Assistant Dean of Students Darren Nealy has been named the 2023 Outstanding Staff Member for the 2022-23 academic year. This acknowledgement is based on votes from the Moritz College of Law J.D. class of 2023.  Dean Nealy was also recognized for this award in 2020-2021 and 2021-2022.

Nealy joined The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law in 2017 as Assistant Dean of Students. Prior to that, he spent four years with the University of Michigan Law School as Director of Student Services and five years with Capital University Law School as Director of Multicultural Affairs. Nealy also served as both Executive Director and Legal Director of the Tobacco Public Policy Center at Capital University Law School. Before working in higher education, he was an attorney for a Columbus, Ohio litigation law firm.

Nealy is originally from Dayton, Ohio, but spent many of his teenage years attending Woodberry Forest School in central Virginia. He later received his BA, magna cum laude, from the University of Dayton and his JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. In addition to his administrative duties, Dean Nealy teaches a graduate and doctoral level course entitled Legal Aspects of Higher Education Administration at The Ohio State University’s College of Education and Human Ecology. He also teaches a Moritz College of Law course on the United States Supreme Court’s Loving v. Virginia decision. He currently serves as President-Elect of the National Association of Law Student Affairs Professionals (“NALSAP”). He also serves as a co-chair for the 2023 NALSAP annual conference. His past national leadership roles include service as chair of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Student Services and as board secretary and regional representative for NALSAP.

Among his duties at Moritz, Dean Nealy assists with academic advising and counseling, accommodations support, student organization guidance, orientation, dual degree programs, exam administration, oversight of the wellness advisory group, and supervision of the College’s records and registration office. In August 2021, Dean Nealy led Moritz’s inaugural Identity Diversity and Justice Program, which will welcome its third cohort in Autumn 2023.

As a public speaker, he has presented on subjects such as Loving. v. Virginia and anti-miscegenation laws; the intersection of workplace culture and personal identity; and the relationship between Hip-Hop culture and issues of justice and the law. He has served as a presenter before varied audiences, including the Association for Student Conduct Administration, the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities, and the National Conference on Diversity, Race & Learning. Dean Nealy is a member of the Ohio State Bar, as well as Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated.