Driven by an institutional mission of social responsibility, Dr. Leticia M. Diaz oversees a law school rich with diversity and strength in its commitment to utilizing legal knowledge for greater good.
Before entering law school in the early 1990s, Diaz had already earned a doctorate in organic chemistry. At the time, her goal was to become a patent attorney, but once she started teaching at a law school, she fell in love with legal education.
“I found that my true passion was educating future lawyers,” says Diaz, dean of the Barry University Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law. “That decision is reinforced every time graduates return to thank me for what they learned under my tutelage.”
Barry University was founded in 1940 by the Adrian Dominican Sisters. The School of Law, established in 1999, is the first American law school to be part of a university founded by religious women. While it embraces a Catholic Dominican tradition, the School of Law values religious and academic freedom. The program endeavors to equip graduates with values and skills that benefit society.
Diaz was one of the founding faculty and was appointed dean in 2007. Taking on a larger leadership role enabled her to fulfill many of her goals, one of which was to increase diversity in the legal profession. During her years as dean, minority enrollment has significantly increased. Much of that can be attributed to an increase in recruitment and retention of traditionally underrepresented groups in order to create a more diverse faculty, staff and student body.
“We have annual targeted recruiting efforts at historically Black colleges and universities, as well as focused admissions initiatives with a priority of recruiting, training and developing the future leaders of Hispanic, African-American and every minority group that is traditionally underrepresented and underserved in the legal profession,” says Diaz.
The School of Law is involved with the Council on Legal Education Opportunity and is working toward developing articulation agreements with HBCU’s that would increase the educational opportunities for minority students at those institutions while containing costs.