Susan Cancelosi named associate dean of Wayne Law

DETROIT - Susan Cancelosi has been appointed associate dean at Wayne State University Law School.

Cancelosi was named interim associate dean in September 2016 and has worked with faculty and staff to oversee the law Susan Cancelosischool's academic programs. She has been a member of the Wayne Law faculty since 2006.

"Susan is an expert consensus builder who is able to see the law school from every angle," Richard A. Bierschbach, dean and professor of law, said in announcing the appointment. "She's spent the last ten years building relationships with students, faculty and staff. She is a natural fit for this role, and I'm thrilled she'll continue to serve Wayne Law in this capacity."

Cancelosi, of Beverly Hills, Michigan, has taught courses on trusts and estates, federal income taxation, elder law and employee benefits. Her research focuses on employment-based retiree benefits, both health and pension. She speaks regularly on benefits-related topics involving the elderly.

In 2016, she was honored with the law school's Donald H. Gordon Award for Excellence in Teaching and that same year the class of 2016 presented her with the Upperclass Professor of the Year Award.

Before joining the Wayne Law faculty, Cancelosi was a research professor with the Health Law & Policy Institute at the University of Houston Law Center, where she focused primarily on research into various health care finance issues and taught both employee benefits and elder law.

For the preceding five years, she was a director in Tax & Legal Consulting Services for Buck Consultants, a Dallas-based national human resources consulting firm. Before joining Buck, Cancelosi worked as a manager with Deloitte & Touche in its employee benefits consulting practice in Dallas.

She also has worked as an employee benefits attorney with Jones Day Reavis & Pogue in Cleveland and Dallas, with the benefits practice at Taft Stettinius & Hollister in Cincinnati and as assistant general counsel for The Associates, a large publicly traded finance company based in Dallas. Her private practice work covered the full range of employee benefits issues, from traditional retirement plan benefits to all types of welfare benefits and executive compensation.

Her interest in elder law stems from years of volunteer work in Texas with The Senior Source, a United Way agency based in Dallas that focuses on serving the senior population of the North Texas region. In addition to offering pro bono advice at clinics for the elderly and speaking to numerous senior citizens' groups, Cancelosi served for several years as a volunteer guardian for a senior citizen in a nursing home near Dallas.

Cancelosi graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas with a bachelor's degree in history and a bachelor of business administration degree in marketing. She earned her law degree from Cornell Law School in Ithaca, New York, and holds a master of laws degree in health law from the University of Houston Law Center.

Photo: Susan Cancelosi

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