Texas A&M University School of Law Professor Lisa T. Alexander is among the 21 recipients honored for the second annual Presidential Impact Fellows award presented in late October. The award is given to faculty members within the Texas A&M system who embrace grand challenges, commit to core values and embody the unique “can-do” spirit that distinguishes Texas Aggies in service through education.
The award was implemented in 2017 by Texas A&M University’s President Michael K. Young and former Provost Karan L. Watson. Each award recipient is selected by his/her dean and confirmed by academic leadership.
Alexander, a legal expert in housing and urban community development, business and social entrepreneurship, local government and property law, plans to use her Presidential Impact Fellow award to complete law review articles and her first book.
She has a joint appointment with Texas A&M University’s department of landscape architecture and urban planning, and Alexander is also the co-founder and co-director of Texas A&M University School of Law’s real estate and community development law program.
Each year, Alexander receives invitations to share her expertise with other scholars. Recently, the Provost’s Office of the University of Pennsylvania and the Penn Institute for Urban Research, and the University of Richmond Law School invited her to participate in separate events honoring the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act. Alexander has been invited by the Citizen Homeless Commission of Dallas and the American College of Real Estate Lawyers to present her current research on tiny homes to ameliorate homelessness.
She continues to present her academic work at a number of law schools including: Harvard Law School, Boston University School of Law, the University of Chicago Law School, New York University Law School, the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown Law School, Washington University at Law School, the University of Minnesota Law School, Fordham Law School, Tulane Law School and others.
Alexander says her research and teaching highlight the role private law plays in contemporary, urban redevelopment struggles and envisions how to use law to maximize and more equitably distribute the benefits of urban revitalization.
Alexander is an affiliate of Texas A&M University’s Center on Housing and Urban Development and the University of Wisconsin’s Institute for Research on Poverty.
She has been a Summer Honors program attorney at the U.S. department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Housing Section, an Equal Justice Works Fellow, an Earl Warren Civil Rights Scholar and a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs.
She was an assistant professor of law and associate professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School from 2006-2016. Alexander was also a member of the Wisconsin State Advisory Committee for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
She holds a bachelor's degree in government with honors from Wesleyan University and earned a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law.
► See the official Texas A&M University announcement of the 2018 Presidential Impact Fellows.
About Texas A&M School of Law
Texas A&M School of Law is an American Bar Association-accredited institution located in downtown Fort Worth. In 2013, the law school acquired Texas Wesleyan University School of Law and has increased faculty and students exponentially in its five-year existence. The law school ranks highly nationwide in dispute resolution and intellectual property and offers 11 clinics that introduce students to real-world applications of the law. For more information, visit law.tamu.edu.
About Texas A&M University
Texas A&M, established in 1876 as the first public university in Texas, is one of the nation’s largest universities with more than 66,000 students and more than 440,000 living alumni residing in over 150 countries around the world. A tier-one university, Texas A&M holds the rare triple land-, sea- and space-grant designation. Research conducted at Texas A&M represented annual expenditures of more than $905.4 million in fiscal year 2017. Texas A&M’s research creates new knowledge that provides basic, fundamental and applied contributions resulting, in many cases, in economic benefits to the state, nation and world. For more information, visit tamu.edu.
Article by Tyra Kelly, Texas A&M University School of Law Marketing and Communications.
Photos courtesy of Tamara Cuéllar Garza, Communications Coordinator, Provost Communications Office, Texas A&M University.