Anne Lukingbeal, associate dean and dean of students at Cornell Law School, has been a mentor to women since she first came to campus 21 years ago and a role model for collegial supportiveness among women at the school and elsewhere on campus. Now she is being doubly recognized for her efforts.
She is the first winner of a Law School award named in her honor. The Anne Lukingbeal Award was established this year by the Women's Law Coalition (WLC), a student group at the Law School, to recognize those who contribute to the positive experience of women at the school. It will be given yearly.
Lukingbeal was one of five winners of the 1999 Constance E. Cook and Alice H. Cook Recognition Award, which was presented April 23 by Cornell's Advisory Committee on the Status of Women (ACSW). The other winners this year were Rachel Harris, now a graduate student in Women's Studies, who helped revive the Women's Resource Center on campus; Judy Hart, manager of human resources at Cornell Information Technologies, who moved forward an ACSW mentoring project; Barbara Knuth, an associate professor in natural resources and role model to women students in that field; and Catherine Murray-Rust, associate university librarian and two-time chair of ACSW.
"It was overwhelming to get two awards so close together," said Lukingbeal. "I was especially surprised by the WLC award and deeply honored to have it named for me. It will be especially meaningful here at the Law School, and I am looking forward to nominating others for it."
Lukingbeal served on a Cornell Law School committee that conducted a gender study at the school in 1997. The findings, which were published, revealed that, in general, female students were less satisfied with their law school experience than men and tended to lose confidence while studying law. "We're not unique," Lukingbeal observed. "We share this problem with other leading law schools. We need to understand the broader issues and then decide what can be done to improve the situation."
She observed, however, that just doing the study had helped improve the climate for women at the Law School.
Lukingbeal earned a B.A. at Stanford University and a J.D. at the University of California, Davis. She was a trial attorney in the Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office for three years before coming to Cornell.
She became associate dean for admissions and student affairs at the school in 1984 and moved up to her current position in 1988. In addition to serving as dean of students, she advises the Law School's many student groups, supervises career services activities, does career counseling and is a member of four faculty committees.
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