Stetson Law Dean Darby Dickerson selected as Business Woman of the Year

GULFPORT, Fla., April 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Darby Dickerson, vice president and dean of Stetson University College of Law, is the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce 2010 Business Woman of the Year.  

Dean Dickerson was selected on March 26 from a pool of 21 candidates and 16 finalists who were chosen for demonstrating outstanding professional accomplishments in either the private or public sector and serving as role models and mentors for younger women. A panel of community leaders chose the finalists.  

Under Dean Dickerson's leadership during the past seven years, Stetson Law has increased nationally recognized academic offerings and student diversity, accelerated student community service and pro bono work, and opened Stetson's Tampa Law Center.

Dean Dickerson has served the greater Tampa Bay community in countless ways. She is past chair and a current board member of Tampa Bay Chapter of the American Red Cross and has served on the boards of both the Tampa Chamber of Commerce and the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce. On Jan. 13, Dean Dickerson received the 2009 Chief Judge's Award from Florida's 13th Judicial Circuit for her outstanding efforts and commitment to the court. 

In January, the American Association of Law Schools elected Dean Dickerson to serve on the Executive Committees of both the Deans Section and the Section on Part-time Division Programs. The Deans Section includes law deans of ABA-approved law schools from across the country. The Section on Part-time Division Programs, of which Dean Dickerson was a founding member, focuses on issues unique to law schools with both full-time and part-time J.D. programs. 

Dean Dickerson was the Tampa Bay Business Journal's Business Woman of the Year in the non-profit/social services category in 2005. She was named a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation in 2006, elected to the American Law Institute in 2007, and honored with the George Carr Memorial Award for Distinguished Service to Tampa Bay Chapter of the Federal Bar Association in 2008.

Dickerson is also a nationally renowned expert in cyberbullying, legal citation, and higher education law and policy.

Stetson University College of Law is Florida's first law school. It has educated lawyers for more than a century. The law school is located in the Gulfport/St. Petersburg area with a law center in downtown Tampa.

SOURCE Stetson University College of Law