Jessica L. Heywood

Jessica L. Heywood has taught at the University of Georgia School of Law since 2012, and she directs several experiential programs, including the D.C. Semester, a full-time externship in Washington, D.C., that places students in agencies, national nonprofits and on Capitol Hill; the Capital Assistance Project, a part-time externship in which students work with attorneys representing indigent defendants charged with, or convicted of, capital crimes; and a remote full-time externship that places students with governmental and nonprofit placements across the country. In close partnership with the Dean Rusk International Law Center, Heywood also teaches and directs students externing abroad, mostly in private law firms.

Heywood has lived and worked in the nation's capital since 2002. Before joining the School of Law faculty, she served as director of the Office of Career & Professional Development at The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law for seven years.

Previously, she was an associate at Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi in Washington, D.C., and Fenwick & West in Palo Alto, Calif. She has also served as a judicial clerk for Judge G. Ernest Tidwell of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, then chief judge.

Heywood earned her bachelor's degree in political science with honors from Emory University, where she debated nationally as a member of the Barkley Forum. She received her Juris Doctor, with honors, from UGA, where she served on the Georgia Law Review and participated in Moot Court.