Boston College Law School and Loyola University New Orleans both recently hired minorities as deans — and both from the state of Indiana.
Boston College hired Notre Dame Law School Professor Vincent D. Rougeau, a national expert on Catholic social teaching and the role of moral and religious values in law making and public policy, as dean, effective July 1. Rougeau is African American.
María Pabón López, professor of law at Indiana University School of Law, will be the new dean of the College of Law at Loyola University New Orleans. López is a native of Puerto Rico.
Rougeau has taught contracts, real estate law and Catholic social thought at Notre Dame for the past 12 years.
He graduated from Brown University with a major in international relations, and received his law degree from Harvard Law School. He worked as an assistant and then associate professor of law at Loyola University of Chicago School of Law, before joining the faculty at Notre Dame Law School.
His current academic research focuses on global migration and multicultural citizenship, with a special emphasis on the challenges posed by religious pluralism.
His book, Christians in the American Empire: Faith and Citizenship in the New World Order, explores the philosophical and theological underpinnings of Catholic social teaching as they relate to various aspects of American law.
Rougeau said he is eager to assume leadership in a Jesuit, Catholic environment.
While at Notre Dame, Rougeau served as dean for academic affairs for three years, and as a member of the law school’s appointments committee.
“In this role, I was thoroughly familiar with the strategies that must be employed to recruit and retain the best possible faculty,” said Rougeau. “I am also personally aware of the challenges and opportunities a meaningful commitment to diversity presents to a law faculty.”
Rougeau has a longstanding interest in bank regulation, particularly as it relates to the protection of consumers.
López, a native of Puerto Rico, said she offers a unique perspective on how the legal system responds to the changing world and how best to prepare law students to address these challenges. She is bilingual and bicultural, having lived and worked in the law in both the United States and in Latin America, and has researched and taught law in several other regions of the world.
“I understand how my own study, practice and teaching of law has opened my mind, and has helped shape my vision of a just society,” López said. “I was very attracted to Loyola because of its Jesuit mission. As dean, I will lead the College of Law in continuing to make great contributions to the vision of a just society.”
At Indiana University, López has served as professor of law since 2008, associate professor of law from 2006-08, and assistant professor of law from 2002-06. López received her juris doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1989 and her Bachelor of Arts degree in religion from Princeton University in 1985.
López is an an expert in immigrants’ rights, which includes the education of immigrant children. She is also an expert on immigration law and diversity/multicultural matters in the legal profession, focusing on issues concerning Latinos, race and the law, and the status of women lawyers. She has also published articles on Spain’s immigration law regarding undocumented workers, as well as the impact of immigrant nurses on the nursing shortage in the U.S.
