Three Women Named Dean at Major U.S. Law Schools

Cathy Cox was selected as the next dean of the School of Law at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. Since 2007, she has been serving as president of the 1,200-student Young Harris College in Young Harris, Georgia. Cox is the former Secretary of State for Georgia. She was the first woman to be elected to that post.

Cox is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia, where she majored in journalism. She is a magna cum laude graduate of the Mercer University School of Law.

Marcilynn Burke was named dean of the University of Oregon School of Law, effective July 1. She currently serves as associate dean and associate professor of law at the University of Houston Law Center. In 2009, Burke was named deputy director for programs and policy at the Bureau of Land Management of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Later, she was acting assistant secretary for land and minerals management.

Burke is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she majored in international studies. She earned a juris doctorate at Yale Law School.

Susan Duncan will be the next dean of the University of Mississippi School of Law. She will begin her new job on August 1. Professor Duncan has been on the faculty of the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville since 1997. She has served as interim dean of the law school since 2012.

Professor Duncan is a graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She earned her law degree at the University of Louisville.