Lezli Baskerville
*Lezli Baskerville was born on this date in 1956. She is a Black lawyer, judge, and education advocate.
Baskerville was born in Montclair, New Jersey, to Marjorie Baskerville and Charles W. Baskerville. Her mother was a teacher and social worker, and her father was a marketing executive. She has an identical twin, Dr. Renee E. Baskerville. She graduated from Montclair High School. She earned her bachelor's degree from Douglass Residential College in New Jersey. She earned her J.D. from Howard University School of Law in 1979. She graduated cum laude as a constitutional rights lawyer. She graduated from the Executive Management Program for Minority Directors at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.
Between 1989 and 1999, Baskerville managed the Baskerville Group. From 1999 until 2003, Baskerville was vice president of government relations for The College Board. She was the chief executive officer of the Washington, D.C., office. Baskerville served as co-chair of the Pathways to College Network. She also helped lead the design of the College Board's Equity Initiative and the National Dialogue on Student Financial Aid. Baskerville was executive director of the National Black Leadership Roundtable and was the appellate counsel at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
While an administrative appeals judge in Washington, D.C., she was on the national legislative counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 2004, Baskerville became the president and CEO of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education. She was its first female president and the first person to lead the organization, but she is not a current president of an HBCU. She serves on the Department of Homeland Security's Academic Advisory Commission, the HBCU Capital Finance Board, and the STEM4US Board.
Baskerville was named one of the 100 Women Leaders in STEM-by-Stem Connector. AOL Black Voices named her among the Top 10 Black Women in Higher Education. Ebony Magazine named her one of the Top 100 Most Influential Association Leaders for six straight years. She has received an honorary doctorate from Benedict College. In 1998, she was inducted into The Douglass Society by Douglass College. Lezli Baskerville currently lives in Washington, D.C.
