Jocelyn Benson was appointed interim dean of the Wayne State University Law School in Detroit. She has served on the law school’s faculty since 2005 and is the associate director of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights at the law school. At the center, she created and directs that Michigan Allies Project which tracks hate crimes in the state and provides legal support services for victims of hate crimes.
Professor Benson is also the founder and executive director of the Michigan Center for Election Law and Administration. She is the author of State Secretaries of State: Guardians of the Democratic Process (Ashgate Publishing, 2010). In 2010, she waged an unsuccessful election campaign to become secretary of state in Michigan.
A graduate of Wellesley College in Massachusetts, she earned a master’s degree at Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar. She later graduated from Harvard Law School.