from MSU Today
The Michigan State University College of Law community warmly welcomed Linda Sheryl Greene, incoming dean and MSU Foundation Professor of Law, on June 1, 2021.
Greene comes to MSU Law from the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Law, where she joined the faculty in 1989 as a full professor. Previously, she was a visiting professor at both Georgetown University Law Center and Harvard Law School. At Harvard, she was the first African American woman to teach at the law school.
Greene’s administrative work has been distinguished by a commitment to building and supporting diverse learning communities. She served as associate vice chancellor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison for five years where she led faculty tenure track strategic hiring initiatives – women in STEM, minority post-docs and tenure track faculty, dual career couples, and interdisciplinary cluster hires. She was also the inaugural vice chancellor of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at the University of California, San Diego. As a past chief diversity officer at two research-intensive universities, she looks forward to supporting the leadership of MSU in this important work.
Greene brings decades of leadership experience in the legal community to the MSU Law decanal position, including:
• President, the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT);
• Vice Chair, the Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO);
• Elected Member of The American Law Institute (ALI) in 1991; inducted as an ALI Life Member in 2016;
• Appointee on multiple committees for the American Association of Law Schools (AALS); and
• AALS Representative to the American Council of Learned Societies.
She earned her bachelor’s degree at California State University–Long Beach, her juris doctor at the University of California–Berkeley, and a certificate in public international law from The Hague Academy of International Law. Prior to entering academia, Dean Greene served as an attorney at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in New York City and a Deputy City Attorney in Los Angeles. She was also a Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.
Greene’s scholarship focuses on constitutional law, civil rights law, and sports law, where she writes about the intersection of race and gender equality in intercollegiate and Olympic sport. In addition to publishing, teaching, speaking at conferences and in public fora, and providing expert media commentary, Dean Greene also performs public service in these areas. She has served as a member of the National Institutes of Health National Advisory Council on Minority Health Disparities, as chair of the Legislation Committee of the U.S. Olympic Committee as well as vice chair of its Audit Committee. Dean Greene served on the University of Wisconsin Athletic Board and is a co-founder of the Black Women in Sport Foundation.
“It will be a great honor to serve as the next dean of the Michigan State University College of Law and to continue the great work of previous leaders and members of faculty,” said Dean Greene.
“With the robust support of MSU and College of Law past and future donors, we will provide an excellent and affordable legal education experience that will prepare our graduates to be lawyers and leaders who transform lives and serve Michigan’s diverse communities.”
Linda Sheryl Greene
Linda Sheryl Greene is dean and MSU Foundation Professor of Law at the Michigan State University College of Law. Her teaching and academic scholarship focus on Constitutional Law, Civil Procedure, Legislation, Civil Rights, and Sports Law. She received her B.A. in Health Education from California State University-Long Beach, her J.D. from the University of California-Berkeley, and a Certificate in Public International Law from The Hague Academy of International Law. She is a member of the California Bar. The American Law Institute elected her to membership in 1991 and inducted her as a life member in 2016.
Previously, she was the Evjue Bascom Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At Wisconsin, she also served as Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs with responsibility for faculty strategic hiring programs, including STEM women, minority faculty, dual career couples, and interdisciplinary cluster hires. She was also the inaugural Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at the University of California San Diego.
Before her teaching career, Greene was an attorney at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in New York City and a deputy city attorney in Los Angeles who advised 34 departments on civil rights and constitutional policy. She was the first African-American woman to teach at Temple University Law School in 1978 and next joined the faculty at the University of Oregon Law School in 1981, where she was a tenured associate professor. In 1984, Harvard Law School invited her to become the first African-American woman to teach at the law school. Thereafter, she was a visiting professor at Georgetown University Law Center, continuing there as an adjunct while she served for three years as a counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. At Judiciary, she specialized in the confirmation of federal court jurisdiction, proposed constitutional amendments, and civil rights legislation across the board.
Her sport interests stem from her middle-distance track and field experience (800 meters, 400 meters, cross-country) during college and law school. Between 1992 and 2001, Dean Greene was the United States Olympic Committee Legislation Committee Chair, its Audit Committee Vice Chair, and co-author of its diversity and inclusion policies. She was a member of the University of Wisconsin Athletic Board from 1990-1995, serving on the Finance, Personnel, and Equity and Strategic Planning Committees. She is a co-founder of the Black Women in Sports Foundation and the author of articles and op-eds that explore the intersection of sport, race, and gender equality.
Her recent scholarship reflects the breadth of her experience. Her recent work includes: “Critical Race Theory: Origins, Permutations, and Current Queries” 2021 Wisconsin Law Review 259-268 (2021); “Up Against the Wall: Congressional Retention of the Spending Power in Times of 'Emergency'," in 51 Loyola University Law Journal 431-483 (2020); "Talking About Black Lives Matter and #MeToo" (with Lolita Buckner Innis and Bridget J. Crawford), in 34 Wisconsin Journal of Gender, Law, and Society Winter 1-68 (2019); and "A Tale of Two Justices: Brandeis, Marshall, and Federal Court Diversity," 2017 Wisconsin Law Review 401- 427 (2017); Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Gender, Olympic Competition, and the Persistence of the Feminine Ideal," in 31 Wisconsin Journal of Law, Gender, and Society 57-102 (2016); "African American Women on the World Stage: The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing China, 1995," in Black Women and International Law: Deliberate Interactions, Movements and Actions 147-167 (ed. Jeremy I. Levitt 2015); "The Battle for Brown," in 67 Arkansas Law Review 131-157 (2015); "Before and After Michael Brown: Towards an End to Structural and Actual Violence," in 47 Washington Journal of Law and Policy 1-62 (2015).
Dean Greene’s forthcoming book is Toward an Inclusive Constitutional Democracy: The Dissenting Opinions of Thurgood Marshall (2022, Carolina Press with Wendy Scott) on the jurisprudential legacy of Thurgood Marshall.
She has provided media, political, and legal analysis for twenty-five years for a variety of media: Wisconsin Public Television; Wisconsin Public Radio; The Isthmus newspaper; Minnesota Public Radio; National Public Radio; the Miami Herald; and The New York Times, where she has written opinion pieces since 1992.
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