The board of directors of the Good Shepherd Mediation Program will honor Associate Dean Susan Brooks as a “Shepherd of Peace” on Oct. 18.

The award recognizes Brooks’ efforts to promote peace, social justice and the health and safety of children and families in Philadelphia.

The associate dean of experiential learning, Brooks oversees the school’s Co-op, Clinic, Trial Advocacy and Pro Bono programs. She is an international leader in efforts to shape educational strategies that provide diverse and meaningful opportunities for law students to gain practical experience as well as insights about the legal profession, the workplace and interactions with clients. She has developed innovative courses on holistic representation, professional identity formation, reflective practice and access to justice.

As a scholar, Brooks is a pioneer in the emerging field of therapeutic jurisprudence, which focuses on the interactions between the legal system and mental health as well as processes used by the courts that promote the well-being of those who come into contact with them. Most recently, she wrote “Creating a Beloved Community by Teaching Relational Lawyering,” a chapter in “Transforming Justice, Lawyers, and the Practice of Law,” published in 2017 by Carolina Academic Press.

Brooks was the lead organizer of the Second Annual Conference of the Project for Integrating Spirituality, Law and Politics, which the law school hosted in 2016. The conference drew scores of law professors, legal practitioners, judges and community activists interested in using the law as a tool that can foster empathy, compassion and social change.

Over the past decade, Shepherd of Peace awards have gone to a wide array of leaders from Philadelphia’s civic, academic, legal and cultural communities.