UCLA School of Law professor Carole Goldberg has been honored with the prestigious 2022–23 Edward A. Dickson Emeritus Professorship Award for her outstanding contributions since she retired. Goldberg, a leading authority on Indian law and longtime member of the UCLA Law faculty, is Distinguished Research Professor, the Jonathan D. Varat Distinguished Professor of Law Emerita, and founding director of the law school’s Native Nations Law & Policy Center.

She is among three emeriti professors at UCLA to earn this year’s Dickson award, which is funded from a gift endowment established by the late University of California regent Edward A. Dickson “to honor outstanding research, scholarly work, teaching and service performed by an emeritus or emerita professor since retirement.” Honorees receive a prize of $5,000.

In announcing the honor, Michael Levine, UCLA’s vice chancellor for academic personnel, said, “A widely respected scholar of federal Indian and tribal law, Carole has continued to make important contributions to the field in the years since her retirement, including continuing to serve as a chief justice, justice and an evidentiary hearing officer in several Native American courts.”

Levine also cited Goldberg’s instrumental role in obtaining gifts totaling $19.625 million from the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria to support promising students through the law school’s Graton Scholars Program and to fund endowed faculty chairs in the field. Also key was Goldberg’s service as chair of the UCLA Centennial Celebration Steering Committee, on the UCLA Campus Honorary Naming Advisory Committee, and as a special assistant to the executive vice chancellor and provost and vice chancellor for academic personnel to help mentor senior leaders across campus.

“Throughout her career, and in post-retirement, Carole has demonstrated a deep commitment to the university’s mission and the significance of her leadership has been invaluable,” Levine said.

Since she joined the UCLA Law faculty in 1972, Goldberg has been among the nation’s most prominent scholars and voices in the laws and policies of Native Nations, and largely under Goldberg’s direction, UCLA Law has been a broadly recognized leader in Indian law and policy for more than half a century. As a teacher and mentor, she has educated generations of leaders in the Native American community. Among many courses, she has taught the Tribal Legal Development Clinic and the Tribal Appellate Court Clinic, both of which provide legal services to Indian tribes and Indian judicial systems.

Goldberg’s scholarly work includes numerous impactful articles and chapters, as well as several books, including, most recently, A Coalition of Lineages: The Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians (University of Arizona Press, 2021), which she co-wrote with UCLA Professor of Sociology Emeritus Duane Champagne, and the leading casebook American Indian Law: Native Nations and the Federal System (7th edition, LexisNexis, 2015), which she co-wrote with UCLA Law professor Angela Riley, alumna Rebecca Tsosie ’90 and Robert Clinton.

She has served as chief justice of the Hualapai Court of Appeals and chief justice of the Court of Appeals of the Pechanga Band of Indians. In 2011, President Obama appointed her to the Indian Law and Order Commission, which investigated issues of safety and justice in tribal communities. She earned the Lawrence F. Baca Lifetime Achievement Award from the Indian Law Section of the Federal Bar Association in 2013.

As a prominent and longstanding member of the UCLA community, Goldberg has served in several leadership positions. These include associate dean for the law school on two occasions, chair of the UCLA Academic Senate, and vice chancellor of academic personnel for the UCLA campus. In 2015, the Carole E. Goldberg Emeriti Service Award was established to recognize “exemplary service by an emeritus/emerita professor to the academic enterprise after retirement. The award honors outstanding service in professional, University, Academic Senate, emeriti, departmental or editorial posts, or committees.”

Goldberg earned her B.A. from Smith College and her J.D. from Stanford Law School. She is the fourth member of the law school faculty to earn the Dickson award since 2006–07.