ASSOCIATE DEAN SAIDMAN-KRAUSS ELECTED TO AALS SECTION ON PRELEGAL EDUCATION AND ADMISSION TO LAW SCHOOL’S EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
December 2020 — In recognition of the work that Associate Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Bekah Saidman-Krauss has done for the legal academy, she has been nominated and approved to serve on the AALS Section on PreLegal Education and Admission to Law School’s 2021-22 Executive Committee. As a member of the Executive Committee, Saidman-Krauss will serve as chairperson of the Standing Nomination Committee.
In addition to Saidman-Krauss, the Section’s 2021-22 Executive Committee will include several other leaders in law school admissions including Elisabeth Steele Hutchison, Director of Admissions, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa William S. Richardson School of Law (co-chair); Shawn D. McShay, Assistant Dean, Graduate Enrollment Management, Boston College Law School (co-chair); Matthew Kerns, Associate Dean for Admissions, Widener University Commonwealth Law School (vice-chair); Sophia Sims, Associate Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, George Washington University Law School (secretary); and Patricia Kinney, Assistant Dean of Diversity & Inclusion, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law (chairperson of the Standing Program Committee). Saidman-Krauss looks forward to working with her colleagues on the Executive Committee to further the Section’s mission—especially as it relates to increasing access to law school and diversifying the legal profession.
Bekah Saidman-Krauss is Associate Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid at Penn State Dickinson Law. She earned her B.A., cum laude, in comparative religion at Smith College, where she also worked as a research assistant for the Chair of the Program for the Study of Women and Gender. She later earned her J.D. from Penn State Dickinson Law, where she served as comments editor for the Penn State Law Review and was inducted into the Woolsack Honor Society. During her time at Dickinson Law, Saidman-Krauss worked for Judge Thomas I. Vanaskie of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and for Judge Yvette Kane of the Middle District of Pennsylvania. After graduating from Dickinson Law, she joined Troutman Pepper’s (formerly Pepper Hamilton) Philadelphia office as a litigation associate but eventually returned to her law school alma mater to oversee the admissions operation. As the Associate Dean for Admissions & Financial Aid at Dickinson Law, Dean Saidman-Krauss has played an instrumental role in seating Penn State Dickinson Law’s diverse and highly credentialed entering classes. Her many contributions include redrafting Dickinson Law’s application to include optional questions that broaden the law school’s definition of diversity to include—in addition to women and racial and ethnic minorities—adult learners, individuals with disabilities, first generation college and graduate students, members of the LGBTQ community, and veterans. In 2016, Saidman-Krauss received the Outstanding Service Award from Penn State’s Commission for LGBTQ Equity in recognition of her efforts to improve the climate of diversity and inclusion for LGBTQ-identified individuals at Penn State. In 2017, she was invited to join the Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity Subcommittee of the Law School Admissions Council’s (LSAC) Diversity Committee and helped to plan the inaugural LSAC Equality Conference, which focused on building, maintaining, and promoting LGBTQ+ inclusive environments in law schools nationally.