Biography
Margaret Fisher is a Research Professor at Seattle University School of Law and a nationally recognized leader in law-related civic education. For more than four decades, she has advanced public understanding of the law through innovative teaching, curriculum development, and community partnerships. An early pioneer of the Street Law movement, she taught in Georgetown University Law Center's Street Law Program before joining the Seattle University faculty in 1982.
Professor Fisher's work focuses on civic education, youth engagement, access to justice, and experiential legal learning. Since 2002, she has led partnerships between judges and high school teachers to bring Street Law programs into classrooms throughout Washington State, helping thousands of students gain practical knowledge of the legal system. She also served as a Senior Fulbright Scholar in Southern Africa, where she helped establish Street Law programs in secondary schools and has continued to support international legal education initiatives.
In 2012, Professor Fisher founded Seattle's first Youth Traffic Court in collaboration with the Seattle Municipal Court, Garfield High School, and the Seattle Police Department. The program received the Seattle CityClub Youth Civic Education Award and Seattle University's Spirit of the Community Award. She continues to support the development of youth courts across Washington State and internationally.
Professor Fisher is the author and contributor to numerous law-related education curricula, including national Street Law materials, youth court training resources for the American Bar Association, and conflict resolution programs. She also served as Executive Producer of the Emmy-nominated educational video Myths and Misperceptions of Washington State Courts.
A longtime advocate for civic learning, Professor Fisher is a founding member and past president of Washington's Civic Learning Council and has played a leading role in statewide civic education initiatives. Since 2009, she has served as Washington State Director for iCivics, the nonprofit civic education organization founded by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and launched iCivicsWA to provide Washington-specific civic education resources. She also partners with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington to conduct the annual Judicial Institute for Teachers, a program that has strengthened constitutional and judicial education for hundreds of educators.
Her contributions to civic and legal education have been recognized nationally, including the Sandra Day O'Connor Award for the Advancement of Civics from the National Center for State Courts, the American Bar Association's Isidore Starr Award for Excellence in Law-Related Education, the Washington State Bar Association Award for Public Service, and the Street Law Advocate of the Year Award.