Gayla Jacobson

Gayla Jacobson (she/her) is the Executive Director of Admissions at CUNY School of Law. She’s been at the law school for a decade and thinks she has the best job in the world: Connecting change-makers with the tools to reimagine the world. Gayla grew up in Portland, Oregon with yoga teacher parents who started a neighborhood health food store and cafe. She built houses in Mexico in high school and then moved to Southern California to attend Pitzer College because of their focus on social responsibility and intercultural understanding. While there, she studied Sociology and Chinese and spent a semester studying Traditional Chinese Medicine in Shanghai. After twelve years moving around California she found her forever home, New York City. She describes CUNY as a little bit of Portland in New York and was thrilled to learn the average rainfall is actually higher than in Portland, although in NYC it comes down all at once! Gayla met her spouse on the soccer field and is now raising two native New Yorkers who are becoming subway savvy pizza snobs. Her dog, Darryl, is a 70-pound lap dog with severe anxiety. When the kids are asleep she loves scaring herself with cheesy horror films and Stephen King novels. Gayla earned her masters degree in Public Administration from Baruch, and has almost 20 years experience in Law School Admissions. Before coming to CUNY, she worked at both UC Hastings, College of the Law and Southwestern Law School. Gayla is actively involved in the Law School Admissions Council and the Cystic Fibrosis Parent/Family Advisory Committee, and she founded the National Consortium of Public Interest Law Schools. She is currently studying for her level 1 Children’s Yoga and Mindfulness certification.