Biography
Vice Dean Michelle D. Mason joined FIU Law in 2001 as the founding Associate Dean for Admissions and Student Services. Before joining FIU, she held positions at Phillips Exeter Academy, Seton Hall Law School, and Vermont Law School.
Throughout her tenure at FIU Law, Mason has provided leadership in enrollment management, student success, experiential learning, professional development, community engagement, and institutional strategy. She was appointed Director of the FIU Law Center for Professionalism and Ethics in 2010 and Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Education, Experiential Learning, and Engagement in 2014. During the 2025–2026 academic year, she served as Interim Dean of FIU Law. In 2026, she was appointed Vice Dean for Student Success and Experiential Learning.
Mason’s work reflects an integrated approach to legal education that connects student success, experiential learning, professional preparation, and community engagement. She has developed programs and organizational structures to support students from recruitment through graduation and entry into the legal profession. She has also launched several pre-law initiatives designed to expand access to legal education and prepare aspiring students for law school.
Mason previously served as a Faculty Fellow in the FIU Honors College and received a secondary appointment as a Faculty Administrator in the Department of Humanities, Health, and Society at the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine.
Civic engagement has been a consistent focus of Mason’s work. As principal investigator, she secured a national grant and directed the Council on Legal Education Opportunity Summer Institute. In 2013, she founded the Math and Civics Summer Institute, which provided academic and civic instruction to elementary school students from Liberty City.
Mason has served on numerous local and national committees, including the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Professionalism and Civility Committee and the National Black Law Students Association Education Task Force.
Her professional recognition includes selection as a National Institute for Teaching Ethics and Professionalism Fellow, recognition as one of South Florida’s Top 50 Most Powerful Black Professionals and one of the Daily Business Review’s Top 20 Women in Law, and receipt of The Florida Bar’s Law Faculty Professionalism Award. She was also selected to participate in the Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education program, “The Art and Practice of Leadership Development.”
Education
- J.D., Rutgers University School of Law–Camden
- B.A., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey