Karl Dean

Adjunct Professor of Law

Karl Dean served for two terms as mayor of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County from 2007 to 2015.

He first held public office when he was elected as Nashville’s Public Defender in 1990, a post he was re-elected to in 1994 and 1998. He served as Metro Law Director from 1999 to January 2007, when he resigned to run for the office of mayor.

Since leaving office in September 2015, Mayor Dean taught at Belmont University as a distinguished visiting professor of history and political science, at Boston University as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Political Science and will focus on urban studies, and currently teaches at Vanderbilt Law School as an Adjunct Professor of Law.