Nance Named New Dean of UA School of Law

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Chancellor John A. White is pleased to announce that professor Cynthia Nance will become the new dean of the University of Arkansas School of Law, effective July 1.

“Professor Nance is an internationally recognized expert in labor law, and an outstanding leader in the legal and university communities,” White said. “I couldn't be more optimistic about the future of the Law School under professor Nance's leadership. She will build on the remarkable work of interim Dean Howard Brill to continue the Law School's ascent as one of the nation's best law programs.”

When Nance was honored by the Arkansas Bar Association as Outstanding Lawyer-Citizen of 2005, neither she nor anyone else in the School of Law could know just how soon a new Law School dean would be needed. But the death of the late dean, Richard B. Atkinson, in August 2005 left the Law School with a void in its leadership that Brill filled on an interim basis while a year-long search was conducted for a new dean.

According to professor Don Judges, chair of the Dean Search Committee, “The committee was asked to undertake a difficult task under challenging conditions and worked hard to identify and attract a well-qualified and diverse applicant pool.”

He said the national search did not ultimately yield a candidate whom the faculty believed would be a good fit for the University of Arkansas School of Law. As a result, the Law School faculty, under the leadership of Brill, voted to hire an internal candidate for a two-year position. Professor Nance was the unanimous choice of the Law School faculty, Chancellor White and Provost Bob Smith.

Nance has a strong faith and commitment to making a difference in the world. The quote she uses to underscore her e-mails sums up her commitment to serving others: “The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good,” it says, quoting Ann Landers.

 Locally, Nance is the faculty adviser to the Kappa Iota Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, a member of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church and a member of the Washington County Bar Association. She has been honored as a Northwest Arkansas Woman of Distinction, an NIA Heritage Award Winner in Professional Achievement by the first-annual Northwest Arkansas Minority Awards and a Northwest Arkansas Martin Luther King Individual Achievement Award winner.

Nance holds a Juris Doctorate with distinction and a Master of Arts in finance from the University of Iowa and has completed coursework for a doctoral degree in industrial relations, also from Iowa. She received her undergraduate degree in economics, from Chicago State University, with high honors. Nance is also licensed to practice law in Iowa.

Her statewide commitment includes membership in the Arkansas Bar Association, in which she serves on the Jurisprudence and Law Reform, Lawyer’s Helping Lawyers Committee and the Diversity Commission.  She is also a past member of the Arkansas Womens Foundation.

Nationally, she is the former chair of the American Association of Law Schools Employment Discrimination and Labor and Employment Law Sections, the National Advisory Committee for the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a member of the American Bar Association, where she serves as co-chair of the American Bar Association Labor and Employment Law Section Ethics and Professionalism and the Equal Opportunity in the Legal Professions Committee.  She has been nominated to serve on the Section Council.  Nance is also a board member of  the Law School Admissions Council and serves on its Leadership Succession Planning Committee.

As a board member of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, she recently traveled to Mexico to view the living conditions in youth and women’s shelters and she lobbied on behalf of Comprehensive Immigration Reform on Capital Hill and at the White House.

“Professor Nance has rendered exemplary service to her students, to her church, to the Arkansas Bar, to the national legal profession,” said Brill. “She will do the same in her new role as dean of the Law School.”

Professor Nance said she wants to help the law school tell its story to emphasize what a student-centered community it is. “I am so very grateful for the tremendous support and encouragement I have received from my law school colleagues, Chancellor White, Provost Smith, students and alumni.  It is an honor for me to serve as Dean of the Law School for the next two years.  Working with my talented colleagues I look forward to building on the splendid legacies of Deans Atkinson and Brill.”

Before joining the Law School in 1994, Nance worked as a labor educator at the University of Iowa Labor Center, and was selected as a Faculty Fellow in the College of Law.. She has presented academic papers at Yale University and University of Illinois and in Brunei Darussalam and Singapore.

“Cyndi Nance has been an amazing colleague and an invaluable addition to the faculty of law,” said Carol Goforth, associate dean of the School of Law. “Cyndi’s continued emphasis on public service is both an inspiration and a reminder to all of us, and to the wider community as well, of the good that we can do as lawyers and individuals. We are honored to have her here at the law school.”

Nance will be the first woman dean and the first African American dean for the University of Arkansas School of Law.