A List
9/29/03

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL ELECTED SLU TRUSTEE

CANTON – Sharee M. Freeman, director of the Community Relations Service of 
the United States Department of Justice and a 1976 graduate of St. Lawrence 
University, has been elected to a six-year term as trustee of the University, 
effective immediately. 
      Freeman was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on November 6, 2001, and 
sworn in as director of the Community Relations Service (CRS) for the justice 
department on December 3, 2001. The CRS helps local communities resolve 
serious racial and ethnic conflicts. Its services, which include mediation 
of disputes and conflicts; training in conflict resolution skills; and help 
in developing ways to prevent and resolve conflicts, are provided to local 
officials and leaders by trained federal mediators on a voluntary and cost-free 
basis. 
      Prior to her appointment to the CRS, Freeman served as counsel to the 
U.S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee. A native New 
Yorker, Freeman earned her St. Lawrence degree in government and sociology 
and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. Immediately following law 
school, she clerked for the Honorable Norma Holloway Johnson, senior judge, 
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
      Freeman has worked as a public servant for the government in various 
capacities since the early 1980's. From 1982 to 1984, she was an assistant 
district attorney in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1984, she joined the 
Solicitor's Office for the U.S. Department of the Interior where she served 
as the acting assistant solicitor for General Indian Legal Activities and as 
an attorney-advisor. During her 13-year tenure at the U.S. Department of 
the Interior, Freeman worked extensively with Native American tribes throughout 
the United States and spent a number of months as an observer with the 
Canadian Department of Justice in Ottawa. From 1997 to 2001, she served as 
full committee counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on 
the Judiciary.
      Freeman lives in Arlington, Virginia. She is an advocate of community 
service and is active with the Step Ahead program, which serves dinner for 
the homeless of the metropolitan D.C. area. While a student at St. Lawrence, 
she was a member of the Black Student Union, the Forensic Society, the 
Gridiron (yearbook) staff and Pi Beta Phi sorority. As an alumna, Freeman 
has volunteered as a career advisor for the University.

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