Diversity in Law

Karen E. Bravo has served as Dean of the law school since July 1, 2020.

She joined the IU McKinney faculty, teaching international law, international trade law, and business courses.Her previous administrative appointments at the law school include Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Vice Dean.

A well-known international law scholar, and expert in the study of human trafficking, Dean Bravo’s research interests include labor liberalization, personhood, slavery, and human trafficking.She is the founder and leader of the Slavery Past, Present and Future project.  The interdisciplinary initiative brings together scholars of slavery from around the globe and from a multiplicity of academic disciplines.

In 2013, Dean Bravo co-proposed IUPUI (now IUI) NextGeneration 2.0, the campus-wide leadership development and leadership succession-planning program dedicated to the preparation of women and underrepresented faculty and staff for positions of leadership and opportunities for advancement in higher education.  She co-led the program from 2015 to 2018, and now serves on the Advisory Board.

In 2023, Dean Bravo received the Sentinel of the Vault Award from the Treasurer of the State of Indiana.In 2022, 2023, and 2024, the Indianapolis Business Journal honored Dean Bravo with the Indiana 250 Most Influential Business Leaders in Indiana recognition.She was named to the Lawyers of Color’s Power List of 2023 and, in 2022, the New York Law University School of Law Black Allied Law Students Association (BALSA) recognized her for her outstanding contribution to the legal profession.In 2020, the Indianapolis Business Journal named her as one of Indiana’s Women of Influence.In 2016, she was the recipient of the IUPUI Office for Women’s Inspirational Woman Award.In 2008, she received an Indiana University Trustees’ Teaching Award.

Marcus Cole is the Joseph A. Matson Dean and Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School. Dean Cole is a leading scholar of the law and economics of commerce and finance, and was a member of the faculty at Stanford Law School for twenty-two years before being appointed Dean at Notre Dame in 2019. He is the 11th dean in the history of the Law School.

Since coming to Notre Dame Law School, his list of accomplishments includes establishing the groundbreaking Lindsay and Matt Moroun Religious Liberty Clinic, opening the Exoneration Justice Clinic, and expanding the Law School’s international programs through his Global Lawyering Initiative, several new international partnerships, and new Global Human Rights Clinic. He has also overseen the enrollment of the highest academic and most-diverse classes ever in the Law School’s history.

The University's leadership reappointed Dean Cole to serve a second five-year term, which began on July 1, 2024. Last spring, he was inducted into the American College of Bankruptcy. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, and his Juris Doctorate from Northwestern University. He clerked for Morris Sheppard Arnold of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, and served as an associate with the Chicago law firm of Mayer Brown, before joining the faculty at Stanford.

Christiana Ochoa was named dean of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in November 2022. A highly respected teacher and scholar, Ochoa’s research seeks to understand how economic activity impacts human and ecological well-being. Her first documentary film, Otra Cosa No Hay (There is Nothing Else), was completed in 2014, received film festival acclaim, and has been viewed by audiences around the world. Ochoa has held numerous leadership roles within the Law School, the Indiana University Bloomington campus, and its global footprint, including as founding Academic Director of the IU Mexico Gateway. Ochoa is the first woman of color to  lead the Maurer School of Law, and one of only eight Latine deans to ever lead a U.S. Law School.