Alumnae Network
To become involved with the Alumnae Network, contact one of the following:
Angela Rager '99
Executive Director, Alumnae Network
arrager@iupui.edu
Elizabeth Allington
Director, External Affairs
317-278-3038
eallingt@iupui.edu
The Alumnae Network is a forum for women graduates to connect with each other, current students and the law school community. As women graduates of Indiana University School of Law - Indianapolis, we are part of a rapidly growing and dynamic group of women who have blazed trails for later generations of women and have excelled in all areas of legal expertise. Currently, there are more than 2,600 alumnae of the school with over 100 new alumnae added to that number each year!
2007 Outstanding Alumna of the Year: Susanah M. Mead, '76
The law school’s Alumnae Network awarded the 2007 Outstanding Alumna of the Year Award to Susanah M. Mead, ’76 on Friday, May 18 at the annual luncheon in the law school’s Conour Atrium. Mead will finish two years of service as Interim Dean of the law school on June 30. She is the first woman and the first graduate of the law school to lead the institution. (Pictured: Susan W. Brooks, '85; Susanah M. Mead, '76; Deborah K. Hepler, '94. Brooks was the 2006 Outstanding Alumna of the Year and Hepler received the same award in 2005).
Gerald L. Bepko, Chancellor Emeritus and a former law school dean and professor gave a tribute to Mead, one of his former students. Bepko reflected, “With the enthusiastic support of her faculty colleagues, Chancellor Bantz made the wise decision to appoint Susie to lead the school. The respect of the faculty was not only based on Susie’s excellent work as a teacher and as an executive decision maker, but there is a human side of being an executive in an academic environment that Susie has cultivated to a high art.”
While accepting the award, Mead reminisced, “The experience I had that first year of law school of learning how to think like a lawyer was the most exhilarating educational experience of my life. I loved it. I loved the law school experience and I loved the law school – my fellow students, my study groups, the faculty, the gray lounge, the library—all of it. When I was given an opportunity just two years after I graduated to come back to the law school to teach in the writing program, I jumped at the chance—and once I came back I never wanted to leave. I knew what I wanted to do with my legal education. I wanted to do what I had always wanted to do—I wanted to teach. I wanted to guide others through the mind bending experience of learning to think like a lawyer.”
Susanah Mead’s previous experience in administration was as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, a post she held from 1997 to 2004. She joined the faculty in 1978 as a lecturer in the legal writing program and served as director of legal writing in 1980-81. Mead clerked for the Honorable Paul H. Buchanan Jr., chief judge of the Indiana Court of Appeals, from 1976 to 1978. Her articles examining issues in constitutional tort law and products liability law have appeared in national law journals.
For more information about the Alumnae Network or to nominate someone for the Outstanding Alumna of the Year Award, please contact Angela Rager, ’99, Executive Director for the Alumnae Network at arrager@iupui.edu.
| 2000 | Virginia Dill McCarty, '50 |
| 2001 | Shirley A. Shideler, '64 |
| 2002 | Hon. Betty Barteau, '65 |
| 2003 | Rebecca O. Kendall, '75 |
| 2004 | Pamela L. Carter, '84 |
| 2005 | Deborah K. Hepler, '94 |
| 2006 | Susan W. Brooks, '85 |
| 2007 | Susanh M. Mead, '76 |
If you are looking for employment, please contact the Office of Professional Development for more information.
