SIU chooses dean for Simmons Law School

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Hannah Brenner Johnson, professor of law and vice dean for academic affairs at California Western School of Law, will become the next dean of the Southern Illinois University Simmons Law School.

Sheryl Tucker, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, today (Nov. 14) announced Brenner Johnson's appointment, effective July 1, subject to approval by the SIU Board of Trustees.

The national search for dean included a “very competitive pool of highly qualified candidates,” said Tucker, adding that Brenner Johnson “was the desired candidate across all constituents.”

“The future of the Simmons Law School will be outstanding under the direction of incoming dean Brenner Johnson,” Tucker said. Tucker also thanked acting dean Angela Upchurch “for her interim leadership and chairing of this successful search, and our colleagues who engaged in the process ensuring a robust search with an incredible outcome.”

Leading scholar on law and gender issues

A leading scholar on law and gender and a recognized expert on issues of inequality in the legal profession and gender-based violence, Brenner Johnson has taught at California Western since 2016.

Brenner Johnson said she’s honored to serve as the next SIU Simmons Law School dean.

“I am extremely impressed by the institution’s tradition of excellence in ‘transforming students into the lawyers and community leaders of tomorrow’ and am inspired by the abundance of opportunities that will help sustain Simmons Law School well into the future,” she said.

Brenner Johnson added that there is “much to admire” about the law school.

“The law school is very student-centered, offering a first-rate, affordable education that prepares students to become lawyers almost anywhere — across a broad range of practice areas,” she said. “The faculty are internally focused on student success and simultaneously maintain a strong external presence in the academy, legal profession and greater community. Situated on the campus of a soon-to-be R1 research university, the location of the Simmons Law School presents myriad opportunities for collaboration across disciplines, and its regional locale opens doors for students to gain practical legal experience and graduates to find jobs.”

Brenner Johnson said she looks forward to collaborating with faculty, staff, students and alumni to set an agenda for the law school that focuses on “critical issues” such as increasing enrollment, supporting student success, improving bar passage rates and developing new initiatives.

“Building on the foundation of the school’s first 50 years, I am inspired to help transform Simmons Law into an innovative 21st century law school,” she said.

Brenner Johnson’s background includes her appointment as the first executive director of the Center for Women in Law at the University of Texas School of Law before pivoting to full-time law teaching. She has taught at the University of Oklahoma and Michigan State University College of Law, where she also co-directed the Frank J. Kelley Institute of Ethics and the Legal Profession, served as affiliated faculty with the Center for Gender in the Global Context, was a member of the multidisciplinary Research Consortium on Gender-Based Violence, and was co-principal investigator on a National Science Foundation grant that studied the reporting of sexual violence during incarceration.

Brenner Johnson serves on the executive committee of the Association of American Law Schools’ Associate Deans for Academic Affairs and Research and volunteers as a judge for community high school speech-and-debate tournaments.

Brenner Johnson is co-author of the 2020 book, “Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court,” a look at nine women who were shortlisted but never selected for the U.S. Supreme Court before Justice Sandra Day O’Connor became the first in 1981. She has written numerous scholarly articles, two book chapters in the Feminist Judgement series published by Cambridge University Press, and is co-author of two legal casebooks. Her work has also been cited by the courts, law scholars and the media, including CNN, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and Huffington Post.

A native of Elgin, Illinois, Brenner Johnson earned her undergraduate degree in American studies from the University of Iowa and her law degree from the University of Iowa College of Law. She has worked as a public interest lawyer and directed programs in the nonprofit and higher education areas.

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