Nominee Bios
2019 Nominees for Elected Board Positions
Marcilynn A. Burke is dean and the Dave Frohnmayer Chair in Leadership and Law at the University of Oregon School of Law. She earned her JD from Yale Law School, where she edited the Yale Journal of International Law and the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism and was awarded the Connecticut Attorneys’ Title Guaranty Fund Prize for the best paper in the field of real property law. She earned her BA in international studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where her honors included Phi Beta Kappa and a place on the dean’s list during all semesters. After law school, Burke worked as a law clerk for the Honorable Raymond A. Jackson of the US District Court, and later as an associate for Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. Burke left practice to become a visiting assistant professor at Rutgers Law School one year and then joined the faculty at the University of Houston Law Center (UHLC). She took a leave of absence to work in the U.S. Department of the Interior, first in the Bureau of Land Management as deputy director of programs and policy and later as acting assistant secretary for land and minerals management. Burke returned to UHLC Houston Law Center and later became associate dean prior to her current position at Oregon.
Burke has served as speaker, panelist, moderator, and lecturer in myriad academic presentations over the course of her career, including appearances at the ABA Associate Deans Conference, the AALS Annual Meeting, and the Annual Judicial Education Conference. She has given congressional testimony on matters concerning the environment, published numerous journal articles, and been the recipient of many honors and grants, including the Faculty of the Year Award from the Black Law Students Association at UHLC. Burke is a founding member of the Environmental Law Reporter and Environmental Law Institute Press Advisory Board and is a participant in such organizations as the AALS; the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation; the Yale Law Women Summer Mentorship Program; and LSAC’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.
Jorge Garcia is the assistant dean of admissions, diversity initiatives, and financial aid at the University of San Diego School of Law. He earned his MBA from California State University San Marcos and a BA in economics from University of California, San Diego. Prior to his current role, Garcia was the director of admissions and financial aid at San Diego, the financial aid senior analyst and advisor at CSUSM, and a financial aid counselor at UCSD. He has served as a presenter and panelist in national and regional conferences and workshops and has served as a member of LSAC’s Services and Programs Committee and Newcomers Workshop Planning Work Group. Garcia now serves as chair of LSAC’s Forums Work Group.
Aviam Soifer is dean and professor of law at University of Hawai’i at Mānoa | William S. Richardson School of Law. He earned his JD from Yale Law School, where he was editor of the Yale Law Journal; his MA in urban studies from the Yale City Planning Department; and his BA cum laude with departmental honors in American studies from Yale College. After graduation, Soifer worked as a law clerk to Judge Jon O. Newman of the District of Connecticut. He went on to teach at UConn School of Law and Boston University School of Law and was appointed dean, in addition to being a professor, at Boston College Law School. He also spent a sabbatical as visiting professor at Tel Aviv University.
Soifer has been and continues to be involved in a multitude of public interest activities. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Association of American Law Schools, as chair of the Academic Working Group for the Obama Presidential Center, and as a board member of the Society of American Law Teachers. He is currently commissioner of the Hawai’i Access to Justice Commission and chair of its Education, Communications, and Conference Planning Committee. He is also a board member of the American Judicature Society Hawai’i Chapter and a member of the LSAC Board of Trustees.
Soifer is a dedicated contributor to books and author of articles, writing on a variety of topics including the legal rights of Native Americans and the law as it pertains to slavery in American history. He has received numerous awards, including the 2012 Outstanding Pick of the Year for Advocates for Public Interest Law from the William S. Richardson School of Law and the 2011 Ha’aheo Award from the American Board of Trial Advocates. Dean Soifer served on LSAC’s Services and Programs Committee 2007–2009. He was appointed to the Board to fill the one-year balance of Kevin Washburn's unexpired term after Dean Washburn was elected as chair-elect.
Board Members Appointed by Chair-Elect Washburn
Gregory Bowman is a professor of law and the William J. Maier, Jr. Dean at West Virginia University College of Law. He earned his BA in international studies and economics summa cum laude from West Virginia University, his master’s degree with distinction in economics from the University of Exeter in England, and his JD cum laude from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.
Prior to his teaching career, Bowman practiced law in Chicago and Washington, DC, with the international law firm of Baker & McKenzie. A nationally recognized scholar in international trade law and remedies, he joined the WVU Law faculty in 2009 and was associate dean of academic affairs prior to being named interim dean in July 2014. He was appointed to his present position in May 2015. He received the Award for Outstanding Teaching from the WVU Foundation in 2014 and was named Professor of the Year in 2011 by WVU Law students.
In his service to LSAC, Bowman has been a member of the Test Development and Research Committee (2015–2017) and currently serves on the Board of Trustees, as chair of the Finance and Legal Affairs Committee, and as an ex officio member of the Misconduct and Irregularities in the Admission Process Subcommittee. Dean Bowman has been appointed to serve as Chair of the Audit Committee during Kevin Washburn’s term as Chair of the Board of Trustees.
Michael W. Donnelly-Boylen is the assistant dean of admissions at Roger Williams University School of Law. He earned a BA in government from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s degree in political science from Suffolk University. Donnelly-Boylen has over 20 years of experience in legal education. He began his career in the career services office of Suffolk University Law School. He later transitioned into Suffolk’s admissions office before joining Roger Williams to head their admissions office. Donnelly-Boylen has served on LSAC’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee; Test Development and Research Committee; and Services and Programs Committee. He has chaired the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Subcommittee and the Annual Meeting and Educational Conference 2016 Planning Work Group. In 2017, he served as chair of the AALS Section on Admissions and Pre-Legal Education.
Dean Donnelly-Boylen has been appointed to serve as Chair of the Schools and Candidates Committee during Kevin Washburn’s term as Chair of the Board of Trustees.
Garry Jenkins is the dean and William S. Pattee Professor of Law at University of Minnesota Law School. He earned his JD cum laude at Harvard Law School, where he was editor in chief of Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review; he also holds an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School and a BA from Haverford College. After Law School, he clerked for the Honorable Timothy K. Lewis on the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Pittsburgh. He practiced corporate law at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York City. He then became chief operating officer and general counsel of the Goldman Sachs Foundation. Prior to his current position, Jenkins was associate dean for academic affairs and John C. Elam/Vorys Sater Professor of Law at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. With scholarly interests encompassing law and philanthropy, corporate governance, and corporate social responsibility, Jenkins has authored many law review articles, received multiple awards for his work, and presently serves as a commissioner on the Uniform Law Commission. He currently serves on LSAC’s Test Development and Research Committee and on several committees at the Association of American Law Schools. Dean Jenkins has been appointed to serve as Chair of the Assessments Committee during Kevin Washburn’s term as Chair of the Board of Trustees.
David Kirschner is the associate dean of admissions and financial aid at the University of Southern California, Gould School of Law. Kirschner earned his BA in film production cum laude from the University of Southern California and his JD cum laude from California Western School of Law. While in law school, he served as a judicial extern to the Honorable Barbara L. Major, Magistrate Judge, in the US District Court for the Southern District of California. Kirschner began his career in law school admissions as an alumni recruiter at California Western School of Law before becoming assistant and then associate director of admissions at Loyola Law School, Loyola Marymount University. In his current position at USC, Kirschner is responsible for the setting and implementation of strategic goals and targets for each admission cycle. Kirschner is a frequent presenter at LSAC meetings and conferences, has served two terms on LSAC’s Services and Programs Committee, and has chaired the Forums Work Group. He has also served on the Information Support Division Advisory Group (ISDAG) and Test Development and Research Committee and is currently a member of the Finance and Legal Affairs Committee. The AALS recently appointed Kirschner chair of the Section on PreLegal Education and Admission to Law School for 2019. Dean Kirschner has been appointed to serve as Chair of the Emerging Markets and Innovation Committee during Kevin Washburn’s term as Chair of the Board of Trustees.
Paul Paton is the dean and Wilbur Fee Bowker Professor of Law at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law. He earned doctoral and master’s degrees in law from Stanford University Law School, an MPhil in international relations from Cambridge University in England, and BA and LLB from the University of Toronto. Paul served as judicial law clerk to the chief justice and justices of the Court of Appeal for Ontario prior to practicing commercial litigation as an associate and partner for a major firm. He later became justice and social policy advisor to the premier of Ontario and in-house counsel to PricewaterhouseCoopers. He has been a retained expert or external legal counsel on ethics, corporate governance, tax policy issues, and professional responsibility concerns in both Canada and the US. Prior to taking up his current role at Alberta in 2014, Paton was inaugural vice provost at the University of the Pacific in Sacramento, Stockton, and San Francisco, California; professor of law and director of the Ethics Across the Professions Initiative at the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law (2008–2014); assistant professor in the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University (2004–2008); and associate and acting director of the Canadian Studies Program at the University of Toronto.
Paton’s leadership has encompassed academic, professional, and policy matters. He has been acknowledged as one of the Global Top 1,000 in the 2018 International Directory of Global Leaders and Influencers in Legal Business, published by the Association of International Law Firm Networks. He has been an invited or keynote speaker for many of the leading academic legal ethics conferences and for professional audiences in the US, Canada and England. His published work includes leading articles and commissioned expert reports on topics including ethical challenges for corporate counsel, privilege and confidentiality, and lawyer regulation in international context. Paton was Reporter to the ABA Ethics 20/20 Commission between 2010-2012 and Chair of the CBA Ethics and Professional Responsibility Committee between 2009-2011. Paton was a finalist in the Canadian Lawyer Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers in Canada in 2015 and received a Distinguished Service Award for contributions to the legal profession from the Ontario Bar Association in 2014. He was named a Leader in Diversity by the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers and nominated for the CAMH Differencemakers/150 leading Canadians for Mental Health in 2017 for his work with law students on diversity and mental health issues. Dean Paton has been appointed to serve as an at-large Trustee during Kevin Washburn’s term as Chair of the Board of Trustees.
Renée C. Post is associate dean for admissions and financial aid at University of Pennsylvania Law School. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history and women’s studies at the University of Pittsburgh, a secondary education certification at the University of Arizona, and an MSEd in higher education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.
Post began her career as a teacher in Tucson, Arizona, where she taught US Government and American History. She then attended the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education as both a student and student affairs intern. After earning her degree, she became a member of the enrollment team at the University of Pennsylvania Law School as an admissions officer and was subsequently promoted to the roles of associate director for admissions and financial aid and director for admissions. Post was appointed to her current position in March 2007.
Post’s service to LSAC began as a member of the Finance and Legal Affairs Committee (2009–2011). She also served as Newcomers faculty in 2012 and the Annual Meeting and Educational Conference 2013 Planning Work Group. Elected to the Board in 2013, she has chaired the Audit Committee (2015–2017) and been a member of the LSAC President Search Committee (2017). Post is currently a member of the Investment Committee. Dean Post has been appointed to serve as Chair of the Finance and Budget Committee during Kevin Washburn’s term as Chair of the Board of Trustees.
Kristin Theis-Álvarez is the assistant dean of admissions and financial aid at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. She graduated with high honors from UC Berkeley with a BA in Rhetoric and Native American Studies and went on to earn her J.D. from Stanford Law School. Prior to her current role, Theis-Álvarez was the Director of Admissions for Outreach and Recruitment at Berkeley Law, and before that she worked for Habitat for Humanity East Bay designing a scholarship program for low-income high school and college students. Currently she oversees a wide range of outreach, admissions, and financial aid programs for law students and graduates. Theis-Álvarez began her service with LSAC as a member of the Newcomers Conference Planning Committee and has since served as chair of the Services and Programs Committee, a member of the Board of Trustees, and chair of the 2018 LSAC Annual Meeting and Educational Conference Planning Work Group. She has presented at the LSAC Annual Meeting numerous times as well as at other conferences, including the University of California's system-wide FirstGen Conference. Theis-Álvarez also serves in several other leadership positions, including as a member of the Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion's Native American Advisory Council at UC Berkeley, and as a board member for Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund. Dean Theis-Alvarez has been appointed to serve as Chair of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee during Kevin Washburn’s term as Chair of the Board of Trustees.
Michael Waterstone is the Fritz B. Burns Dean at Loyola Law School, Loyola Marymount University. He is also Loyola Marymount’s senior vice president. Waterstone earned his JD magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and was involved in the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. He earned his BA in political science at University of California at Los Angeles, graduating summa cum laude and phi beta kappa.
Upon graduation from law school, Waterstone worked as a law clerk for the US Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit under the Honorable Richard S. Arnold. After working as a litigation associate at Munger, Tolles, and Olson, he became an assistant professor of law at The University of Mississippi School of Law and later a visiting professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. He also spent a month teaching at the University of Haifa Faculty of Law in Israel in 2014. Waterstone joined Loyola Law School as a professor of law and associate dean for research and academic centers before assuming his current positions.
With his focus primarily on disability law, employment law, and civil rights law, Waterstone has written for numerous law journals and public media outlets and has authored books on disability civil rights law. He has presented and moderated at lectures and conferences at institutions in the United States and abroad. Waterstone is a member of the American Law Institute, a former chair of the American Branch of International Law Association Section on International Disability Law, and a former board member of the Disability Rights Legal Center. He served on the AALS Committee on Professional Development (2014–2016) and has been chair of its Section on Disability Law and Section on Law and Mental Disability. Waterstone was chosen by the National University of Ireland Galway for the Fulbright Specialist Project in 2016. Dean Waterstone has been appointed to serve as an at-large Trustee during Kevin Washburn’s term as Chair of the Board of Trustees.
John Valery White is the Ralph Denton Professor of Law at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, William S. Boyd School of Law. White earned his BA from Southern University and his JD from Yale Law School, where he was a notes and topics editor for the Yale Law Journal and participated in the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization.
Following law school, White was an Orville Schell Fellow at Human Rights Watch in New York City, where he worked on prison and human rights practices in Egypt. He then joined the faculty at Louisiana State University, Paul M. Hebert Law Center as an assistant professor of law, ultimately becoming the J. Dawson Gasquet Memorial Professor of Law. While at LSU, he wrote and lectured on civil rights law. He was also a distinguished visiting professor at the University of Insubria in Como, Italy, where he explored the role of civil rights law and multicultural theories in responding to globalism. He then joined the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, as dean and professor of law, later becoming executive vice president and provost. From 2016 to 2017, he was acting chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
White is widely published, contributing to and editing multiple books and articles dealing largely with human rights, civil rights, race politics, and discrimination. In addition, he has served as a guest lecturer, panelist, and speaker both nationally and internationally. He serves in leadership positions in many nonprofit foundations and boards.
White’s service to LSAC began with his membership on the Services and Programs Committee (2011–2013). Elected to the Board of Trustees in 2015, he served as a member of the Audit Committee (2015–2017) and is currently serving as that committee’s chair (2017–2019). Professor White has been appointed to serve as Chair of the Investment Committee during Kevin Washburn’s term as Chair of the Board of Trustees.
Michael J. States is assistant dean for admissions, financial aid, and diversity initiatives at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. He earned his bachelor of arts degree in political science from the University of Kansas and his JD from Saint Louis University School of Law, where he was president of the Black Law Students’ Association and a member of the Council of Presidents. Dean States began his admissions career as associate director of admissions and financial aid at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago. He was director of admissions at Mitchell Hamline School of Law; assistant dean for enrollment management at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Stuart School of Business; and assistant dean of admissions at the University of North Carolina before moving to his current position. Dean States served as president of the Midwest Alliance for Law School Admissions from 2001–2004. He is an Executive Committee member of the Association of American Law Schools Section for PreLegal Education and Admission to Law School, having previously served as Section chair. He is also a consultant for the Council for Legal Education Opportunity’s (CLEO) Achieving Success in the Application Process program.
Dean States began serving the Law School Admission Council as a member of the New Admission Personnel and Faculty Members Workshop 2001 Planning Work Group. He then became a member of the Annual Meeting and Educational Conference 2003 Planning Work Group and served on the Official Guide Searches Work Group (2003–2004). He was a member of the Annual Meeting and Educational Conference 2009 Planning Work Group and served on the Finance and Legal Affairs Committee (2009–2011). Dean States was elected to the LSAC Board of Trustees in 2011 and served as trustee liaison to the Services and Programs Committee (2011–2013). He served as chair of the Annual Meeting and Educational Conference 2013 Planning Work Group, was trustee liaison to the Test Development and Research Committee (2013–2014), and chaired the 2014 Nominating Committee. He chaired both the Finance and Legal Affairs Committee (2015–2017) and the 2016 Nominating Committee, and was an ex officio member of the Misconduct and Irregularities in the Admission Process Subcommittee (2015–2017). In 2018 Dean States served on the Board of Trustees and was the Board liaison to the Diversity Committee. He is currently a member of the Test Development and Research Committee (2017-2019). Dean States has been appointed to serve as Council Secretary during Kevin Washburn’s term as Chair of the Board of Trustees.
Continuing Board Members
Iain L. E. Davis is assistant dean of admissions and student financial management at University of Denver Sturm College of Law. He studied English literature and history at Liverpool Polytechnic in the United Kingdom and earned a master of science degree in legal administration from University of Denver Sturm College of Law.
Dean Davis joined the University of Denver in the loan servicing and collections department following a career in British law enforcement. After moving to the Sturm College of Law as director of financial aid, he was later named assistant dean of financial management and international admissions before being promoted to his current position.
In his service to LSAC, Dean Davis has presented on the subject of financial aid at numerous law school forums as well as at annual meetings and summer regional workshops. He served as chair of the Financial Aid Advisory Group (2008–2014), as a member of the New Admission Personnel and Faculty Members Workshop Planning Work Group (2010), and as a mentor for the New Admission Personnel and Faculty Members Workshop mentor/mentee program (2013–2014). Dean Davis has also served as a member of the Services and Programs Committee (2011–2013), Forums Ad Hoc Work Group (2013–2015), and Annual Meeting and Educational Conference 2017 Planning Work Group. He is currently a member of the Board of Trustees and serves as trustee liaison to the Test Development and Research Committee.
Chris Guthrie is dean and John Wade-Kent Syverud Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School. He graduated with distinction and honors from Stanford University, earned his master’s degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and earned his law degree from Stanford University Law School.
Before entering the legal academy, Dean Guthrie practiced law with Fenwick & West in Palo Alto, California. He was associate dean at University of Missouri School of Law before joining the Vanderbilt faculty, where he worked as associate dean for academic affairs prior to becoming dean. During his academic career, Dean Guthrie has been a visiting professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Vanderbilt Law School, and Washington University School of Law. At Vanderbilt, Dean Guthrie has taught Torts, Negotiation, and Dispute Resolution.
Dean Guthrie is a leading expert on behavioral law and economics, dispute resolution, negotiation, and judicial decision-making. He has been recognized with multiple awards for his research and teaching, and helped author the influential textbook, Dispute Resolution and Lawyers (West Publishing, 5th edition, 2014). He has also published more than 50 scholarly articles and essays in leading law reviews.
In his service to LSAC, Dean Guthrie has served as a member of the Test Development and Research Committee (2011–2015) and New Assessments Work Group (2015). He has also served as an advisor to the Audit Committee (2015–2017) and is currently a member of the Board of Trustees and Audit Committee (2017–2019).
Gisele Joachim is the dean of enrollment management at Seton Hall University School of Law, where she is responsible for all aspects of admission and recruitment for both JD and graduate law programs. Dean Joachim earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the State University of New York and pursued graduate studies at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Prior to joining Seton Hall, Dean Joachim was the director of financial aid services with New Jersey’s Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (HESAA). In this capacity, she provided management, planning, and technical assistance in the areas of student aid and enrollment management to New Jersey higher education institutions. She has also worked in admission, financial aid, and student services positions at various undergraduate institutions.
Dean Joachim has served the Law School Admission Council as a member of the Financial Aid Advisory Group (2008–2014), Annual Meeting and Educational Conference Planning Work Group (2013), Newcomers Workshop Planning Work Group (2016), and Boot Camp Planning Work Group (2017). She has also served as chair of the Annual Meeting and Educational Conference Planning Work Group (2014) and is currently a member of the Board of Trustees. Dean Joachim is also serving as chair on the 2019 Nominating Committee.
Elena Maria Marty-Nelson is associate dean for diversity, inclusion, and public impact, and a professor of law at Nova Southeastern University—Shepard Broad College of Law, where she teaches a wide range of courses including Federal Securities Regulations, Income Tax, Property, Wills, Trusts, and International Tax. She earned her JD and her LLM (Tax) from Georgetown University Law Center.
Prior to her career in teaching, Dean Marty-Nelson practiced law in a large law firm in Washington, DC. She later taught for the Harrison Institute at Georgetown University Law Center before joining the NSU Law faculty.
Dean Marty-Nelson’s scholarship includes books published by Carolina Academic Press, BNA portfolios, book chapters, and numerous law review articles. Her scholarship has been cited in federal and state court decisions and in treatises and articles. She has earned recognition for excellence in teaching and advising, including selection as Professor of the Year eight times by the student body of the NSU College of Law (academic years 1995-1996, 1996-1997, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2010-2011; 2012-2013; 2016-2017; and 2018-2019). as well as Advisor of the Year twice (2008; 2015). She has chaired and served on ABA site evaluation teams and has chaired the executive committee of the AALS Section on Minority Groups.
In her service to LSAC, Dean Marty-Nelson has been an advisor to the Investment Committee (2011–2017) and currently serves as a member of that committee as well as on the Board of Trustees.
Angela Onwuachi-Willig is dean and professor of law at Boston University School of Law. A renowned legal scholar and expert in anti-discrimination law, Critical Race Theory, Feminist Legal Theory, and family law, she joined the law school as dean in August 2018.
Before joining the School of Law, Dean Onwuachi-Willig served as Chancellor’s Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Previously, she taught at the University of Iowa College of Law, where she was the Charles and Marion Kierscht Professor and at the University of California, Davis, King Hall, where she was an assistant professor of law. As a professor, she taught Employment Discrimination, Evidence, Family Law, Critical Race Theory, and Torts.
Onwuachi-Willig is author of According to Our Hearts: Rhinelander v. Rhinelander and the Law of the Multiracial Family (Yale 2013). Her articles have appeared in leading law journals such as the Yale Law Journal, California Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Texas Law Review, UCLA Law Review, and Vanderbilt Law Review, to name a few.
Onwuachi-Willig is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Clyde Ferguson Award (2015), the AALS Derrick Bell Award (2006), the Gertrude Rush Award (2016) from the Iowa Organization of Women Attorneys and the Iowa Chapter of the National Bar Association, and Law and Society’s John Hope Franklin, Jr., Prize (2018). Along with her coauthor Mario Barnes, she is the first faculty member to win both the Ferguson and Bell Awards. In the 2017–18 academic year, Onwuachi-Willig served as the William H. Neukom Fellows Research Chair in Diversity and Law at the American Bar Foundation.
Onwuachi-Willig received the 2016 Collegiate Teaching Award at the University of Iowa College of Law and the 2012 Marion Huit Award, a University of Iowa award given to a faculty member in recognition of outstanding teaching and assistance to students, exceptional research and writing, and dedicated service to the University and the surrounding community. Other honors include her selection as a finalist for the Supreme Court of Iowa in 2011; identification by the National Law Journal as one of the “Minority 40 under 40” in 2011 and by Lawyers of Color as one of the “50 Law Professors of Color Under 50” in its inaugural list in 2013; and election to the American Law Institute (ALI), American Bar Foundation (ABF), and Iowa Bar Foundation.
Onwuachi-Willig’s leadership roles include her service on the Grinnell College Alumni Council, including her current role as president. She also served as the chair for AALS Committee on the Recruitment and Retention of Minority Law Teachers and Students for two years, leading the Committee as it drafted and developed an official Statement of Good Practices on the Recruitment and Retention of Minority Law Teachers. She also is the founder of the Lutie A. Lytle Black Women Law Faculty Workshop, which has resulted in the production of many books and hundreds of articles and essays by its participants and has assisted dozens of women on the path to tenure. Onwuachi-Willig also has served as the chair of the AALS Minority Groups Section, the AALS Law and Humanities Section, and the AALS Employment Discrimination Section and was chair of the 2015 AALS Mid-Year Workshop.
Onwuachi-Willig graduated from Grinnell College, Phi Beta Kappa, and received her JD from the University of Michigan, where she was a Clarence Darrow Scholar, a Michigan Law Review note editor, and an associate editor for the founding issue of the Michigan Journal of Race and Law. After law school, she clerked for US District Court Judge Solomon Oliver of the Northern District of Ohio and US Sixth Circuit Judge Karen Nelson Moore. She received her PhD in Sociology and African American Studies from Yale University. She has practiced law as a labor and employment associate at Jones Day in Cleveland, Ohio and Foley Hoag in Boston, Massachusetts. Onwuachi-Willig was elected for a 3-year term as a member of the LSAC Board of Trustees in June 2018.
Richard L. Schmalbeck is Simpson Thacher and Bartlett Professor of Law at Duke University School of Law. He was Phi Beta Kappa and earned his bachelor’s degree in economics with honors from the University of Chicago and his JD from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was associate editor of the University of Chicago Law Review and a Floyd Russell Mechem Scholar.
Following his graduation from law school, Professor Schmalbeck was an associate attorney at Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease in Columbus, Ohio, before becoming special assistant to the associate director for economics and government in the Office of Management and Budget in Washington, DC. He then worked as an associate attorney for Caplin & Drysdale in Washington, DC, before moving into academia. He became professor of law at Duke following work as an associate professor there and was a visiting professor of law at both Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and the University of Michigan Law School. Professor Schmalbeck was dean at University of Illinois College of Law for three years before returning to Duke.
Professor Schmalbeck is widely published, with his recent scholarly work focusing on issues involving nonprofit organizations and the federal estate and gift taxes. The fifth edition of his federal income tax casebook, coauthored with Lawrence Zelenak, was published in 2018. Professor Schmalbeck’s professional activities have also included ABA site inspections of law schools, participation on the Membership Review Committee for the Association of American Law Schools, and participation on several Duke University ad hoc committees to review senior university executives, including the president, provost, and deans. He was twice designated Law School Teacher of the Year by the Duke Bar Association.
Professor Schmalbeck served on LSAC’s Test Development and Research Committee from 2005 to 2011. Elected to the Board in 2011 for a three-year term, he served as a member of the Investment Committee until 2014. Professor Schmalbeck also served on LSAC’s Board of Trustees from 2011 to 2014. He served as an advisor to the Investment Committee (2014–2018). He was again elected to the Board in 2018 for a 3-year term.
Kevin K. Washburn is Regents Professor of Law and former dean at the University of New Mexico School of Law. Dean Washburn earned his BA in economics with honors from the University of Oklahoma. He began his legal studies at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis as a Gustavus A. Buder Scholar and then transferred to Yale Law School, where he earned his JD, was editor-in-chief of the Yale Journal on Regulation, and was an Arnold & Porter Scholar.
Following law school, Dean Washburn clerked for the Honorable William C. Canby Jr. of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Phoenix, Arizona, and then joined the US Department of Justice through the Attorney General’s Honors Program. He worked first as a trial attorney in the Environment and Natural Resources Division in Washington, DC, and later as a federal prosecutor in Albuquerque. He then became general counsel of the National Indian Gaming Commission in Washington, DC. Dean Washburn began his teaching career at University of Minnesota Law School, where he later earned tenure. He worked for an academic year as the Oneida Indian Nation Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School, later becoming the Rosenstiel Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. He has also worked as an instructor at the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada, the University of Montana’s summer Indian Law Program, and in the University of Nebraska College of Law’s Pre-Law Undergraduate Summer (PLUS) program.
Nominated by President Barack Obama in August 2012 and confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate, Dean Washburn was Assistant Secretary–Indian Affairs through December 2015. He was the principal advisor to the Secretary of the Interior and the President of the United States on matters involving tribal nations and was the principal link between the federal government and the country’s 567 tribal nations. He has published widely and has frequently testified before Congress, mostly on issues related to Indian gaming or criminal justice in Indian Country. Among many published works, he is an author and editor of Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law, the sole author of a casebook titled The Law of Gaming/Gambling, and an author and coeditor of Indian Law Stories. Dean Washburn is an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma.
Dean Washburn has served on law school admissions committees at the Universities of Minnesota and New Mexico. He began his activities with the Law School Admission Council as a member of the LSAC Minority Affairs (now Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) Committee (2003–2007) and as a member of its PLUS Subcommittee (2003–2005). Elected to serve on the LSAC Board of Trustees in 2006 for a three-year term, he first served as trustee liaison to the Minority Affairs (now Diversity) Committee (2006–2007) and then as trustee liaison to the Test Development and Research Committee (now Assessments) (2007–2009). He again served on the Board of Trustees and as a member of the Audit Committee in 2012–2013. Dean Washburn was elected to the Board of Trustees in 2016 for a three-year term and was a member of the Audit Committee (2016–2017). In 2018, Dean Washburn was elected chair-elect of the LSAC Board of Trustees and begins a two-year term as Chair on May 31, 2019.
Kellye Y. Testy is the president and chief executive officer of the Law School Admission Council. She joined LSAC in 2017 after serving as the 14th dean and first woman to lead the University of Washington School of Law.
Dean Testy graduated summa cum laude from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law—Bloomington, where she was editor-in-chief of the Indiana Law Journal, a John H. Edwards University Fellow, and a Chancellor's Scholar. During law school, she worked for Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago. After graduating, Dean Testy clerked for Judge Jesse E. Eschbach, US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She began her academic career when she joined the faculty of Seattle University School of Law, later becoming the school’s dean.
Named the nation's second most influential leader in legal education in 2017 by the National Jurist, Dean Testy has served as the president of the American Association of Law Schools (AALS). She also cochaired the AALS Section for the Law School Dean and served on the Committee on Recruitment and Retention of Minority Law Teachers and Students, the Committee on Audit and Association Investment Policy, the AALS Executive Committee, and the Planning Committee for the Conference on Business Associations. She has also served on the Board of Governors of the Society of American Law Teachers as well as on several committees of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.
Dean Testy has received the President's Award from the Washington State Bar Association, the Washington State Trial Lawyers Public Justice Award, the Puget Sound Business Journal's Woman of the Year award, and three Outstanding Teacher awards.
PO Box 40
Newtown, PA 18940-0040
Phone: 215.968.1101
Fax: 215.944.3204