Please note that this is a tentative list and more conference presenters will be added before the conference. Check this Web page for updates.
- Dr. Lee Bird, Vice President for Student Affairs, Oklahoma State University
- Charles Carletta, J.D. Secretary of the Institute and General Counsel, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
- Lori Fox, General Counsel at Teachers College, Columbia University
- Steven J. Healy Managing Partner, Margolis, Healy & Associates, LLC
- Tamara King, J.D. University Judicial Administrator and Director of Judicial Programs, Washington University
- Corinne Kowpak, Ed.D. Dean of Students,York County Community College
- Barbara A. Lee, J.D., Ph.D. Counsel to the law firm of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, LLP and Professor and former Dean of Human Resource Management at the School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University
- Gary Margolis, Ed.D. Managing Partner, Margolis, Healy & Associates, LLC
- Steven McDonald, J.D. General Counsel, Rhode Island School of Design
- Holiday Hart McKiernan, J.D. Vice President, Strategic Operations & Chief of Staff, Lumina Foundation for Education, Inc.
- Eleanor Myers, Assoc. Professor of Law, Temple University
- John Myers, J.D. Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads, LLP
- Jeffrey Nolan, J.D. Attorney at Law, Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew, P.C.
- Kimberly Novak, Executive Director, NovakTalks a campus safety and student risk management consulting firm
- Denzil Suite, Ph.D. Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, University of Southern California
- Lawrence White, J.D. Vice President and General Counsel, University of Delaware
- Wendy White, J.D. Senior Vice President and General Counsel, University of Pennsylvania and Penn Medicine
Dr. Lee Bird currently serves as the Vice President for Student Affairs at Oklahoma State University-Stillwater. Lee is an adjunct professor in OSU’s Student Development graduate program. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 1991. She has worked in some aspect of student affairs for 33 years. Lee served as the President of the National Board of Directors for the Association of Student Judicial Affairs and co-authored The First Amendment on Campus: A Handbook for College and University Administrators (2006), published by NASPA. Lee also serves on the University of Vermont’s Board of Advisor’s for the Legal Issues in Higher Education conference. Lee consults and speaks regularly on topics such as student development, student conduct, crisis management, and the First Amendment rights of students. Lee serves as the Chair of the OSU Behavioral Consultation Team and as a FEMA CERT and Incident Command instructor. Bird is Vice President of the Colorado Chapter of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals. She is a member of Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars for her work in Chinese higher education.
Charles Carletta, JD, is Secretary of the Institute and General Counsel at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Previously, he was with Pattison, Sampson, Ginsberg & Griffin, P.C. in the Capital District of New York State. His practice was dedicated specifically to college issues including public safety, student affairs, administration, risk management, and government contracts. Mr. Carletta lectures nationally for ASJA and for the Stetson University College of Law at its Conference on Law and Higher Education. He is the author of a chapter in the book The Administration of Campus Discipline: Student, Organizational, and Community Issues. He received a BA from Manhattan College and JD from the Albany Law School of Union University.
Lori Fox has practiced law in higher education and other nonprofit institutions since 1994. She is now General Counsel at Teachers College, Columbia University. She previously served as Deputy General Counsel to the J. Paul Getty Trust and Associate General Counsel at Washington University in St. Louis, where she also taught undergraduates. Early in her career, she was a litigator in private practice. Ms. Fox has served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of College and University Attorneys and many NACUA committees and has spoken on diverse topics at NACUA and conferences. She holds a B.A. from Yale College and a J.D. from New York University School of Law. She clerked for the Honorable Diana E. Murphy, then U.S. District Judge for the District of Minnesota.
Steven J. Healy was the Director of Public Safety at Princeton University from 2003 through 2009. He is a Past President of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA), and twelve year member of its Government Relations Committee. As President of IACLEA, Steven contributed significantly to the national dialogue about campus safety and security in the aftermath of the tragic rampage-shooting incident at Virginia Tech in April 2007.
He has appeared on numerous news programs and talk shows including CNN with Lou Dobbs, ABC Nightly News, CBS, the Fox Network, MSNBC, and National Public Radio. He testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on the topic of “Security on America’s Campuses.” In May 2007, he was invited to testify before the House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor on the topic of “Best Practices for Keeping America’s Campuses Safe.”
Mr. Healy was named one of the “Top 25 Most Influential People in the Security Industry” by Security Magazine. In December 2007, he completed his term as the chairperson of the National Center for Campus Public Safety Advisory Board. In February 2008, he was a featured presenter in a Plenary Session at the ACE Annual Meeting, addressing issues of “Campus Security, Response and Recovery in a New Era.”
Prior to Princeton, Mr. Healy was the Chief of Police at Wellesley College in Wellesley, MA, and served as Director of Operations for the Department of Public Safety at Syracuse University. Mr. Healy is a 1984 graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and spent 10 years on active duty with the United States Air Force as a Security Police Officer. He is a frequent speaker at national conferences and seminars on issues related to campus safety and security and serves as a subject-matter expert for the U.S. Departments of Education, Homeland Security, and Justice. He is IACLEA’s representative to the NACUBO “National Campus Safety and Security Project” and to EDUCAUSE’s “The IT Role in Campus Safety” project.
In addition to numerous webinars and presentations for national, state and local professional associations, Mr. Healy has been a featured speaker and panelist on campus safety and security for the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) and the American College Personnel Association (ACPA).
Corinne P. Kowpak, Ed.D. has served five different types of higher educational institutions in the last 35 years. Currently the Dean of Students at York County Community College in Wells, Maine, Dr. Kowpak has always worked in the senior student affairs office whether at the University of Vermont for 17 years, or as the vice president or dean of student affairs since 1990 at Springfield College, York College/City University of New York, or Keene State College.
Dr. Kowpak was a first generation college student who earned her bachelor’s degree in physical and health education at Hunter College/City University of New York and completed her master’s and doctorate at The University of Vermont.
An active member of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators for 30 years, currently Dr. Kowpak is the Knowledge Community Chair in Region 1 and serves on the regional advisory board. She has just completed six years as a member of the New England Regional Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE) Student Affairs Think Tank. Throughout her career, Dr. Kowpak has been involved in ACPA, ASJA, NODA and ACE/NIP. She has presented at numerous national and regional conferences and has been an invited speaker for professional training and development meetings and workshops.
Barbara A. Lee is Professor of Human Resource Management at the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University, and its former dean. She is also of counsel to the law firm of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, LLP. Professor Lee has taught employment law and higher education law at Rutgers since 1982. She is the author of numerous books and articles on employment law, higher education law, employment discrimination, and academic employment practices. She is the coauthor, with William A. Kaplin, of The Law of Higher Education, 4th ed. (2006) and Academics in Court (1987) with George LaNoue. She is a former member of the board of directors of the National Association of College and University Attorneys and was named a NACUA Fellow. Professor Lee received her B.A. in English from the University of Vermont, her M.A. in English and Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from Ohio State University, and her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.
Dr. Gary J. Margolis has more than a decade of higher education public safety experience as the Chief of Police at the University of Vermont, and more than nineteen years in policing. Under his leadership, UVM Police Services became a twice internationally accredited police agency through the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) for whom Dr. Margolis is a Commissioner. Dr. Margolis holds a Research Associate Professor appointment in the UVM College of Education & Social Services, and a faculty appointment at Norwich University in Northfield, VT. He offers courses in leadership development to masters and doctoral students in the graduate programs at both institutions.
He is a Past General Chair of the University & College Section of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the oldest and largest police association in the world, and a former member of the association’s executive committee. Dr. Margolis is an active member of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators as a member of the Government Relations Committee and Chair of the Education Committee. He is often called upon by the US Department of Justice and US Department of Homeland Security as a campus security expert. He is a much sought after speaker, consultant, educator, expert witness, and trainer on campus safety and security; security technology application; emergency response & recovery planning; and preventing violence against women crimes on campuses. In the Fall 2008, he evaluated the forthcoming iteration of the FEMA Action Guides for Emergency Response & Recovery.
Dr. Margolis has testified before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary on matters relating to criminal justice. Prior to his role as the Chief of Police at UVM, Dr. Margolis was a training administrator at the Vermont Police Academy, responsible for the basic and in-service training of Vermont’s police officers. He has a Masters Degree in Education and a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Vermont.
In January 2007, Dr. Margolis led a full-scale active shooter exercise on campus and has been featured as a key note speaker on the subject. Dr. Margolis is a graduate of the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government Executive Education Program on Crisis Management and, in early 2008, traveled to Israel as an invited guest of the Israeli Government to study terrorism and share his expertise with the Israel National Police and Israel Defense Forces.
Dr. Margolis has been a featured speaker and panelist on emergency response and recovery with Mr. Healy at the annual meetings of the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA), the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), and the National Association of College Auxiliary Services (NACAS). His work has been featured in Police Chief magazine and the Campus Law Enforcement Journal magazine.
Steven J. McDonald is General Counsel at Rhode Island School of Design and previously served as Associate Legal Counsel at The Ohio State University. He has handled a number of Internet-related legal matters, ranging from alleged infringements of copyrighted materials on student web pages to investigations of computer break-ins to an e-mail death threat to Socks the cat. He began his legal career in private practice at Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, where he represented CompuServe in Cubby v. CompuServe, the first online libel case, and he also has taught courses in Internet law at Ohio State’s College of Law and at Capital University Law School. He is a past member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of College and University Attorneys and is the editor of NACUA’s The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act: A Legal Compendium. In State, ex rel. Thomas v. The Ohio State University, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that he really is a lawyer. He received his A.B. from Duke University in 1982 and his J.D. from The Yale Law School in 1985.
Holiday Hart McKiernan, J.D. serves as vice president, strategic operations and chief of staff for Lumina Foundation for Education. McKiernan directs the Foundation’s legal affairs and also leads Lumina’s exploration of the Bologna Process and the implications of that reform effort on American higher education. She speaks frequently on legal, governance and policy issues concerning nonprofit organizations and higher education institutions. McKiernan began her career practicing law concentrating on nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations and prior to joining Lumina in 2003 was executive director and counsel for Alpha Chi Omega and advised universities on approaches to high-risk student behavior.
Ms. McKiernan has co-authored several journal articles, including “Making the Implicit Explicit: Demonstrating the Value Added of Higher Education by a Qualifications Framework, ” The Journal of College and University Law; “The Changing Landscape of Higher Education: An Analysis of How National Change Might be Brought About in American Higher Education Compared with the Bologna Signatory States, ” Education and the Law; and “Trans-Atlantic Ping-Pong and the Bologna Process,” The European University Association Bologna Handbook.
She serves on the Board of Directors of ADI, Inc., a corporation that holds the charters for two Indianapolis charter schools, the International Advisory Board for the Stetson University College of Law Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy, the Executive Advisory Council for Epsilen, LLC, the Board of Directors of the Higher Education Resource Services, Inc. and the Board of Directors of the Association of American Colleges and Universities.
Professor Eleanor Myers is an Associate Professor of Law at Temple University Beasley Law School, teaching Professional Responsibility, Contracts, Business Organizations, and the Integrated Transactional Program. She publishes in the area of Professional Responsibility and ethics education. Prior to joining the Temple law faculty, she was an associate at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center on Professionalism, where she developed, published and taught professional responsibility to practicing lawyers throughout the U.S. She also served as Associate University Counsel at Temple and provided legal services to the university and its health sciences programs, including the hospital.
In addition to teaching, Myers serves as Temple’s NCAA Faculty Athletic Representative and is a member of the NCAA Division 1 Committee on Infractions. This Committee conducts hearings, makes findings, and imposes penalties on charges of major violations brought by the NCAA against institutions, coaches and associated athletic personnel at NCAA Division 1 colleges and universities.
Myers also serves on several non for profits boards. She was formerly a Public Trustee of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange until it was acquired by NASDAQ OMX. She continues to serve on committees for NASDAQ OMX.
Prof. Myers has traveled to China a number of times with the Temple University/Tsinghua University Joint Rule of Law Program. While there, she taught Chinese students in Temple’s LLM program in Beijing, guest lectured at law schools throughout China, taught U.S. judicial ethics to judges of the Supreme People=s Court, and co-chaired two multi-day Roundtables for Chinese law faculty entitled “Experiential Education Methods: Simulation-based Educational Techniques.” In addition, she has made presentations on experiential teaching to Japanese law faculty at a conference at Kwansai Gakuin University Law School, Osaka Japan, and Filipino law faculty at University of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines. She has also twice taught Business Law at Temple’s summer program in Rome, Italy.
Prof. Myers graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and its law school, magna cum laude, and is a member of the American Law Institute. She has won awards for teaching and curriculum development.
John Myers is a litigator, teacher and advisor. A large part of his practice is devoted to non-profits and schools on a wide range of issues including faculty and staff relations, governance, student and faculty conduct, research, discrimination, harassment, and what to do about errant golf balls driven into university parking lots. He has been a University of Pennsylvania student (in the 60′s), public defender (in the 70′s), a chief deputy city solicitor in Philadelphia (in the 80′s) and in private practice. He is currently Of Counsel at Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads, LLP in Philadelphia, where he is a member of the Higher Education and Labor and Employment groups. John has a subspecialty in issues relating to obstreperous lawyers, clients and judges: A Lawyer’s Comment on GMAC v. HFTC, 71 The Phila. Lawyer, no. 2 (Summer 2008); Obstreperosity, 33 ABA Litigation, no. 1, (Fall 2006), He has taught lawyers in many locations including at NACUA and through NITA, law students in Philadelphia, Rome and Beijing, and, from time to time, people. Most recently, he challenged a class of undergraduates to find the legal subtleties in Michael Clayton.
Jeffrey J. Nolan is an attorney and partner with Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew, P.C. in Burlington, Vermont (www.dinse.com), where his practice focuses on representing and advising institutions of higher education and other employers with respect to employment law issues, representing and advising institutions of higher education with respect to student-related matters and compliance issues unique to higher education, and assisting institutions of higher education and other employers with the development and implementation of appropriate policies, handbooks and legal issues training programs. Jeff has practiced in these areas since joining the firm in 1992. Jeff is also a Senior Consultant to Sigma Threat Management Associates (www.SigmaTMA.com), and he collaborates often with Margolis, Healy & Associates (www.Margolis-Healy.com) on projects involving the legal aspects of campus safety and security issues.
Jeff often speaks at national, regional and local-audience seminars on legal issues related to student affairs and employment, threat assessment and management, and campus safety and security. Recent engagements include his work as a subject matter expert and instructor for the nationwide series of campus threat assessment training workshops developed by Margolis, Healy & Associates and funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Community Oriented Policing office, presentations on campus security and threat assessment at national conferences of the University Risk Management and Insurance Association, and presentations at an upcoming national Advanced Employment Issues Symposium regarding Americans with Disabilities Act issues. Jeff is listed in Chambers & Partners America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in the area of Labor and Employment Law, in The Best Lawyers in America in the area of Labor and Employment Law, and in New England Super Lawyers in the area of Employment and Labor Law.
Kim Novak is an independent consultant for Campus Safety, Student Risk Management and Student Organization Development. She is recognized as a national expert in student-focused risk management, hazing prevention, and campus safety. She has been invited to speak at national conferences and on college campus around the country and served as faculty for several nationally sponsored professional institutes including the including HPO’s hazing intervention institute which was renamed in her honor in 2010 as the Kimberly Novak Hazing Prevention Institute. Kim currently serves as a Center Fellow for the U.S. Department of Education Higher Education Center for Alcohol Other Drug and Violence Prevention. Kim has a professional consulting partnership with Symplicity an award winning organization that is reinventing information technology (IT) consulting. She also serves on the Board of Director for hazingprevention.org, the advisory Board for the Vermont Legal Issues in Higher Ed Law Conference, and on the editorial Board for Student Affairs Leader. In 2006 she served as the primary editor for the National Association of College and University Attorney’s Compendium on Student-Focused Risk Management a top selling resource on pro-active risk management.
Prior to embarking on her consulting career full-time, Kim served as the Director for Student and Campus Community Development at Arizona State University, Downtown Phoenix campus. Kim was a key player in the opening of the campus in 2004. She also worked at Texas A&M for 8 successful years. Kim approaches her work with college students with the heart of an advocate and is committed to the advancement of communities of care on college campuses across the country.
Dr. Denzil Suite is the Associate Vice President for Student Affairs at the University of Southern California. In that capacity he has oversight responsibility for a wide range of offices directly involved in student life and leads the Division as a whole on those occasions when the Vice President is away from the university.
Dr. Suite has worked in Student Affairs at UC Berkeley, Cal State LA, and at UC Santa Cruz. He has been invited to speak about college student issues at several national conference and universities around the country.
In addition to his responsibilities in Student Affairs, Dr. Suite holds an appointment as Associate Professor of Education in the Rossier School of Education, where he teaches courses on the history of higher education and on intervention strategies in student development.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in Psychology at The Ohio State University, a master’s degree in Higher Education and Student Development from the University of Vermont, and a Ph.D. in Policy and Organization from the University of Southern California.