Susan Poser (born September 7, 1963) is the current and first female president of
Hofstra University
Hofstra University is a Private university, private research university in Hempstead, New York, United States. It originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University and became an independent college in 1939. Comprising ten schools, includ ...
, having succeeded retiring president
Stuart Rabinowitz
Stuart Rabinowitz was the 8th president of Hofstra University. Before assuming the presidency, he was dean of Hofstra Law School for over a decade and before that was a distinguished professor of law.
Hofstra University
Rabinowitz started his ...
on August 1, 2021. Before being named to the Hofstra post, she was chief operating officer, provost, and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the
University of Illinois at Chicago
The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the Universi ...
.
Early life
Susan Poser was born to Norman Stanley Poser (born May 28, 1928, in
Hampstead, London, England) and Miriam Poser (née Kugelman; born October 17, 1930, in
Moers, Germany
Moers (; older form: ''Mörs''; Dutch: ''Murse'', ''Murs'' or ''Meurs'') is a German city on the western bank of the Rhine, close to Duisburg. Moers belongs to the district of Wesel.
History
Known earliest from 1186, the county of Moers w ...
) on September 7, 1963, in
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
Her father Norman had immigrated to the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
from
Genoa, Italy
Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitants ...
in 1939, and would go on to be an attorney for the
Security and Exchange Commission, executive vice president of the
American Stock Exchange
NYSE American, formerly known as the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), and more recently as NYSE MKT, is an American stock exchange situated in New York City. AMEX was previously a mutual organization, owned by its members. Until 1953, it was known ...
, and a professor at
Brooklyn Law School
Brooklyn Law School (BLS) is a Private university, private law school in New York City. Founded in 1901, it has approximately 1,100 students. Brooklyn Law School's faculty includes 60 full-time faculty, 15 emeriti faculty, and adjunct faculty.
...
. Her mother Miriam had immigrated to the United States from
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
in 1936 to escape
anti-Semitic
Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
persecution.
Poser attended
Columbia Prep until 8th grade, when she went to high school at
Fieldston. She also spent her early summers attending the
Interlochen National Music Camp, where she would eventually also work.
Education
Poser graduated from
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the e ...
in 1985 with a Bachelor of Arts with honors in ancient Greek and political science. Poser held teaching positions at both
Anatolia College
Anatolia College (Greek: Κολλέγιο Ανατόλια, , also known as the American College (Greek: Αμερικάνικο Κολλέγιο, ), is a private, non-profit, educational institution located in Pylaia, a suburb of Thessaloniki, G ...
and Armstrong Preparatory School as an English teacher from 1985 to 1986 and 1986 to 1987, respectively.
After receiving her J.D. from the
UC Berkeley School of Law
The University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Berkeley Law) is the Law school in the United States, law school of the University of California, Berkeley. The school was commonly referred to as "Boalt Hall" for many years, although it was ...
in 1991, Poser clerked for
Dolores Sloviter
Dolores Korman Sloviter (September 5, 1932 – October 12, 2022) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Education and career
Born to a Jewish-American family in 1932 in Philadelphia, Penns ...
, Chief Judge for the
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (in case citations, 3d Cir.) is a United States federal court, federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the United States district court, district courts for the following United Sta ...
. Poser served as a Zicklin Fellow in Ethics of the
Wharton School
The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...
at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
. She received a Ph.D. from
UC Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...
in 2000.
Career
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Poser began to work at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
in 1994, as a visiting professor of law.
She officially became a part of the faculty in 1999. In 2003, Poser was appointed by the
Nebraska State Bar Association to review policies in the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which resulted in her publication of ''Multijurisdictional Practice for a Multijurisdictional Profession''.
In 2004, Poser was awarded the College of Law's distinguished teaching award. In 2005, she would receive the State Bar's Shining Light Award for her work, as well as becoming the director of the
Robert J. Kutak Center for the Teaching & Study of Applied Ethics. Poser was appointed as the associate to chancellor
Harvey Perlman in 2007 and served until 2010. She became a full professor of law in 2008. Poser was then appointed
University of Nebraska College of Law
The University of Nebraska College of Law is the law school of the University of Nebraska system. It was founded in 1888 and became part of University of Nebraska in 1891. According to Nebraska's official 2017 ABA-required disclosures, 70.3% of th ...
's dean in 2010. The semester before, Perlman wanted to appoint her as a provost, but the proposal was rejected. During her tenure, the law school moved up 33 places in the
U.S. News & World Report rankings.
University of Illinois at Chicago
In 2016, Poser was appointed provost and vice chancellor of academic affairs at the University of Illinois-Chicago. During that time, many initiatives were initiated, most notably the acquisition of
John Marshall Law School making it the first public law school in Chicago. Poser oversaw the highest student enrollment ever at the university as it set records for six years in a row, culminating with a 33,598 student enrollment in 2020. However, her tenure also saw a strike from graduate assistants and teaching assistants in regard to pay. This strike would last about three weeks and cancel over 550 classes.
Hofstra University
Poser was named Hofstra University's ninth president on December 9, 2020, and assumed the post on August 1, 2021, becoming the first woman to be president of Hofstra. In an interview with the ''Valley Stream Herald'', Dr. Poser outlined her priorities as the next president, which include a commitment to the liberal arts, meeting as many people and perspectives as possible, promoting a "culture of inclusion" and possibly still including virtual learning after the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
at the university.
Personal life
Poser is Jewish on both her mother and father's side. She is married to professor and researcher Stephen DiMagno.
Bibliography
* Poser, Susan and Varon, Elizabeth R., "United States v. Steinmetz: The Legal Legacy of the Civil War, Revisited" (1995). College of Law, Faculty Publications. 42. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/lawfacpub/42
* Poser, Susan, "The Ethics of Implementation: Institutional Remedies and the Lawyer's Role" (1996). College of Law, Faculty Publications. 43. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/lawfacpub/43
* Susan Poser, Termination of Desegregation Decrees and the Elusive Meaning of Unitary Status, 81 Neb. L. Rev. (2002) Available at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nlr/vol81/iss1/5
* Poser, S. Multijurisdictional Practice for a Multijurisdictional Profession, 81 Neb. L. Rev. (2002) Available at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nlr/vol81/iss4/7
* Poser, Susan; Bornstein, Brian H.; and McGorty, Erinn Kiernan, "Measuring Damages for Lost Enjoyment of Life: The View from the Bench and the Jury Box" (2003). Faculty Publications, Department of Psychology. 147. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub/147
* Susan Poser, Main Street Multidisciplinary Practice Firms: Laboratories for the Future, 37 U. MICH. J. L. REFORM 95 (2003). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjlr/vol37/iss1/3
* Poser, S. (2004). What's a Judge to Do? Remedying the Remedy in Institutional Reform Litigation. Michigan Law Review, 102(6), 1307–1327. doi:10.2307/4141947
* Poser, Susan, Unlabeled Drug Samples and the Learned Intermediary: The Case for Liability Without Preemption (December 1, 2007). Food and Drug Law Journal, Vol. 62, p. 653, 2007, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=978802
* Bornstein, Brian H. and Poser, Susan (2007) "Perceptions of Procedural and Distributive Justice in the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund," Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy: Vol. 17: Iss. 1, Article 2. Available at: http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cjlpp/vol17/iss1/2
* Poser S. (2008) Damages as Metaphor: A Commentary. In: Bornstein B.H., Wiener R.L., Schopp R.F., Willborn S.L. (eds) Civil Juries and Civil Justice. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-74490-2_7
* Riedesel, Charles & Manley, Eric & Poser, Susan & Deogun, Jitender. (2009). A model academic ethics and integrity policy for computer science departments. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin. 41. 357–361. https://doi.org/10.1145/1539024.1508994.
* Case Commentary: Conflict of Interest in Hiring. Michael Pritchard, et al., The Ethical Challenges of Academic Administration (Springer 2010).
* Poser, S., & Rische, J. (2015). Satellite telecommunications and American tort law. Dispute Settlement in the Area of Space Communication, 161–174. https://doi.org/10.5771/9783845258584-161
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poser, Susan
Living people
1963 births
Jewish American academics
Swarthmore College alumni
University of California, Berkeley alumni
UC Berkeley School of Law alumni
University of Nebraska–Lincoln faculty
University of Illinois Chicago faculty
Hofstra University faculty
Presidents of Hofstra University
Women heads of universities and colleges
Women deans (academic)
American academic administrators
Heads of universities and colleges in the United States
21st-century American Jews