Rhonda Heard Dickens is an Assistant Professor at the University of the District of Columbia Community College, where she has been a member of the faculty since 2015 teaching law-related coursework in the Criminology degree program. Her expertise is working with young people and teaching the foundational legal principles that are required for students seeking a profession in law enforcement and corrections.
Before becoming a professor, she practiced law with the Washington, D.C. office of Dickstein Shapiro LLP. She represented matters from civil litigation to government relations compliance. Her pro bono work helped to reconnect displaced refugees during the conflict in Rwanda, mentor youth at Duke Ellington School of the Arts, and draft temporary protection orders for domestic violence victims. She also served as the judicial intern for the late Chief Judge Eugene Hamilton at Superior Court in Washington, D.C. As a judicial intern, she communicated with court personnel and United States Marshals in presenting defendants scheduled for trial, as well as, stepping back defendants into custody. She researched and wrote legal memoranda, drafted motions and orders in all types of local court matters, involving complex family law cases, and criminal matters, including post-conviction motions and related civil matters such as petitions for extraordinary relief filed by or on behalf of sentenced inmates, pretrial detainees, probation violators, and other litigants.
Professor Dickens has held presentations for her Criminal Procedure and Criminal Justice Systems courses where a representative from D.C. Public Defender Service conducts a presentation on the Criminal Law Internship Program. Her former student joins the presentation to share her experience as an Intern to becoming an Investigator. Her Conflicts Resolution and Mediation course engages students with practical applications by training and participating in mock mediations.
She holds a Juris Doctorate from Howard University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard University.
