Dana Thompson (she/her/hers)

Clinical Professor of Law
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Dana A. Thompson, JD, is a Clinical Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, where she directs the Transactional Law Clinics Program, the Community Enterprise Clinic, and is the founding director of the Zell Entrepreneurship Clinic. She is a nationally recognized leader in community economic development, urban entrepreneurship, and transactional legal education, focused on advancing equitable economic development and economic and racial justice in Detroit and other historically disinvested communities.

Through her leadership at Michigan Law and previously as the founder and director of the Small Business Enterprises and Nonprofit Corporations Clinic at Wayne State University Law School, Professor Thompson has represented nonprofits, cooperatives, urban farms, food justice organizations, community land trusts, and small businesses working to build community wealth and neighborhood stability.

She frequently speaks nationally on community development, food justice, and urban entrepreneurship at conferences and through her podcast, The Common Wealth. She also brings extensive higher education leadership experience, having served on the Wayne State University Board of Governors and currently on the Board of Trustees of Bryn Mawr College. Her work bridges universities, neighborhoods, and institutions to create sustainable pathways for economic opportunity and community-led development.

Disclosure information not submitted.

Presentation(s):

• Urban Agriculture and Food Sovereignty

  Monday, April 27, 2026
  8:30 AM - 1:00 PM CT