Angela R. Dean

Visiting Assistant Professor of Law

Angela R. Dean joined Penn State Dickinson Law in the fall of 2024 as a visiting assistant professor. She obtained a Juris Doctor and Master of Laws in Taxation with a Certificate of Employee Benefits from Villanova University School of Law.

Before coming to Penn State Dickinson Law, Ms. Dean held various in-house counsel roles with pension funds and health insurers. Angela previously served as associate general counsel to the YMCA Retirement Fund where she acted as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) subject matter expert responsible for inter-departmental project management, compliance issues, regulatory agency inquiries as well as benefit claims and appeals.

She also served as senior ERISA counsel to Health Now New York n/k/a Highmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Eastern and Western New York where she handled the self-funded employer line of business for their third-party administrator. As an investigator for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, Angela enforced Title I of ERISA where she handled complex compliance matters that focused upon protecting the interests of participants and beneficiaries in private sector employee benefit plans.

Ms. Dean’s academic teaching experience includes serving as a guest lecturer at the University of Maine School of Law and as an adjunct instructor at Penn State Dickinson Law.

Her scholarship includes a current work in progress entitled “The American Hustle” which examines the ERISA deemer clause, its creation of a two-tiered private sector health insurance system in America and the regulatory landscape.

During law school, Ms. Dean served as a member of the Sports and Entertainment Law Journal and published a case note, “Expanding the Doctrines of Vicarious and Contributory Copyright Infringement: Fonovisa, Inc. v Cherry Auction, Inc. Targets the Primary Distribution Channels for Counterfeit Merchandise.” She received the Best Team Argument-Respondent award at the Niagara International Moot Court Competition while serving as a member of the Moot Court.