Sherri Thomas

Assistant Director, Collection & Systems

Associate Dean of Institutional Climate & Equity

Professor

(505) 277-2228
Office 3329B
thomas [at] law.unm.edu

Education

A.A.S. 1993, San Juan College
B.A. 1996, Fort Lewis College
J.D. with a Certificate in Indian Law 2005, UNM School of Law

Profile

Professor Sherri Nicole Thomas serves as Assistant Director of the Law Library for the University of New Mexico School of Law (UNMSOL). As Assistant Director, Sherri coordinates collection management and leads the Library Systems Group. She teaches required Legal Research courses and frequently leads legal writing and research workshops and courses focused on specific legal topics. She provides presentations on diversity issues and other substantive areas of law, including Federal Indian, Tribal, and Copyright law. Additionally, she frequently teaches Advocacy in the American Indian Law Center’s (AILC) Pre-Law Summer Institute (PLSI). Formerly, she served as the Law School’s Associate Dean of Institutional Culture and Equity from January 2019 until July 2024.

In 2019, the Society of American Archivists honored her contributions to the Indigenous Digital Archive Treaties Explorer awarding the project the C.F.W. Coker Award for innovative development in archival description or descriptive tools that enable archivists to produce effective finding aids.

Additionally, she was honored in 2024 with recognition as PLSI Champion by the AILC due to her commitment and collaboration with the program.

Sherri is Black and American Indian, and she grew up on the Dine (Navajo) Reservation and is an enrolled member of Taos Pueblo.

Before graduating from the UNMSOL in 2005 with an Indian Law certificate, Sherri worked as the Information Manager for Environmental Risk Analysis, Inc., a bio-litigation consulting firm, in San Mateo, CA, and as a Database Specialist/Cataloger for Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, PC, based in Palo Alto, CA.

Community Engagement

American Association of Law Libraries (AALL)
Southwestern Association of Law Libraries (SWALL)
UNMSOL Academic Success Committee
UNMSOL Indian Law Committee

Publications & Contributions

Academic & Professional Journals

When the State Bar Exam Embraces Indian Law: Teaching Experiences and Observations, 82 N.D. L. Rev. 741 (2013). Co-authored with Gloria Valencia-Weber.

Presentations

Digital Treaties Workshops, part of National Archives and Museum of Indian Arts and Culture Native American Treaties Digitization Project (2020). View the Workshops Online.

The UNM Law Library—An Information Partner for You and Your Community, Administration for Native Americans Grant Workshop for pueblo community library staffs (2015). Co-presented with Michelle Rigual.

Case Law Updates: Dollar General, Tribal Sovereignty, Child Custody, Tribal Court Jurisdiction, and Exhaustion of Tribal Remedies, 8th Annual Tribal Leadership Conference: Transitions (2015).