Mary Owusu

Mary graduated with a J.D. from Osgoode Hall Law School and has extensive years of experience working with community, human rights, and access to justice initiatives. Prior to joining the Faculty of Law, Mary worked both internationally and locally with community-based organizations such as the Female Lawyers Association Gambia (FLAG), Foundation for Human Rights Initiative Uganda (FHRI), the award-winning African DefendDefenders organization, the Pan-African Human Rights Defenders Network (PAHRDN), Parkdale Community Legal Services, Rexdale Community Legal Clinic, and the Health Justice Partnership (HJP) pilot.

 

Mary is presently the Acting Executive Director of Law in Action Within Schools (LAWS), Canada’s leading law school youth outreach/diversity pipeline program which is recognized as a leader in its field across North America. She has implemented educational outreach and experiential programs in law for over a thousand students across various LAWS newcomer, core, alumni and community initiatives and played an instrumental role in spearheading the development and expansion of LAWS Africentric core program. In recognition of her outstanding contributions, Mary was honored in 2023 with the inaugural Ubuntu Lifetime Achievement Award. This award acknowledges her as an African-Canadian leader and educator whose lifework embodies the fundamental principles of Maat and Ubuntu: harmony, reciprocity, balance, integrity, truth, social justice, and universal love.

 

Mary also oversees the University of Toronto Faculty of Law Youth Summer Program (YSP) and sits on the Faculty’s Black Student Access Process (BSAP) subcommittee, the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) committee and the Black Future Lawyers (BFL) Working Group. She is deeply committed to building inclusive communities and is a passionate champion for supporting system change around EDI.