Alena Allen Named Interim Dean of UA School of Law

Alena Allen, interim dean of the University of Arkansas School of Law

The University of Arkansas has named Alena Allen, law professor and associate dean for research and faculty development, interim dean of the School of Law.

Allen follows former dean Margaret Sova McCabe, who stepped down to return to teaching and pursue research interests. McCabe, who had led the school since 2018, is now a law professor and senior adviser for strategic projects, the university said in a news release. 

Allen joined the university last year after 10 years teaching family law, health law electives, torts and feminist jurisprudence at the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at the University of Memphis. 

She also served as co-lead of the University of Memphis campus-wide Eradicating Racism Initiative, Memphis law school faculty senator, director of diversity and director of faculty research for Memphis Law. 

Her research interests include the intersection of health policy and critical feminist theory. Her work has most recently been published in the North Carolina Law Review, the Fordham Law Review and the Ohio State Law Journal.

“It is a privilege and honor to serve as interim dean,” Allen said in the release. “Dean McCabe left the law school in a very strong position, and I am very excited about collaborating with my amazing faculty colleagues, staff, students and alumni over the next year to continue moving the law school forward.”

Allen currently serves on the Executive Committee for the Association of American Law Schools’ Section on Scholarship and the Peer Review Committee for the Food and Drug Law Institute. 

She holds a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School and graduated magna cum laude from Loyola University with a bachelor’s in psychology. 

A search for the next dean of the University of Arkansas School of Law will begin later this year.