Doug Coulson to Lead Pre-Law Program; New Task Force Established

Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026

Dear Dietrich College Faculty, Staff, and Students, 

I’m pleased to announce that Doug Coulson, associate professor of English, has agreed to serve as director of CMU’s Pre-Law Program for the coming year. 

Before pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin, Doug earned a J.D. from Tulane Law School and practiced as a litigator in a large national law firm. His research explores how legal language shapes justice, identity, and power. More broadly, he is interested in argumentation and advocacy, law and the humanities, the relationship between rhetoric and violence, democratic deliberation and demagoguery, classical rhetoric, and comparative and historical methods. This combination of legal experience and scholarly expertise positions Doug well to lead the program. 

Doug succeeds Joseph (Jay) Devine, who recently retired. We are deeply grateful for Jay’s many years of leadership and for the guidance and mentorship he provided to generations of students and alumni. 

As we look to the future, we are also launching a Pre-Law Task Force to build on the program’s strong foundation, draw on Dietrich College’s emerging strengths and respond to the interests of today’s students. I am charging this task force, chaired by Kelli Maxwell, Dietrich College’s associate dean for student success, to consider our full portfolio of curricular and extracurricular activities in the realm of pre-law across the college and university. The task force’s work may include proposals for new degree programs or revisions to existing ones. 

I’m grateful to Doug and Kelli, as well as the faculty members joining them on the task force: 

  • Audrey Kurth Cronin, director and Trustees Professor of Security and Technology, Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy & Technology 
  • Alex John London, K&L Gates Professor of Ethics and Computational Technologies, Department of Philosophy 
  • Jay Aronson, professor of science, technology, and society, Department of History 

Please join me in welcoming Doug to this role and thanking all the task force members for helping shape the future of pre-law at CMU. 

Best, Cassidy R. Sugimoto
Bess Family Dean
Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences