Jocelyn Benson

Jocelyn Benson is CEO of the Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality (RISE). She is an expert on civil rights law, education law and election law. Benson served as dean of Wayne State University Law School in Detroit from 2012 to 2016 and has taught courses on Legislative Oversight, Race and the Law, and Sports and Inequality. She continues to serve as director of the Levin Center at Wayne Law, which she founded with former U.S. Sen. Carl Levin. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the Southern Poverty Law Center and Michigan State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Founded in 2015 by Miami Dolphins owner Stephen M. Ross, the Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality (RISE) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to harnessing the unifying power of sports to improve race relations and drive social progress. Led by an unprecedented alliance of professional sports leagues, organizations, athletes, educators, media networks and sports professionals, RISE uses sports to promote understanding, respect and equality.