Chancellor and Dean Frank H. Wu, hired in July 2010, is the William B. Lockhart Professor of Law.
Wu was born in Cleveland but moved to Detroit with his family at an early age. His father was an engineer for Ford Motor Company. Wu later wrote in a book that childhood experiences of taunting as the only Asian in his school shaped his racial consciousness. Wu also wrote that the racially-motivated killing of Chinese American Vincent Jen Chin at an auto plant in 1982 and the ensuing civil rights actions that followed motivated him to study law an become a civil rights activist.
Wu received his bachelor of arts degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1988 and a JD from the University of Michigan in 1991. He also completed the Management Development Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2006. Prior to his academic career, he clerked for U.S. District Judge Frank Battisti in Cleveland and practiced law with Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco.
He taught at the law schools of George Washington University, University of Maryland, Columbia University, University of Michigan, Peking University, as well as in the undergraduate programs of Johns Hopkins University and Deep Springs College.
Wu was on the law faculty at Howard University from 1995-2004, including two years as clinic director. During that time, he was appointed chairman of the D.C. Human Rights Commission (2001-02) by Mayor Anthony Williams. He joined the board of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights in 2004 and was a member of the Board on Professional Responsibility in Washington, D.C.
He was named dean of Detroit’s Wayne State University Law School in 2004 and served until 2008.
Active in the community, Dean Wu served as a trustee of Gallaudet University in Washington D.C., the only university in the world serving primarily deaf and hard of hearing individuals. He served for four years as vice-chairman of its board.
Currently, he is a member of the U.S. Department of Education's National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) and advises the Secretary of Education on matters of accreditation. Wu is also a member of the U.S. Defense Department's Military Leadership Diversity Commission and makes recommendations to Congress and the President on policies that provide leadership opportunities in the Armed Forces.
Wu is the author of Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White and co-author of Race, Rights and Reparation: Law and the Japanese American Internment. His writing has appeared on a professional basis in such periodicals as the Washington Post, Detroit Free Press, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Chronicle of Higher Education, Legal Times and Asian Week.
Wu is the first Asian American to serve as dean at Hastings College. He is married to Carol L. Izumi, clinical professor of law at the college.
Frank H. Wu, Chancellor and Dean, William B. Lockhart Professor of Law (Hastings website)
UC Hastings Law School Names Frank H. Wu Chancellor (Metropolitan News-Enterprise)
Frank H. Wu (Wikipedia)
