Opening the Door: Rural Pathways to Law School

Moderator: Sudha Setty

Sudha Setty is the president and chief executive officer of LSAC. Prior to this role, she served as dean of the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law and before that, as dean of Western New England University School of Law. In both of her deanships, Setty focused on building structures to support social justice and public interest lawyering, as well as on increasing access to legal education. While at CUNY Law, she spearheaded a significant expansion of Pipeline to Justice, the law school’s signature access program, and led the founding of the First Impressions Youth Legal Collaborative, a multifaceted program to engage middle school, high school, and college students in engaging with questions of civics, law, and justice.

Elizabeth Bodamer

Elizabeth Bodamer (she/her/ella) has a PhD in Sociology from Indiana University Bloomington and a JD from Indiana University Maurer School of Law. She was the 2019-2020 American Bar Foundation/AccessLex Doctoral Fellow in Legal Education & Higher Education, and her dissertation focused on exclusionary experiences and sense of belonging in U.S. law schools. As a PhD student at Indiana, Bodamer was also the director of student affairs at Indiana University Maurer School of Law. At LSAC she was the diversity, equity, and inclusion policy & research analyst and senior program manager before becoming the senior director of research. A 2008 LSAC PLUS alumna, today, Bodamer leads the applied research agenda and strategic research team focused on equity in admission, innovation, and programmatic impact.

Wendy Rohleder-Sook

Wendy Rohleder-Sook serves as Chair of the Department of Communication Studies, Law, and Political Science and is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Fort Hays State University in rural, northwestern Kansas. She also directs the Pre-Law/Legal Studies program and serves as the university's pre-law advisor. Throughout her career, Wendy has held leadership positions in student affairs, academic advising, and higher education administration, including serving as the University of Kansas pre-law advisor, Associate Dean for Student Affairs at the KU School of Law, and Director of Financial Assistance at Fort Hays State University. In addition, she contributes to statewide efforts to improve access to justice through her service on the Kansas Supreme Court Rural Justice Initiative Committee. Wendy earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Sociology from the University of Kansas and a Juris Doctor from the KU School of Law.

Professor Anthony Schutz

Professor Anthony Schutz has been a member of the University of Nebraska College of Law faculty for most of the past two decades. After working at the Lincoln law firm of Cline, Williams, Wright, Johnson & Oldfather and serving as Editor-in-Chief of the Nebraska Law Review, he graduated from the College of Law in 2003 with highest distinction. He then clerked for Judge C. Arlen Beam of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and taught Legal Research and Writing at Nebraska as an adjunct instructor before serving as a Visiting Lecturer at Cornell Law School during the 2005-2006 academic year. He returned to Nebraska in 2006 as a full-time faculty member.

Professor Schutz teaches and has taught courses in Agricultural Law, Environmental Law, Water Law, Land Use Regulation, State and Local Government Law, and Contracts. Since 2020, he has served as the College of Law's Associate Dean for Faculty. He also advises the Agricultural and Environmental Law Society, Moot Court, and Nebraska Connections, and leads the Rural Law Opportunities Program.

Raised on a farm near Elwood, Nebraska, Professor Schutz focuses his scholarship on agricultural law, environmental and natural resources law, and state and local government issues, particularly as they affect rural communities. He is a past Chair of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Agricultural Law, remains active in professional organizations related to agricultural and natural resources law, and frequently lectures on agricultural and water law topics across the region and nation.

Outside the classroom, Professor Schutz is a devoted family man and an avid distance runner who has completed numerous marathons and several ultramarathons.