned the M. A. in Higher Education Administration in 1972 and the J. D. degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1983. Her specialization was in the Prosecution Function, and she was selected for membership on the American Criminal Law Review. While in law school, she was recruited by the Office of the District Attorney, County of New York in Manhattan. She served as an Assistant District Attorney and Assistant Special Narcotics Prosecutor for the City of New York. Other positions included Legislative Director for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Director of Government Policy for the National Drug Policy Foundation, and Assistant Counsel to the Crime and Criminal Justice Subcommittee of the U. S. House of Representative’s Committee on the Judiciary, where she coordinated all capital punishment legislation in the House. From 2001 to 2011 she was an Assistant Professor in the pre-law program at American University, where she specialized in the perils and inequities of the criminal justice system as it applied to minorities and women. She was also a sought-after consultant in equal opportunity law for a range of federal agencies and international companies. Ms. Epps is now retired and living in Dinwiddie County.