Michigan State University College of Law welcomes Dean Linda Sheryl Greene

The Michigan State University College of Law community welcomed Linda Sheryl Greene, incoming dean and MSU Foundation Professor of Law, onTuesday,  June 1.

Dean 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.

Dean 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.

Dean 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.

Dean 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.”