Jocelyn Benson was named dean of Wayne State University Law School in Detroit on June 16, after having served as interim dean since December 2012. A member of the law faculty since 2005, her areas of expertise include civil rights law, education law, and election law. Prior to serving as dean, she was an associate professor and associate director of the law school’s Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights. Her 2010 book “State Secretaries of State: Guardians of the Democratic Process” is the first major book on the role of the secretary of state in enforcing election and campaign finance laws. That same year, she was the Democratic candidate for Michigan’s secretary of state. Jocelyn is founder and executive director of the nonpartisan Michigan Center for Election Law, supporting transparency and integrity in elections. She serves with retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the board of iCivics Inc., a national nonprofit organization that O’Connor created to improve civics education throughout the country. Jocelyn also is founder and president of Military Spouses of Michigan. She earned a bachelor of arts from Wellesley College, master of philosophy from Oxford University, and law degree from Harvard Law School.
Videos
Towards 2016: The Future of American Elections
Democracy requires participation. Only 55 percent of registered voters vote in major U.S. elections. Voting laws are meanwhile getting even more restrictive and locally unique, thanks in part to recent Supreme Court revisions to the...
Everybody’s Starting Something
States and cities are building toolkits for regional entrepreneurs to smooth the process of company formation. Detroit has a growing ecosystem for local finance and innovation. Las Vegas is undergoing its own unique rehabilitation into...
Events View All 5
Digitally United
The world needs to come together. Tech can help in so many ways, but we need that badly. We see digital division between citizens who are connected and those who aren’t, between regulators and tech...
Detroit 15
The impact of tech on the American economy, its cities and the transformation of the urban ecosystem shaped the agenda for our fourth annual one-day Techonomy Detroit conference.
Detroit 14
On September 16th, Techonomy returns to Detroit for our third annual Techonomy Detroit conference. We will continue the series of conversations we began at our first Techonomy Detroit in 2012 on how technology can boost...
Techonomy 13
A new society is coming into being. People around the world are building it using the rapidly-evolving tools of technology.
Detroit 13
On September 17th, Techonomy returns to Detroit and Wayne State University to continue a series of conversations and workshops we began last year at our first Detroit conference.