On Thursday and Friday of last week, I had the honor of attending and presenting at the inaugural conference on Women’s Leadership in Academia at the University of Georgia School of Law.  The conference featured a wide variety of plenary and breakout/workshop sessions over the two days.  My dean and two other colleagues from UT Law also were presenters at the conference; an additional UT Law colleague attended but did not present.

The opening plenary panel featured four women talking about “Me Too and the Legal Academy.”  The panelists offered perspectives from journalism, criminal law, tort law, constitutional law, victim/survivor advocacy, classroom teaching, law school administration, campus Title IX adjudication, and personal experience.  Audience members actively participated in a dialogue with the panelists.  The keynote on the second day was delivered by the interim provost at UGA, Libby Morris, who offered information on women in leadership–data, anecdotes, and observations–and moderated a related audience Q&A.

The remainder of the program included various panels, presentations, and workshops.  Among them was a nifty combined PechaKucha/workshop offered by three of my UT Law colleagues on “Leadership Challenges and Solutions over the Course of a Career” and my breakout session entitled “Outside the Four Walls of the Law School: Law Faculty and Staff as Campus and University Service Leaders.”  A number of colleagues/friends attended my session, and two took pictures of me in action.  Although I look serious and pained in all of those photos, I am including one here since it features a key slide in my presentation.

The full program can be found here.  

Friend of the BLPB, Conglomerate blogger, and UGA Law colleague Usha Rodrigues worked with a team of female leaders from a number of schools to organize and carry off the conference.  It was exceptionally well done.  Future Women’s Leadership in Academia conferences will be held at the University of Virginia School of Law (2019), the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law (2020), and Brigham Young University, J. Reuben Clark Law School (2021).  Look for more news here and elsewhere on these annual women’s leadership events.