Melanie D. Wilson

Melanie D. Wilson is an American academic administrator and law professor serving as the dean and Roy L. Steinheimer Jr. Professor of Law of the Washington and Lee University School of Law since 2022. She is an expert on criminal procedure, the Fourth and Sixth Amendments, juries, and prosecutorial ethics. Wilson was dean and Lindsay Young Distinguished Professor of the University of Tennessee College of Law from 2015 to 2020 and its dean emerita from 2020 to 2022.

Life Wilson earned a B.A. in journalism with a minor in business, magna cum laude, in June 1987 from University of Georgia. She golfed during her undergraduate studies, was a member of its 1986 Southeastern Conference championship team, and an Academic All-American. She was a dean emerita from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2022. She succeeded interim dean Michelle Drumbl.

She is the co-author of three books on criminal procedure and has published more than a dozen articles and essays addressing prosecutorial ethics and the Fourth and Sixth Amendments. She is a member of the American Law Institute. In 2024, she was chosen as the president of the Association of American Law Schools, succeeding Mark C. Alexander.