RALEIGH – Campbell Law Associate Professor Lisa Lukasik has been named the 2018 recipient of the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award. She joined the Campbell Law faculty in 2009 and was granted tenure in 2016. She regularly teaches Torts to first-year students and offers upper-level seminars in public-school law, including special-education law and education litigation. Additionally, she often works with one or more students each semester on “independent study” projects.
“I am honored and humbled to have been selected for this recognition,” said Lukasik. “I am grateful for the opportunity to do work that I love, teaching our phenomenal students; and I am grateful for my exceptional colleagues on Campbell Law’s faculty, staff, and administration who inspire me every day to improve through their creativity, energy, and commitment to our students’ success and excellence.”
Lukasik is a productive scholar whose research is focused on the educational rights of children with disabilities. Selected works include: Special-Education Litigation: An Empirical Analysis of North Carolina’s First Tier (2016); Re-examining Reasonableness: Negligence Liability in Adult Defendants with Cognitive Disabilities (2015) (with Johnny Criscoe); Asperger’s Syndrome and Eligibility under the IDEA: Eliminating the Emerging “Failure First” Requirement to Prevent a Good IDEA from Going Bad (2012); and Deconstructing a Decade of Charter School Funding Litigation: An Argument for Reform (2012). She also serves as a State Hearing Review Officer in special education disputes.
Lukasik takes an active role in law school governance. In recent years, she has chaired the Admissions Committee, reviewing the application of every single student admitted to the school. She is also a vital member of the Academic Standards and Community Diversity & Student Life Committees. She serves as the faculty advisor for a number of student organizations, including the Black Law Students Association, the Education Law and Policy Society, the Education Law Pro Bono Project, the Service Animal Project, and Phi Alpha Delta. She is a tireless advocate for creating an inclusive and supportive environment for all students at the law school, and she enjoys an enviable reputation among our students for her passion, stimulating class discussions, and genuine interest in their lives.
Lukasik earned her B.A. with honors from Washington University in St. Louis and graduated as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She began her professional career as a junior college English teacher first in Kolobrzeg, Poland and later in Huntsville, Alabama. After several years as an English teacher, she returned to school and earned a J.D. with honors from the University of North Carolina School of Law. She graduated as a member of the Order of the Coif and served as a published member of the North Carolina Law Review, a founding editor of the North Carolina Banking Institute Publication, and an Honors Writing Scholar.
She clerked for the Honorable Willis P. Whichard on the North Carolina Supreme Court and practiced education law with Tharington Smith, L.L.P.
Lukasik came to Campbell Law from the University of North Carolina School of Law, where she served as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Law and as the Director of the law school’s bar-success program.