User Profile

Director and Founder, South Carolina Restorative Justice Initiative, University of South Carolina School of Law

Aparna is a law professor and restorative justice practitioner and advocate. She has over a decade of experience working in human rights, with a specific focus on how women's rights can be promoted and inhibited by informal justice systems. Through her work in sub-Saharan Africa, Aparna came to understand and respect the contributions of community-driven justice practices. More recently, she has worked with local partners to promote and develop restorative justice practices in South Carolina, founding the South Carolina Restorative Justice Initiative in 2020. She has conducted webinars and trainings with local and national audiences on the use of restorative justice to address harms, including gender-based violence, and has hosted skills-building workshops to build capacity in local communities. As a practitioner, she also engages in more local-level repair harm and community-building work. Aparna initially pursued study at MIT intending to become a neuroscientist before finding her interest in policy and law. She was a Corporate Associate at Locke Lorde LLP in Boston before pursuing her academic career. Prior to coming to University of South Carolina, she was working as a Teaching Fellow and Supervising Attorney at the International Women's Human Rights Clinic at Georgetown University Law Center. She is a current member of the SC Access to Justice Commission and the World Justice Project Rule of Law Research Consortium. Aparna earned her Master of Laws (LLM) and Juris Doctor at Georgetown University Law Center, a Master of Arts from Tufts University, and a Bachelor of Science in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.