Caruso School of Law Professor Christine Chambers Goodman to Receive 10th Annual Award for Excellence in Leadership
On Thursday, April 13, the Office of the Provost and the Seaver College Committee for Women Faculty will honor Christine Chambers Goodman, professor of law at the Caruso School of Law, with the University’s Award for Excellence in Leadership at a dinner reception at 6 PM in the Caruso School of Law Atrium. President Jim Gash, Provost Jay Brewster, and Goodman will speak at the ceremony.
Each year, on behalf of the provost, the Committee for Women Faculty selects a woman faculty member to receive the Award for Excellence in Leadership. The award honors a Pepperdine woman faculty member, past or present, whose academic leadership has made a significant contribution to her profession, who has been employed by the University for 10 years or longer, and who is a role model for academic leaders.
“The annual Award for Excellence in Leadership honors women in the Pepperdine community who have displayed particularly influential and effective leadership,” says Brewster. “Since joining the Caruso School of Law faculty in 2001, Professor Goodman has partnered her significant scholarly and instructional roles with support of the Pepperdine chapters of the Women’s Legal Association, the Black Law Students Association, and the American Constitution Society. I look forward to the focused opportunity to celebrate the influence of Professor Goodman upon Pepperdine and the larger scholarly community.”
Goodman is an expert on equal protection topics, including implicit bias, algorithmic bias, affirmative action, preferences, diversity, and racial privacy, as well as evidentiary and criminal law issues.
“When I began my law career, I quickly realized that I would often be the ‘only’ at the table, in the room, and sometimes in the group or organization: the only woman, the only woman of color, the only person of color,” she says. “In law school, I had admired each other ‘only’ in front of the classroom from whom I had learned, and inspired by them, chose to pay it forward by moving my career into law teaching. I am honored to be recognized and truly thrilled to join the company of our Excellence in Leadership awardees.”
After several years spent working in private legal practice and teaching at UCLA, Goodman joined the Caruso School of Law faculty, where she teaches courses on evidence, constitutional law, racial justice, trial practice, and comparative anti-discrimination law. She earned her juris doctor from Stanford Law School and her bachelor of arts from Harvard College. Goodman is an active member of the legal community, currently serving in leadership positions with the Los Angeles County Bar Association, the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations, and the Association of American Law Schools, and previously with the Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles and California Women Lawyers. She also serves on the board of the Western Center on Law and Poverty, a nonprofit organization that litigates, educates, and advocates around health care, housing, and public benefits policies and administration through the lens of economic and racial justice.
Members of the Pepperdine community and those who wish to celebrate Goodman's achievement are invited to attend the award reception.