Francesca Acocella J.D., LMSW is the Interim Dean of Students and Associate Dean of Student Services and Advising, Diversity & Inclusion and Deputy Title IX Coordinator. Prior to becoming the Interim Dean of Students, Dean Acocella served as the Senior Director of Student Life at Cardozo from January 2020 to June 2026. She is also an adjunct professor at Cardozo Law School and the Wurzweiler School of Social Work.

Dean Acocella received the Class of 2022’s Award for Outstanding Assistance to the Student Body and received the 2026 “CORE Four Award” from the National Association for Law Student Affairs Professionals (NALSAP) for demonstrating collaboration, outstanding service, respect for diversity and inclusion, and excellence in leadership.

Dean Acocella is currently pursuing a PhD in Social Welfare, where she will study law student mental health trends. Her research and clinical experiences are in attorney and law student mental health and substance use, including as part of a research team studying vicarious trauma in public service attorneys and as the counselor at the New York City Bar Association’s Lawyer Assistance Program. She is the co-author, with Cardozo’s Director of Academic Success Stephen Iannacone, of a forthcoming book from Carolina Academic Press on academic success, mental health, and professional identity for prospective and first year law students.

Dean Acocella was previously a family defense staff attorney at the Center for Family Representation in Queens, clerked in New York and New Jersey state courts, and worked as a legal intern at Lambda Legal, the ACLU LGBTQ & HIV Project, and the National LGBTQ Task Force.
 

She has an M.S.W. from the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, where she received the Esther and Walter Lentschner Memorial Award for Excellence in Writing and was inducted into the national social work student honors society; a J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where she received numerous awards for her student leadership and community involvement; and, a B.A. in Political Science from Wellesley College, where she received the Woodrow Wilson Writing Prize in Political Theory, American Politics, and Law.