Prof. Yifat Bitton

Professor Yifat Bitton is a legal academic and social activist for equality (focusing on gender and origin), serving as President of Achva Academic College and of the Israeli National Board of Public Colleges.

Ph.D. The Hebrew University; LLM, Yale University Law School (all honors); Visiting Researcher Harvard University (Fulbright Fellow).

Visiting Professor, University of Chicago, NYU, and Peking University, China; Associate professor, The College of Management Law School, Israel; Affiliated Visiting Professor, School of Transnational Law, 2009-2014.

Throughout her career, Prof. Bitton has been a staunch advocate for gender equality, both within and beyond the academic realm; Her innovative academic research has shed light on pressing gender-related issues, leading to practical solutions and policy recommendations. Bitton is the co-founder and chair of Tmura, The Israeli Center for Equality, where she litigated human rights torts cases, a field initiated and developed by her, for 20 years, voluntarily. For her long-lasting human rights work, Bitton has won myriad social and legal awards and prizes. Among them: The Aliance Prize for Education and Social Change, 2016; The Minister of Social Equality Award for Organizations Fighting Violence against Women, 2016 (Given to Tmura); “Honoris Causa” Award, the Israeli Bar Association, 2015; Nominated Forbes’ 50 Most Influential Women in Israel, 2015 and more.

Bitton was shortlisted twice for Israel’s Supreme Court, 2016, 2018, making history as the youngest woman and the first woman of Mizrahi descent to ever appear on the list.

Bitton served as director and head of Audit Committee on the Advisory Committee of Israel’s Central Bank.

As president of Achva Academic College, her leadership structures the college first and foremost as an Academic Institution which models and embodies gender equality in every possible aspect, starting from its leading management members and board and following with its high percentage of female students, which stands on 89% female.(!) The college offers a female and family friendly environment and ordinances, designed to include a diverse body of students descending from marginalized communities of Israel’s southern periphery.