Professor Purvis wins honor from University’s Commission on LGBTQ Equity

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State Commission on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Equity (CLGBTQE) has awarded Assistant Professor of Law Dara Purvis with its 2017 Faculty Academic Achievement Award for demonstrating outstanding success in the areas of research and instruction on issues around sexuality and the law.

Purvis, a scholar of family law, contracts, feminist legal theory, and sexuality and the law, was recognized along with five other honorees at the CLGBTQE awards ceremony on April 6.

Purvis has served in numerous capacities for the CLGBTQE since she joined the Penn State Law faculty in 2013, most recently as the commission’s liaison to the University Faculty Senate's Equity and Campus Environment Committee and as the chair of the commission’s ad-hoc bylaws committee. She previously chaired the commission’s Employee Concerns Committee, served as a member of the Transgender Concerns Committee, and worked on the commission’s health care equity and legal and strategic response task forces.

Purvis is the faculty adviser to OutLaw, Penn State Law’s LGBT+ student organization, and is a member of the Penn State Law Public Interest Advisory Group and the law school’s Diversity, Curriculum, and Strategic Planning Committees.

“Professor Purvis shows up, every day, on every level, above and beyond anything I have ever seen ... constantly involved, helping in as many areas as she can, and giving each endeavor her whole heart,” wrote Purvis’ nominator, Penn State Law 3L Katelyn Mullen. “She is the perfect role model for using your privilege and position to give back, and does so much for the law school, its students, and Penn State as a whole.”

Purvis teaches Contracts, Family Law, Juvenile Law, and Law and Sexuality. She has published and presented extensively on such topics as same-sex marriage and domestic partnerships, same-sex parental rights, transgender student rights and transgender law, the legal implications of the sexual orientation of fatherhood, reproductive rights and justice, and gender and the law.

Prior to joining Penn State Law, Purvis was a visiting assistant professor at the University of Illinois College of Law and a visiting fellow at the University of Kent Research Centre for Law, Gender, and Sexuality. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California, a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge, and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

The CLGBTQE presents its Outstanding Service, Academic Achievement, and Emerging Leader awards annually in recognition of student, faculty, and staff efforts to build an inclusive community at Penn State. Penn State Law 3L Brett Atanasio was recognized last year as the 2016 recipient of the Student Outstanding Service Award.