Camille M. Davidson, Mitchell Hamline School of Law

Camille M. Davidson is president and dean of Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul where she became the first Black woman to hold the position at the law school or any of its predecessor institutions when she assumed the role on July 1, 2024. As the only female law school dean in Minnesota, she serves on the advisory board of Minnesota Women Lawyers and the Warren E. Burger Inn of Court.

Davidson previously served as dean and professor of law at Southern Illinois University School of Law from July 2020 to 2024, where she secured a $10 million gift to name the law school — the largest individual donation in the university’s history. During her tenure, she increased first-year underrepresented diversity from 8% to more than 28% in three years and improved the 10-month post-graduation employment-seeking rate from 21.6% to 6%.

Under Davidson’s leadership at Southern Illinois University, applications increased 17% in 2023 to their highest level since 2013, while the fall 2023 entering class became both the largest in a decade and most diverse in the school’s history. She established partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities, and created pipeline programs and diversity initiatives that earned the school the 2023 Southern Illinois University School Diversity Champion Award.

From 2013 to 2017, Davidson served as associate dean for academic affairs and faculty development at Charlotte School of Law in North Carolina, where she managed more than 50 full-time faculty members and oversaw academic operations for more than 1,100 students. She developed and implemented more than 60 faculty development workshops and managed academic budgets of approximately $20 million.

Davidson’s legal career includes serving as managing shareholder of The Fuller Law Firm in Charlotte from 2001 to 2006, and six years as assistant counsel in the Office of the Legislative Counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives from 1994 to 2000, where she helped write and edit HIPAA legislation.

Davidson serves on the Law School Admissions Council Assessments Committee and has held board positions with the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction and various community organizations.