School of Law | Victoria VanZandt

Professor Victoria VanZandt is the Assistant Dean for the Online Hybrid J.D. Program, Residential LL.M., M.S.L. and Government Contracting and Procurement.

Professor VanZandt joined the University of Dayton School of Law faculty in 2005 and in 2018 was appointed as the first Assistant Dean for the Online Hybrid J.D. Program. She was previously the coordinator of the Legal Profession Program and served as Interim Dean in 2024.

A graduate of the law school, Professor VanZandt has experience as a retrospective case law editor for LexisNexis, a commercial litigation attorney specializing in commercial bankruptcy for Brant Moore Macdonald & Wells, P.A. in Jacksonville, Florida, and as a judicial law clerk for two years to the Honorable Jerry A. Funk, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge.

It was while working as a law clerk that she started teaching. She knew she wanted to work in litigation, and “teaching gave me the opportunity to hone my oral presentation skills,” she says. “I enjoyed it so much, I kept doing it.” She was an adjunct professor at the University of North Florida, Florida Community College at Jacksonville, and after moving back to Dayton, at UDSL. She says she loves the interaction with students and enjoys watching their progress as a full-time professor.

Professor VanZandt earned her bachelor’s degree in French from Ohio State University. While working on her degree, she went to France and attended L’Institut de Touraine twice for study abroad programs. She also completed an internship as a personal Senate page to State Senator Neal F. Zimmers Jr.

As a law student at Dayton Law, Professor VanZandt was the executive editor of the Dayton Law Review. She completed an externship with the United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Ohio, and she was a certified legal intern with the State Attorney’s Office in Jacksonville, Florida.

She received her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership in 2021 from the University of Dayton. Her dissertation, "Thinking Like Lawyers" in the Online Environment: Students' and Faculty Members' Perceptions of Using the Socratic Method in an Online J.D. Course," won UD's Graduate Student Showcase Award.

LAW 6010 Intrasession: Values & Ethics
LAW 6105 Legal Profession I
LAW 6106 Legal Profession II
LAW 6111 Legislation
LAW 6114 Criminal Law Lab
LAW 6220 Appellate Advocacy

Ph.D., Educational Leadership, University of Dayton, 2021
J.D., cum laude, University of Dayton, 1996
B.A., cum laude, The Ohio State University, 1991

Effective and Efficient Ways to Incorporate Qualitative Assessment Measures into a Mixed Measures Assessment Project, The 2017 Assessment Institute in Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana (October 24, 2017).

Assessment Mandates and Academic Freedom:  A Comfortable Coexistence or a Critical Conflict, The 16th Biennial Legal Writing Institute Conference, Portland, Oregon (July 13, 2016).

Panelist (invited speaker), Opening Plenary, Adapting to a Changing Landscape, and Workshop Facilitator, Developing Learning Outcomes, ABA Associate Deans’ Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota (June 18, 2016). 

Plenary Session, "Designing Assignments and Assessments" (invited speaker), and small group advisor for critiquing workshop, AALS Summer New Professor Conference, Workshop for New Legal Writing Professors, Washington, D.C. (June 23, 2011).

Panelist, "Outcomes and Assessment in Legal Writing," Stetson’s Virtual Legal Writing Conference Webinar (October 18, 2010).

"Assessment Planning in Legal Research and Writing Courses," The Legal Writing Institute Biennial Conference, Marco Island, Florida (June 28, 2010).

Panelist, "Developing a Comprehensive Assessment Plan: Lesson Learned," Legal Education at the Crossroads v.3.0: Conference on Assessment, Denver (September 13, 2009).

The Assessment Mandates in the ABA Accreditation Standards and Their Impact on Individual Academic Freedom Rights 95 U. Det. Mercy L. Rev. 253 (Winter 2018).

Book Review, Engines of Anxiety:  Academic Rankings, Reputation, and Accountability, Education Review, ISSN 1094-5296. (2017).

Student Learning Outcomes and Law School Assessment:  A Practical Guide to Measuring Institutional Effectiveness (Carolina Academic Press 2015) (co-authored with Professor Lori Shaw)

Creating Assessment Plans for Introductory Legal Research and Writing Courses, The Journal of the Legal Writing Institute (Summer 2010).

The Exigent Circumstances Exception to the Pre-Petition Credit Counseling Requirement under the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005:  Exigent or Extreme?, 6 DePaul Bus. L.J. 265 (2008).

Florida Bankruptcy Casenotes, 21 Fla. B. Bus. L. Sec. 2 (2000).

An Interpretation of Ohio Law on Maternal Status in Gestational Surrogacy Disputes: Belsito v. Clark, 644 N.E.2d 760 (Ohio C.P. Summit County 1994), 21 U. Dayton L. Rev. 229 (1995).