The University of Idaho College of Law recently appointed its first woman dean, Johanna Kalb, who will take over for the current dean, Jerrold Long, in May.
The college has promoted women to associate dean positions before, but never to the deanship, until now.
According to a press release from the College of Law Feb. 12, Kalb has extensive experience in leadership.
Kalb received a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, a J.D. (Juris Doctor degree) from Yale Law School and her master’s degree from John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
Kalb was first approached for the position when faculty at UI notified her that she was nominated for the position. Kalb had never been to Idaho before but always thought her and her husband would enjoy living in the mountain west.
“When I got the email, I started looking into the school and got pretty excited about what I saw,” Kalb said. “I talk to my husband about whether he thought he could live in Idaho and he said go for it, so I decided to go ahead and apply.”
Her predecessor, Long, will return to a faculty position at the College of Law.
“I love teaching, that’s my favorite thing in the world to do,” Long said. “I haven’t been able to teach since being dean, and I love working with students.”
He is excited to begin teaching again and hand off the deanship to someone qualified.
“I’m super glad I’ve been able to be dean,” Long said. “It was, in a lot of ways, the coolest job I’ve ever had.”
Despite being the college’s first woman dean, Kalb said she doesn’t have a lot of time to think about herself right now.
“Moving into a deanship role, it’s a big job,” Kalb said. “I’m taking in a ton of new information.”
Her first leadership position was with the Arthur Liman Center for Public Interest Law at Yale, where she was introduced to administration. She served as a visiting associate professor and director. Kalb also ran a fellowship that put Yale Law graduates in public interest organizations around the country.
At Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, she serves as the associate dean of administration and special initiatives.
“I was doing a lot of work around our admissions and enrollment management,” Kalb said. “Then I was offered the position I have now.”
Part of her job is managing all the staff at the law school, building new programs and figuring out ways to generate new revenue. Last year, her team was able to generate several new programs and expanded marketing for admissions.
Among her new responsibilities as dean, Kalb wants to focus on collaboration and consensus building in the college. She aims to grow the UI Boise campus and make prospective students in Idaho and surrounding states aware of the opportunities UI has to offer.
She is interested in improving the wealth in student success and student outcomes. This means getting students through law school, the bar exam and successfully into careers. Kalb wants to make opportunities at the university accessible to students from all backgrounds, including first-generation law students.
“The universal law school tuition around the country is just so high,” Kalb said. “It’s become really hard for people to take on that much debt and then be able to go into the kinds of practice they want to do.”
Currently, Kalb and her family are wearing UI merchandise, drinking out of vandal coffee cups and awaiting a new chapter in Idaho.
“I’m really honored to be joining the law school at such a pivotal time,” Kalb said. “I really feel like we’re in a great position to kind of build on our established success and take it into some really new and exciting direction.”
Emily Pearce can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Emily_A_Pearce