Faculty Profile: Jessica Van Dyke

Jessica Van Dyke is the Legal Director and Co-Founder of The Innocence Project. She graduated from the University of Tennessee Law School, where, as a law student, she cut her teeth on post-conviction work in the university's Wrongful Convictions Clinic. She has remained passionate about wrongful convictions and after eight years at Parker Lawrence Cantrell & Smith, left the firm in January 2019 to help launch the Tennessee Innocence Project. Jessica is a proud graduate of Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois and received her Master’s from Vanderbilt University. Jessica has served on the Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Board of Directors and served for several years as the organization’s Indigent Defense Chair. She has been the recipient of TACDL’s Workhorse Award and the Robert W. Ritchie Service Award. She is a member of the Nashville Bar Association, Tennessee Bar Association, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.