LaVonda N. Reed, associate provost for faculty affairs at Syracuse University, has been named dean of the College of Law at Georgia State University.
Reed will be the seventh dean in the college’s history and the first African American to lead the College of Law.
“With experience across multiple aspects of college and university life, from faculty affairs and governance to student success and teaching, Dean Reed will provide the leadership necessary to advance Georgia State Law as an innovative, forward-thinking institution of legal education,” said Wendy Hensel, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. “She will become a critical part of our leadership team, and I look forward to her contributions to achieve and expand upon the university’s strategic goals.”
Reed joined the faculty at Syracuse University College of Law in 2006. Her research and teaching are in the areas of wills and trusts, property, and communications regulatory law and policy.
Since 2015, Reed has been the associate provost for faculty affairs, where she is responsible for supporting more than 1,700 faculty members. She has oversight of research and administrative leaves, promotion and tenure review, policy development and enforcement, and awards, among other duties. She also has been responsible for the stewardship and oversight of the Lender Center for Social Justice, as well as the stewardship of a multimillion-dollar endowment to support teaching excellence across the university.
“To join this distinctive research institution in a vibrant city is an honor and privilege,” said Reed. “I look forward to leading the College of Law in positively impacting legal education and the profession and to meeting the demands of a changing world, while providing educational access to those who want to study and learn at Georgia State University College of Law.”
Reed has led initiatives to recruit and retain diverse faculty, experience that will help advance Georgia State’s Next Generation of Faculty Initiative. She created the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence and the Center for Faculty Leadership and Professional Development, which helped further the work of Syracuse’s National Science Foundation ADVANCE grant designed to support women and underrepresented minority scholars in STEM disciplines.
Her dedication to diversity, equity and inclusion extends to the campus at large where she focuses on supporting first-generation and underrepresented faculty, staff and students—which is in line with Georgia State’s student success efforts.
Prior to her appointment at Syracuse University, she was on the faculty of the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville. She also was a judicial clerk for the Honorable Donald W. VanArtsdalen of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and practiced communications and corporate law with the international firm of Paul Hastings LLP.
Reed earned her Juris doctor degree from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law and a bachelor of arts degree in economics from the University of Virginia.
Leslie E. Wolf, who has served as the college’s interim dean since July 2019, will return to the faculty in the College of Law.
Source: https://news.gsu.edu/2021/04/29/lavonda-n-reed-named-dean-of-the-college-of-law/
