Stacy Leeds is Dean Emeritus, University of Arkansas School of Law. She also served as the inaugural Vice Chancellor for Economic Development at the University of Arkansas, leading the university’s mission to expand outreach, commercialization and entrepreneurial activities.

As a teacher and scholar of Indigenous law and policy, Leeds now serves as Foundation Professor of Law and Leadership at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law. Before she joined Arkansas, she serves as Interim associate dean for academic affairs and director of the Tribal Law & Government Center at the University of Kansas, and director of the Northern Plains Indian Law Center at the University of North Dakota. She began her academic career as a William H. Hastie Fellow at University of Wisconsin School of Law.

While at University of Arkansas, Leeds founded the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative to empower tribal food sovereignty.

She holds law degrees from University of Wisconsin (LL.M.) and University of Tulsa (J.D.), a business degree from University of Tennessee (M.B.A.), and an undergraduate degree in history from Washington University in St. Louis (B.A.).

A former athlete and life-long sports enthusiast, Leeds was inducted into the Muskogee Athletic Hall of Fame in her hometown in Oklahoma and played basketball and tennis at Washington University. In 2016, she completed a 950-mile journey as a Cherokee Nation Remember the Removal cyclist. She lives with her family in the Cherokee Nation, near Tahlequah, Oklahoma.