New Faculty Profile: Harlan Sands

Harlan Sands joins the CSU Cleveland-Marshall College of Law faculty as a Professor after spending the past four years as President of Cleveland State University.

A graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Professor Sands served 11 years of active duty in the United States Navy, including four years as an officer on the warship USS Guam and several tours as an intelligence officer. During his time in the Navy, Professor Sands earned two graduate degrees — an M.B.A. from George Washington University and a J.D. from the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.

After leaving the Navy, Professor Sands spent four years as a public defender in Miami. During that time, Sands began his time in academia and taught several law classes as a visiting lecturer in the Department of Criminal Justice at Florida International University.

Professor Sands later joined the administration of Florida International University, where he served as Executive Director of the FIU Applied Research Center, Associate Vice President for Research, and Associate Dean of the College of Health and Urban Affairs. He also worked as a professor of criminal justice. Professor Sands would go on to work in the administrations at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Louisville and his undergraduate alma mater, The Wharton School. In 2018, Professor Sands joined CSU as the University’s seventh president.