Kiana Pierre-Louis, Esq.

Kiana Pierre-Louis, Esq. is an Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Northeastern University School of Law. Prior to Northeastern, Kiana was a Senior Law Lecturer, Pre-law Advisor, and a Course Coordinator at Bentley University in the Law & Taxation Department. At Bentley University, Kiana taught several business law courses and courses that deal with diversity, equity and inclusion like, Race and the Law and Social Justice Law an embedded travel course.

After receiving her juris doctorate and passing the bar, Kiana worked for two small law firms practicing civil litigation, corporate law, and criminal defense. In 2004, Kiana became Partner/Owner for Perkins & Baskin, P.C., where she practiced Real Estate law, corporate law, and civil litigation. Realizing she had a passion for Real Estate, Kiana and her business partner subsequently started Perkins & Baskin Realty in 2006, a real estate company, where they were real estate brokers helping buyers and sellers with the purchase and sale of their homes. In 2009, Kiana decided to close both firms and focus on teaching and family.

Kiana has a passion for social justice and diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging and owns a consulting company, Justice Belongs Institute, LLC that centers this work. Her professional work and her work in her hometown centers on social justice advocacy. Kiana co-created a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Major at Bentley University. She has won numerous awards that
recognize her work in advising and mentoring students, her leadership and dedication to advancing DEI initiatives, and her outstanding teaching capabilities. Kiana is the first Black person to be elected to the Select Board in Sharon, MA. She previously was the Chair of the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee for the Town of Sharon. She sits on the Board of
Directors for KodeConnect, Inc. a non-profit organization helping marginalized youth to get access to STEM classes for little to no cost and she is an Advisory Board member of Youth LEAD at Emerson College. She is also the President and a board member of Sharon Racial Equity Alliance (SREA) an antiracist non-profit centering the racial inequities of BIPOC individuals in Sharon, MA.

Kiana has been honored to receive the Earl L. Avery MLK Jr Leadership Award, two Innovation in Teaching Awards, the Gregory H. Adamian Award for Teaching Excellence, the Joseph M. Cronin Award for Advising and Mentoring, and Advisor of the year from Bentley University. She has also been recognized for her social justice advocacy as a 2021 Massachusetts Black & Latino Caucus Black Excellence on the Hill Nominee and honored as Citizen of the Year in 2021 by the Town of Sharon. Kiana has also been highlighted for her business and legal expertise by the Massachusetts Conference for Women. In 2021, she had one of the most watched Learning Burst on Building Self Confidence and was one of the top-rated podcast speakers for giving
advice on being chronically underpaid.