Abramson named executive in residence at Spalding

Jerry Abramson

Former Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson has been named executive in residence at Spalding University. Abramson will teach undergraduate and graduate classes and is expected to play a role in the university’s development of academic programs focused on juvenile criminal justice reform and restorative practices.
He also will be available to teach and lecture in courses on comparative leadership, public finance and innovation in all levels of government, including doctorate of education in leadership program.
Abramson, who is concluding a stint as executive in residence at Bellarmine University, is leaving due to the elimination of that position. He will start at Spalding on June 1.
“Supreme Court Justice and Louisvillian Louis Brandeis believed the most important political office in America is that of the private citizen,” Abramson said in a prepared statement. “I agree with that philosophy and want to help energize our next generation to better reflect the characteristics of citizenship in America.”
Spalding University President Tori Murden McClure said she is “thrilled” to have Abramson at the school.
“His experience and expertise in so many areas will be invaluable to our students and faculty,” she said in a prepared statement. “He is one of the most respected leaders in Louisville, and Spalding will be a better place for having him in our classrooms and representing us in the community.”
Abramson was Louisville’s longest-serving mayor with 21 years in office, serving three terms as mayor of the old City of Louisville, from 1986 to 1999, and two terms as mayor of the merged Louisville Metro Government from 2003-10.
He later served as lieutenant governor of Kentucky from 2011 to 2014 before leaving to become deputy assistant to then-President Barack Obama until the end of his term in 2017.
A graduate of Indiana University and the Georgetown University Law Center, Abramson practiced law with Greenebaum Doll and McDonald, and then with Frost Brown Todd before entering politics.
In addition to Bellarmine, he has taught at the University of
Louisville’s law school and has been a guest lecturer at Harvard University, Georgetown University, Boston University, Indiana University and the University of Kentucky.
He is a former member of the Spalding Board of Trustees.

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