January 28, 2015

Swearing-in ceremonies to be held Jan. 30 for recently elected Wayne State University Board of Governors members

MEDIA ADVISORY

WHAT:
Swearing-in ceremonies and a reception will be held Friday, Jan. 30 for newly elected Board of Governors members Marilyn Kelly and Dana Alicia Thompson.

WHEN:
Friday, Jan. 30, 2015
5 p.m. - Swearing-in ceremony; reception follows

WHERE:
Wayne State University's McGregor Memorial Conference Center, 495 Gilmour Mall, Detroit

MORE INFO:
Kelly and Thompson, both democrats, were elected to eight-year terms on Wayne State University's Board of Governors.

Kelly is the Distinguished Jurist in Residence at the Wayne State University Law School, where she teaches and is an alumna. She is the former Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, where she served for 16 years, and earlier served for eight years on the Michigan Court of Appeals. She also served for 12 years as president of the Michigan State Board of Education. Kelly has served on numerous professional and community boards, including the Michigan Leader Dogs for the Blind, Channel 56 Public Television, the National Consortium for Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts, the Michigan State Bar Foundation and the Executive Committee of the Wayne Law School Board of Visitors. She has been president of the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan and the Women's Bar Association.

Thompson is a clinical professor of law and the founding director of the University of Michigan Law School's Entrepreneurship Clinic, where she represents University of Michigan student-led startup ventures. Prior to the Entrepreneurship Clinic, she taught in the Law School's Urban Communities Clinic, where she represented small businesses, startup ventures and community-based organizations, primarily based in Detroit. Before joining Michigan Law, Thompson taught at Wayne State University Law School and founded and directed Wayne Law's Small Business Enterprises and Nonprofit Corporations Clinic. At Wayne Law, she also was the director of the Damon J. Keith Law Collection of African-American Legal History. Thompson writes on small business legal issues and has commented in numerous media interviews about such issues.