Iowa Law has a long-standing commitment to diversity, having awarded law degrees to diverse students since the 1870s. Diversity in the legal profession, however, continues to move sluggishly.

With hopes of making the legal field more inclusive and interdisciplinary, the law school relaunched the Iowa Law Faculty Fellowship in 2020, and was supported by the school’s Antiracism Action Committee.

The fellowship—which focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion—provides emerging scholars with teaching opportunities and supports their research, including access to the school’s law library. Fellows also receive faculty mentoring and career development assistance.

In the past two years, Iowa Law has hired two extraordinary fellows as visiting assistant professors. In 2020, Phoebe Jean-Pierre came aboard from Northwestern University to continue her research exploring the intersection of health, law and communication.

“This program was a great opportunity for me to continue my interdisciplinary research, connect with scholars across the university at large, and receive invaluable support and guidance as I begin my academic career,” Jean-Pierre said. “I realize this fellowship extends beyond me and opens the doors of legal academia to minority and marginalized voices.”

This summer, she accepted a tenure-track position at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University in Bloomington, where she is an assistant professor in the department of Business Law and Ethics.

The Iowa Law Fellowship has been the ideal place to focus and increase

my scholarly productivity. – Christopher Mathis

In 2021, the law school hired Christopher Mathis, whose scholarly projects lie at the intersections of tort law, reparations and higher education. Mathis is now embarking on his second year at Iowa Law.

“The faculty have been supportive, helpful and critical as I discuss and think about these complex topics,” Mathis said. “The Iowa Law Fellowship has been the ideal place to focus and increase my scholarly productivity. Iowa Law has phenomenal students, and I am impressed by each interaction with them.”

“We are delighted that we could restart the Faculty Fellows program after almost 20 years,” said Adrien Wing, associate dean for international and comparative law programs and the Bessie Dutton Murray Professor of Law. “Our initial fellows all went on to distinguished careers in legal academia. Our current fellows all have interdisciplinary interests, which makes them highly marketable in these competitive times.”

Fellowship Alumni

The previous, decade-long Iowa Law Faculty Fellows program, which concluded in the early 2000s, helped prepare seven fellows who have gone on to assume leadership roles in legal academia.

• Laura Beny, Earl Warren DeLano Professor of Law and associate director, University of Michigan African Studies Center at Michigan Law
• Devon Carbado, the Honorable Harry Pregerson Professor of Law at UCLA Law
• Sumi Cho, retired law professor and current director of strategic initiatives at the African American Policy Forum
• Angela Gilmore, senior accreditation counsel at the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar
• Creola Johnson, Presidents Club Professor of Law at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law
• Cynthia Nance (90JD, 91MA), dean and Nathan G. Gordon Professor of Law at University of Arkansas School of Law
• Harold Rocha, US-EU (Spain) legal academic in Madrid, Spain