Joan Mahoney, dean of Wayne State University's Law School, has been named one of Detroit's "Most Influential Women" by Crain's Detroit Business. The selection was announced in the publication's March 18 issue.

Mahoney was one of six women honored in the education category. A resident of Beverly Hills, Mich., she became the first woman to head a law school in Michigan when she was appointed dean at Wayne State in 1998. She is a 1975 magna cum laude graduate of the WSU Law School, and also holds a doctorate in legal history from Cambridge University along with master's and bachelor's degrees in history from the University of Chicago. She is an expert in constitutional law, family law and legal history.

Under Mahoney's leadership, the WSU Law School recently completed a $17.1million construction and renovation project that gives the school 58,000 square feet of new space, including the state-of-the-art Spencer M. Partrich Auditorium, which is configured as a courtroom.

The fund-raising campaign, which involved close cooperation among Wayne State President Irvin D. Reid, Dean Mahoney, prominent alumni of the law school, and the Advancement Division, raised more than $19 million for construction and endowment, making it the most successful capital campaign ever for the university.

Prior to joining Wayne State, Mahoney was a law professor at Western New England College School of Law, where she also served as dean for two years. Before that she was a faculty member at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law and the University of Iowa College of Law. She also practiced law with the firm of Honigman, Miller, Schwartz and Cohn in Detroit.

Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 14 schools and colleges to more than 31,000 students in metropolitan Detroit.