UA Names 3 Finalists for Clinton School Dean

From left, Lara Brown, Victoria DeFrancesco Soto and Mitchell Lerner.

University of Arkansas System President Donald Bobbitt on Wednesday named three finalists for dean at the UA Clinton School of Public Service.

They are:

• Lara Brown, professor and director of the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University;
• Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, assistant dean for civic engagement at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin; and
• Mitchell Lerner, professor and director of the East Asian Studies Center at The Ohio State University.

Bobbitt formed a committee in December to conduct the search for the successor of longtime dean James “Skip” Rutherford III, who retired June 30. Susan Hoffpauir was named interim dean on June 23. 

Each finalist will visit the Clinton School in the coming weeks.

“I am excited for each of them to visit the campus and for us to get to know them better as we work to identify the best individual to help grow and develop the school’s academic program, as well as its continued community outreach in the years ahead,” Bobbitt said.

Brown has authored two books, written and edited for numerous academic publications and contributed to the New York Times, the Washington Post, Politico and The Hill, among others. She was previously a professor of political science at Villanova University. 

Brown also worked as a policy and public affairs consultant in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles after a stint as a political appointee in the U.S. Department of Education in the Clinton Administration. She holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in political science at the University of California in Los Angeles and a master’s in American politics and public policy from the University of Arizona.

DeFrancesco Soto is a senior lecturer at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, a faculty fellow at the Center for the Science of Race and Democracy and a faculty affiliate at the Department of Mexican American and Latino Studies at UT. 

Her research and teaching focus on an interdisciplinary approach to American politics and policy including her areas of expertise in immigration, women and politics, political psychology and campaigns and elections. She is a contributor to MSNBC, Telemundo and NBCNews.com. She has also provided on-air analysis for PBS, CNN, Fox, Univision and NPR, as well as contributions to other national publications. 

DeFrancesco Soto earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and Latin American studies at the University of Arizona and master’s and doctorate degrees in political science at Duke University.

Lerner is also a faculty fellow at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at Ohio State University. He authored a book that received the 2002 John Lyman Book Award for U.S. Naval History and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. He is also the editor of three volumes and has published articles in numerous academic journals. 

Lerner serves as associate editor of the Journal of American-East Asian Relations as well. He has been a fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center for Public Affairs and has held the Mary Ball Washington Distinguished Fulbright Chair at University College – Dublin.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University and two master’s degrees in American studies and history and a doctorate in history from the University of Texas at Austin.