MACON — Daisy Hurst Floyd, dean of Mercer University’s Walter F. George School of Law since 2004, has announced that she will step down as dean at the end of this academic year to become University Professor of Law and Ethical Formation.
“Leadership in the University comes in various forms, and Dean Floyd is among those leaders whose vision and interests cross traditional administrative boundaries,” said Mercer Provost Wallace L. Daniel. “Among our deans, she has been a very respected leader whose loyalty has been both to the Walter F. George School of Law and to the whole of Mercer University. A talented, visionary leader, she will continue to contribute significantly to the law school, but her teaching, scholarship and the continuation of her project with the Carnegie Foundation will speak to several of the most important issues in higher education.”
“Daisy Floyd has become one of our most respected deans and academic leaders. I have come to admire her leadership skills, respect her strength of character, and value her friendship and her many and varied contributions to the life of the University,” said President William D. Underwood. “While the University will be poorer for its loss of her leadership as dean of the School of Law, we will be enriched by the contributions she will make in her exciting new role as University Professor of Law and Ethical Formation.”
Floyd has served as professor of law and dean at Mercer since July of 2004, coming to the University from Texas Tech University School of Law, where she was a member of the faculty from 1990-2004 and served as associate dean for academic affairs for more than seven years. She received a B.A. summa cum laude and M.A. in Political Science from Emory University and a J.D. from the University of Georgia School of Law, where she served as articles editor of the Georgia Law Review.
“It has been an exceptional privilege to serve as dean of Mercer Law School. I am proud of the accomplishments achieved during my tenure as dean and grateful for the hard work of the faculty, staff, and students who have made those accomplishments possible,” Floyd said. “I am excited about this next phase of my career and being a part of Mercer’s future in a new role.”
In her new role as University Professor of Law and Ethical Formation, Floyd will lead the University in collaborations between undergraduate and professional education to prepare students for lives of purpose and responsibility. She will build upon her work with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which has focused on the formation of ethical identity in law students and the relationship between liberal arts and professional education.
In 2001, Floyd was named a Carnegie Scholar by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. More recently, she served as a member of the Carnegie Foundation’s Life of the Mind for Practice Seminar, which focused on the relationship between liberal education and professional education and whose findings are discussed in the recently-published book, A New Agenda for Higher Education: Shaping a Life of the Mind for Practice (Jossey-Bass 2008).
Floyd’s teaching and research interests include civil procedure, evidence, legal writing, other litigation-related topics, and legal education, particularly the development of professional identity in law students. She was the recipient of several teaching awards at Texas Tech, including the Phi Alpha Delta Professor of the Year Award; the New Professor Excellence in Teaching Award; and the President’s Excellence in Teaching Award.
Floyd has been a recent member of the American Bar Association Presidential Council on Diversity in the Legal Profession and currently serves on the State Bar of Georgia Diversity Committee. She is member of Phi Beta Kappa and Order of the Coif, an elected Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, the Texas Bar Foundation, and the Lawyers Foundation of Georgia, and a member of the State Bars of Georgia and Texas.
About Mercer University
Founded in 1833, Mercer University is a dynamic and comprehensive center of undergraduate, graduate and professional education. The University enrolls more than 8,000 students in 11 schools and colleges – liberal arts, law, pharmacy, medicine, business, engineering, education, theology, music, nursing and continuing and professional studies – on major campuses in Macon, Atlanta and Savannah and at three regional academic centers across the state. Mercer is affiliated with two teaching hospitals — Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah and the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, and has educational partnerships with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Warner Robins and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta. The University operates an academic press and a performing arts center in Macon and an engineering research center in Warner Robins. Mercer is the only private university in Georgia to field an NCAA Division I athletic program. For more information, visit www.mercer.edu.
About Mercer Law School
Founded in 1873, the Mercer University Walter F. George School of Law is one of the oldest law schools in the United States and the first one in the state of Georgia accredited by the American Bar Association. Mercer Law School’s educational philosophy is based on a broadly shared commitment to prepare students for the high-quality, general practice of law in a day-to-day learning environment that is both strongly supportive and consistently professional. Its innovative Woodruff Curriculum – which focuses on ethics and practical skills amid small class sizes – earned the Gambrell Professionalism Award from the ABA for its “depth of excellence.” With an enrollment of about 400 students, taught by some of the sharpest legal minds in the country, Mercer Law School has been listed among the nation’s top law schools and is nationally recognized for its exceptional programs in legal writing, moot court, public interest, and professionalism and ethics. For more information about Mercer Law School, visit www.law.mercer.edu or call 478.301.5000.
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