MSU Law Interim Dean Designee Shares Additions to Leadership Team

Dear College of Law Community,

I am delighted to announce several new members of our leadership team. Professors Jenny Carter-Johnson and Glen Staszewski have graciously agreed to serve during this time of transition as Co-Associate Deans for Academic Affairs, effective immediately. Professor Carter-Johnson will take the lead on the student-facing aspects of the job and the submission of final grades, while Professor Staszewski will oversee the curriculum, teaching assignments, and serve ex officio on our faculty committees. Under the university’s current best practices, these are interim appointments until we conduct an open search (open in the sense of open to the University) in the spring.

In addition, I am pleased that Associate Dean for Research David Blankfein-Tabachnick (DBT) has agreed to take on additional responsibilities as our Associate Dean for Faculty and Intellectual Life, also effective immediately. In addition to overseeing our research and faculty programs, Professor DBT will advise the faculty and the Dean on faculty affairs, including the promotion, tenure, and retention of COL faculty; faculty sabbaticals, leaves, and visits out; recruitment of Visiting Faculty (in consultation with the Academic Dean); and faculty awards, honorifics, and recognitions. He will also work with HR on appointments and promotions of full-time faculty and academic staff.

We are fortunate to have such an outstanding group of faculty willing to serve at this critical time as we embark upon the implementation of our Strategic Plan. Each of them has been recognized for their exceptional teaching, good judgment, and contributions to the intellectual life of the school. Professor Blankfein-Tabachnick began as Research Dean in 2023 and has served as Chair or Co-Chair of the Faculty Appointments Committee in 2020-2021, 2021-2022, and 2023-2024, leading several successful recruitment seasons. Since 2017, he has also served as Faculty Advisor to the Michigan State Law Review. In 2021, he won the All-University Teacher-Scholar Award—the first College of Law recipient of the award.

Professor Carter-Johnson previously served with distinction as Academic Dean from 2020 to 2022, during the onset and peak of the pandemic, one of our most challenging times as an institution. She has twice served as Chair of the Faculty Advisory Council and is the Associate Director of the Intellectual Property, Information, and Communications Law Program and the faculty co-lead for the MSU Ethics Institute.

Professor Staszewski is a prolific scholar of public law who has taught at the Law College since 2001. He has served on a host of faculty committees during that time. Most recently, he served as Chair of our American Bar Association (ABA) Self Study Committee, which laid the foundation for a successful ABA/Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Site Visit in 2022. He has twice received the Distinguished Faculty Award, Presented by the Student Bar Association, once in 2009-10, and again 2020-21.

Please join me in thanking David, Jenny, and Glen for their service at this important time. I am even more confident in the future of Michigan State University College of Law.

All my best,

Michael