Frederica Lombard, professor and associate dean in the Wayne State University Law School, has been named interim dean. She assumed her new duties Sept. 2.

An expert in family law, Lombard is a graduate of Yale University Law School and University of Pennsylvania Law School. She joined the WSU Law School faculty as assistant professor of law, becoming the first full-time female law faculty member, in 1967. She was named associate professor in 1968 and full professor the following year, and has served as associate dean since 1992.

"Frederica Lombard is an excellent choice to lead the Wayne State University Law School as we near the mid-years of the first decade of the 21st century," says Nancy Barrett, WSU provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. "Her long and steadfast commitment to the law school and its students is obvious. She is respected by faculty members and alumni alike, having taught more than half the students who have graduated from the school. An associate under four deans, Frederica is well-acquainted with administrative procedures and also is firmly grounded in the teaching mission of the school."

In addition to her law degrees, Lombard holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Bryn Mawr College. She is admitted to practice law in Michigan and Pennsylvania and before the U.S. Supreme Court. She serves on several faculty committees at Wayne State, including the Commission on the Status of Women, the Minority Employment Action Steering Committee, and the executive board of the American Association of University Professors, among others. She lives in Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.

Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to more than 31,000 students in metropolitan Detroit.