Deanell Reece Tacha (born January 26, 1946) is a retired United States federal judge who served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Since 2011, she has been the Dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law.Born in Goodland, Kansas, Tacha received a B.A. from the University of Kansas in 1968 and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1971. She was a White House Fellow, special assistant to the Secretary of Labor at the U.S.