Kelly Curtis

Kelly K. Curtis is Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and a Visiting Professor of Law, where she serves as the senior academic officer with executive responsibility for the academic program, including the curriculum and its delivery, academic policy, student success and bar readiness, and the academic dimensions of accreditation and regulatory compliance.

Dean Curtis joined Barry from Syracuse University College of Law, where she served for a decade as a faculty member and senior administrator, most recently as Associate Dean of Students, leading five major student services units serving more than 800 students.

Dean Curtis has taught across the curriculum, including Torts, Professional Responsibility, legal writing and appellate advocacy, and seminars in feminist jurisprudence and law and sexuality. Her teaching has been recognized with Syracuse University’s Meredith Teaching Award for Continuing Excellence (2025), the College of Law’s Res Ipsa Loquitur Teaching Award (2024) and Faculty Member of the Year honors (2021 and 2023), the President's Award for Outstanding Faculty (2026), and the University's Outstanding Assessment Award (2022).

A national leader in law student success, Dean Curtis served as principal investigator on consecutive AccessLex Building Bar Skills grants (2023 to 2025) and has presented her work at the AALS Annual Meeting, and other national conferences. In 2026, Dean Curtis received national recognition for her leadership and vision as the recipient of Impact Award from the AALS Section on Academic Support. Her current scholarship examines FERPA, algorithmic student data, and the governance of AI-powered early warning systems in higher education.

Before joining Syracuse, Dean Curtis served as a Professor of Legal Writing at Cleveland State University College of Law. Prior to joining the academy, she practiced as an Assistant State Public Defender in Ohio, and as a labor and employment associate at Schottenstein, Zox & Dunn. She earned her J.D. cum laude from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, where she served as Executive Editor of the Ohio State Law Journal, and her B.A. in philosophy from Saint Mary's College.