Dean
The Colleges of Law

Evaluation Areas: Faculty Governance, Law

Jackie Gardina is currently the Dean and Chief Academic Officer at the Santa Barbara and Ventura Colleges of Law. Through her efforts, The Santa Barbara and Ventura Colleges of Law became the first accredited law school in California to have a hybrid JD program with a distinct curriculum designed to prepare students for 21st century law practice. She is currently enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania’s Executive Ed.D in Higher Education Management where she will focus her dissertation on understanding the optimal environment to develop and sustain innovative higher education.

Before joining the Colleges of Law in 2016, Dean Gardina was a Professor of Law at Vermont Law School where she also served as the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs. Since arriving in California, Dean Gardina continues to play an active role in the broader legal education community. She was a member of the California Attorney Practice Analysis Working Group (CAPA). CAPA was responsible for the State Bar of California’s job analysis study for the legal profession in California. She is the Chair of the State Bar Committee for Accredited and Registered Law Schools. In her first year as Chair, the Committee drafted a new set of accreditation rules with a focus on best practices in accreditation and legal education into the rules.