The American Bar Association (ABA) has recognized SFU education professor Wanda Cassidy with its Isidore Starr Award for Excellence in Law-Related Education for her work to improve legal literacy in schools across Canada.

Cassidy is the first person outside the U.S. to receive the award, named after Isidore Starr, the acknowledged U.S. "father of law-related education." It’s presented annually to an individual who has made significant contributions in promoting excellence in law-related education in elementary or secondary schools.

Cassidy, who the ABA cites as “the mother” of Canadian law-related education, directed SFU’s Centre for Education, Law and Society, which she helped create, for more than 25 years. It’s the only university-based centre in the country dedicated to improving young people’s legal literacy through teaching, curriculum, research and community initiatives.

The centre also offers credit courses and professional development opportunities to more than 500 teachers and students annually.

Cassidy continues to work with teachers and students across the country promoting the value of law-related education. She has always strived “to provide young people with a greater understanding of the role that law plays in their lives and in our democracy,” she says, in hopes they’ll become more active in creating “a just, fair and equitable society.”

Cassidy’s efforts have led to revisions in the B.C. social studies curriculum to include a focus on law and, beyond schools, to the establishment of the research committee of the Public Legal Education Association of Canada.

She has authored several books, including Once Upon a Crime: Using Stories, Simulations and Mock Trials to Explore Justice and Citizenship in Elementary School (2005). And she recently released an award-winning DVD called Dare to Care: Transforming Schools Through the Ethics of Care, chronicling an ongoing research project on the role that ethical caring can play in schools and the wider community.