Angela Upchurch | SIU

Professor Angela Upchurch joined the law faculty at Southern Illinois University School of Law in 2014.  She is a recognized expert in law school pedagogy, children and family law, and procedural law.

Professor Upchurch has presented on legal pedagogy, and her innovative approaches to integrating technology into the law school classroom, at several national teaching conferences and faculty workshops at law schools across the country.  Professor Upchurch drew upon her innovative use of educational technology to co-author Click & Learn: Civil Procedure, an online interactive book for law students published by Carolina Academic Press. In 2020, Professor Upchurch was awarded the Southern Illinois University-Level Tenured/Tenure-Track Teaching Excellence Award and received the permanent title of Distinguished Teacher.  In 2022, she joined the Editorial Board for the Journal of Law Teaching and Learning.

An expert in children and family law, Professor Upchurch participated in the 2008 White House Compassion in Action Roundtable on "Faith and Community Solutions for Orphans and Vulnerable Children" and presented on the Hague Treaty on Intercountry Adoption before the National Conference of State Legislatures. She has taught a variety of children and family law courses and served as the Academic Director of the National Center for the Adoption Law and Policy at Capital University Law School from 2007 to 2010.  

Professor Upchurch received her J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law where she graduated first in her class and served as the editor-in-chief for the Loyola University Chicago Law Journal and as a Loyola Child Law Fellow. After graduation from law school, Professor Upchurch was a law clerk to the Honorable Michael M. Murphy of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and to the Honorable Avern Cohn of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.  She was a member of the law faculty of Capital University School of Law from 2003 until she joined the law faculty at Southern Illinois University School of Law.