Director
Aliza Organick, a citizen of the Diné Nation, born to the Tsenijikini Clan (Cliff Dweller Clan), joined the Washburn University School of Law faculty in 2004, bringing an expertise in clinical legal education, tribal court practice, and criminal defense in Indian Country. Her career at Washburn began with the creation of the Tribal and State Court Practice clinic section with its focus on representing Native clients in Kansas tribal courts.
Prior to joining the Washburn Law faculty, she was a Visiting Professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law. Professor Organick earned her J.D. from the University of New Mexico in 1996. Immediately following her graduation from law school, she co-founded the Miners’ Legal Resource Center (MLRC), a grant funded public interest law initiative. MLRC provided basic access to legal advocacy and diagnostic health care services for coal and uranium miners in the Four Corners region of the southwest United States, including the Navajo Reservation.
Professor Organick is the co-founder and co-organizer of the Indian Law Clinics and Externship Symposium which takes place annually in Indian Country. The goal of this symposium is to create a pedagogy and methodology for training law students to practice law among Native people in Indigenous communities. She has organized and presented at numerous continuing legal education programs, including those that focus on developing expertise in the practice of law in tribal court settings. Professor Organick has also been an invited presenter on the Indigenous Stream at the Society of Legal Scholars Annual conference at De Montfort University in Leicester, United Kingdom in 2009.
Professor Organick is currently serving as Chair of the American Association of Law School’s section on Indian Nations and Indigenous Peoples. She is admitted to practice in New Mexico, Kansas, the Federal District Court for the District of New Mexico, and the Prairie Band Potawatomi District Court, Kickapoo Tribal Court, and Iowa Nation Tribal Court.