The UDC David A. Clarke School of Law is proud to announce the appointment of Professor Stephanie Brown as the inaugural Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) for the law school. Dean Brown will lead efforts to address race issues, LGBTQ+ concerns, gender issues, generational challenges and other issues of diversity, equity and inclusion as they arise.
The Associate Dean for DEI will be responsible for keeping the law school community positively focused on advancement in the DEI space. For example, Brown will produce a year-long learning series, anchored by a monthly curriculum and readings, that will guide listening, learning and leading and will feature expert speakers across a wide range of topics. The program is inspired by the Anti-Racist Clearinghouse Project created by the American Association of Law Schools (AALS). More broadly, the Associate Dean for DEI will make every effort to be purposeful about fashioning a progressive and inclusive culture at UDC Law.
“Our challenges with creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive community are not simply historic relics,” said Dean Renee Hutchins, adding, “Those challenges continue to complicate our present day operations. As the last year in this country has laid bare, absent deliberate counter effort, the hydraulic pressures of bias and privilege can become embedded in the fabric of a community.”
UDC Law is one of only six law schools with the historically black college or university (HBCU) designation, and the school perennially ranks in the top ten for diversity. The addition of Dean Brown as Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion further demonstrates the law school’s commitment to increasing minority and underserved representation in the legal field.