On June 12, 2023 President Laura Rosenbury began her tenure as the new leader of Barnard College, and many across campus are excited to meet her. Learn more about President Rosenbury’s childhood, her work as a lawyer-activist and feminist legal scholar, and her superb baking skills — with the 10 fun facts below.
1. President Rosenbury was born in South Bend, Indiana, and spent much of her childhood on her grandparents’ corn and soybean farm in New Paris, Indiana. The farm kept about 200 chickens, and she first accompanied her grandmother to the slaughterhouse at age 6.
2. President Rosenbury earned her B.A. in women’s studies from Harvard-Radcliffe College and her J.D. from Harvard Law School. During listening sessions with students on Barnard’s campus on March 9, President Rosenbury shared that her college roommate is still her best friend and “the woman who knows me best.”
3. “Dancing Queen” by ABBA is her go-to karaoke song.
4. Before she knew she wanted to become a lawyer, President Rosenbury briefly moved to London after graduating from college and worked as a copy editor for a scientific publishing firm.
5. President Rosenbury’s professional experience at the national office of Planned Parenthood in New York City galvanized her: “My experience working at Planned Parenthood inspired me to go to law school so I could do more for women and families,” said President Rosenbury at Barnard’s announcement ceremony on March 9. Many publications soon followed, including the casebook Feminist Jurisprudence: Cases and Materials, which she co-authored in 2010 and updated in 2017.
6. Rhubarb peach pie and any dishes with black cherries are baking favorites in her kitchen.
7. As a young attorney, President Rosenbury clerked for Judge Carol Bagley Amon of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York and Judge Dennis Jacobs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
8. Before becoming the first woman dean of the University of Florida’s (UF) Levin College of Law, President Rosenbury taught children and law, employment discrimination, family law, feminist legal theory, and property law at Washington University in St. Louis. She was also a visiting professor at the University of Chicago, Harvard University, Stanford University, the University of Illinois, and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
My experience working at Planned Parenthood inspired me to go to law school so I could do more for women and families.
9. President Rosenbury enjoys completing the New York Times crossword puzzle and Spelling Bee every day.
10. She is an avid reader of fiction, and Carol Anshaw’s Aquamarine is one of her favorite novels.
— TARA TERRANOVA ’25. REPORTING BY ZUYU SHEN ’24
