Nominees for Balance Board for 2014
1.
Jennifer Probst
I would like to nominate myself for an Executive Committee membership on the AALS Balance
in Legal Education Section. I have about 10 years of experience teaching in law schools,
including clinical (Domestic Violence Clinic), doctrinal (Evidence, Professional Responsibility,
Scientific Evidence, and Domestic Violence law seminars), and an administrative position as
Legal Director at the Center for Child and Family Health. At the Center I supervise law student
interns while serving the large medical/mental health consortium of faculty and clinical staff
from Duke University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I was not initially
impressed with the culture, tone and traditional pedagogical approach of the law school I
attended in California, but admittedly did not know what to expect as the first person in my
family to become an attorney, having never met a lawyer. I learned a great deal, but left
convinced that the teaching and professional development of law students was in need of
significant improvement. I have had a very diverse educational background when compared
with the traditional legal education I received. I obtained my undergraduate degree in South
Africa. I also obtained my LLM overseas in New Zealand, where I taught law students legal
research and writing as an adjunct professor. Eventually I was hired at North Carolina Central
University (NCCU), where I have remained for the last 10 years, apart from a visiting professor
position at Seattle University one summer. NCCU is our nation's oldest HBCU public law school
and my students are the epitome of excellence in character and purpose in the legal profession. I
have been particularly committed to innovation and effectiveness in teaching and imbuing
professionalism in students who have to work harder or at least be more creative to get their foot
in the door as lawyers. I would be honored to work with others in the Balance in legal Education
Section to continue the conversation about honoring diversity and fair opportunity in legal
education. This would be the first AALS committee I have requested a leadership role in, but it
seems to me one of the most worthwhile.
Thank you for your consideration,
Jennifer Brobst, J.D., LL.M., Clinical Programs, North Carolina Central University School of
Law, Legal Director, Center for Child and Family Health, 411 W. Chapel Hill St., Suite 908,
Durham, NC 27701, (919) 419-3474 ext. 401; fax (919) 419-9353
www.ccfhnc.org; www.nccu.edu/law, jbrobst@nccu.edu; jennifer.brobst@duke.edu
2.
Joanne Hodge
I would love to serve. Sounds like important work.
For the past nine years, I have been a full time clinical professor at John Marshall Law School in
Chicago. Prior to that I practiced labor and employment law for 20 years and served as an
Administrative Law Judge at the Illinois Human Rights Commission. Now, I teach disability
law, employment law, Alternative Dispute Resolution (negotiation, arbitration, mediation), and a
variety of writing and communication classes, and serve as Associate Director of the Moot Court
program. I have been lucky enough to win a series of teaching awards along the way.
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Because I practiced disability law, and now teach it, I care a great deal about how law school can
be a humane and empowering experience for all students. And because I went to law school as a
mother with two small children and a half time job, I will always be grateful to those professors
and mentors who helped me navigate that difficult balance of work/family/and finances -- a
balance we juggle for our whole careers.
Would love to help....
Joanne Hodge, 773-870-0285 cell
3.
Debra Austin
Please accept my self-nomination for the position of Executive Committee Board
Member. Student wellness, law school culture, and fostering humane learning environments are
central to my teaching practice and to my scholarship agenda. I have taught legal skills at the
University of Denver Sturm College of Law for 16 years, starting as a Law Librarian and
becoming part of the writing faculty 5.5 years ago. I currently teach the first year writing course
and Advanced Legal Research. In addition to my JD, I earned my PhD in Education with an
emphasis on using technology in teaching and learning. My research addresses student and
lawyer wellness through a neuroscience lens. My article, Killing Them Softly: Neuroscience
Reveals How Brain Cells Die from Law School Stress and How Neural Self-Hacking Can
Optimize Cognitive Performance, 59 LOY. L. REV. (Winter 2014, Forthcoming), explains how
neuroscience research demonstrates that chronic stress can kill brain cells necessary for memory
formation. It discusses the brain areas associated with learning and memory formation, the
impact of stress on cognition, and strategies for maintaining optimal cognitive function. I’m
working on an article on the neuroscience of the reward cycle in the brain and I’m crafting a
study on law student stress that combines self-reporting and the testing of cortisol in salvia.
I am also collaborating with Dean of Student Affairs to Co-Direct a Student Wellness Program at
DU. I presented my research at the inaugural DU Student Wellness Lecture Series in
September. I have presented on the neuroscience of cognitive wellness at:
·
the 2012 Legal Writing Institute Conference in Palm Desert, CA;
·
the 2013 Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference in Boulder, CO;
·
the 2013 Implications of Tiger Parenting for Legal Education Conference in Boulder, CO;
·
the new Student Wellness Program at the University of Denver;
·
the Kansas Judicial Center (approved for 2 Ethics CLE Credits);
·
the Central States Legal Writing Conference at the University of Kansas; and
I will be presenting on this topic at:
·
the Rhone Brackett Inn of Court, Denver – (approved for 1 Ethics CLE Credit, Oct 2013)
·
the Psychology and Lawyering Conference, Las Vegas (Feb 2014)
·
the Legal Writing Institute Biennial Conference, with Corie Rosen Felder, Philadelphia
(June 2014). I would be honored to serve as a member of the Executive Committee. Thank you
for your consideration.
Debra S. Austin, JD, PhD, Lawyering Process Professor, University of Denver Sturm College of
Law, daustin@law.du.edu, www.debraaustin.info SSRN: http://ssrn.com/author=1088833
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4.
Jarrod Reich
I write to nominate myself for the AALS Section of Balance in Legal Education Board Executive
Committee. I am in my first year as a full-time Legal Writing Professor at the Florida State
University College of Law after spending eight years at a large national law firm in New York an
four years as an adjunct professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (where I taught
Legal Writing and an externship seminar). I am very dedicated to maintaining and preserving
balance and wellness in both law school and legal practice. As a Legal Writing Professor, I have
a relatively small group of first year students for an entire year, during which time I get to know
them both professionally and personally. As a consequence, I have served as a de-facto guidance
counselor and mentor for many of my students, discussing many issues concerning stress
management, work-life balance, and even mental health and substance abuse issues. I take that
role seriously, and make myself available to my students to discuss and deal with wellnessrelated issues as necessary. Over the years, I have talked many students “off the ledge” to
varying degrees, and I see that as one of my responsibilities as an educator. Indeed, that is one of
the main reasons I decided to teach full-time: to help students develop into healthy, balanced,
and ethical lawyers. (If I did not get my full-time position at FSU, I planned on attaining my
MSW (on top of my other jobs) to provide me with better skills to help students
meaningfully.) Further, as a “BigLaw” lawyer for several years, I have seen first-hand how
stress, lack of balance, and related issues decimate both the individual and the profession in
general, and I use my observations and experiences as lessons to help students cope and adapt to
law school and to prepare them for practice. According to my several former students, among
the biggest lessons they learned from me was the need to always maintain balance and
perspective, and many students even several years removed from my class reach out to me to
seek guidance on handling their school/life or work/life balance issues.
I will bring a great deal of passion for and commitment to the Section as a Board
member. Although I am relatively new to the law school academy, I believe my experiences as a
teacher, practicing lawyer, and even as a relatively recent law school graduate, enable me to
bring a fresh perspective on issues facing current law students and recent graduates. I tried to
help many students over the years on an individual level, but I want to do what I can on an
institutional level. I see serving the Section as a great opportunity to do that, and I will work
tirelessly to do so.
Thank you in advance for your consideration. If you require any additional information, or have
any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Jarrod Reich, Florida State University College of Law, 425 West Jefferson Street, Tallahassee,
Florida 32306, (850) 645-0210
5.
Peter Huang (nominated by Corie)
Peter H. Huang, DeMuth Chair, specializes in business law; law and emotions; law, happiness,
and subjective well-being; law and mindfulness; law and neuroscience; law and psychology.
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He has a deep interest in bringing balance to legal education and has written several articles
related to issues of balance among law students and lawyers, including articles on emotional
intelligence, mindfulness, happiness, character strengths, and meaning:
Tiger Cub Strikes Back: Memoirs of an Ex-Child Prodigy About Legal Education and Parenting,
1 Brit. J. Am. Legal Stud. 297 (2012), available at:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1958366
Happiness in Business or Law, 12 Transactions: Tenn. J. Bus. L. 153 (2011), available
at:
http://lawweb.colorado.edu/profiles/pubpdfs/huang/HuangHapInBizOrReprint.pdf
Happiness Studies and Legal Policy, 6 Ann. Rev. L. & Soc. Sci. 405 (2010), available at:
http://lawweb.colorado.edu/profiles/pubpdfs/huang/HapStud&LegalPolicyPreprint.pdf
(with Rick Swedloff), Authentic Happiness and Meaning at Law Firms, 58 Syracuse L. Rev. 335
(2008), available at: http://lawweb.colorado.edu/profiles/pubpdfs/huang/HuangSwedloff.pdf
Happiness 101 for Legal Scholars: Applying Happiness Research to Legal Policy, Ethics,
Mindfulness, Negotiations, Legal Education, and Legal Practice, in Handbook of Behavioral
Law and Economics (Joshua C. Teitelbaum & Kathryn Zeiler eds., forthcoming).
Corie Rosen Felder and he also co-organized two conferences related to issues of balance among
law students and lawyers:
http://lawweb.colorado.edu/apps/eventRegistration/wellBeing/welcome.jsp
http://lawweb.colorado.edu/apps/eventRegistration/wellBeing/schedule.jsp
http://lawweb.colorado.edu/apps/eventRegistration/tigerParenting/welcome.jsp
http://lawweb.colorado.edu/apps/eventRegistration/tigerParenting/schedule.jsp
He would be thrilled to join the Balance Board and would look forward to contributing.
6.
Inga Laurent
Greetings! I must apologize for my just-under-the-wire submission to join this committee. To
be honest, I keep mulling over nominating myself. The committee charge, I am passionately
committed to; however, I would say that I'm bordering on over-committed ("isn't it
ironic"). That being said, I believe there's nothing more important than making legal education,
and ultimately the profession, BETTER. If I'm going to be a busy bee, at least my efforts can be
put toward what I am passionate about. Additionally, I've been reading "What the Best Law
Teachers Do;" those 26 professors identify the culture shift that we need to embrace: being
thoughtful, caring, holding high standards yet maintaining flexibility and even loving, a word
rarely used in the law school context (much to my dismay!). The coinciding of reading the book
with the last call for nominations compelled me to submit my name for nomination. In this
shifting time of legal education and the the profession, many dangers and opportunities exist. We
can move the profession forward through the provision of "healthy, happy, ethical" law school
experience for all students. I want to remind our own profession of the beauty that exists in the
mastery of law, of the immeasurable amount of good that we can do; I want to reintroduce the
concept of love in the context of law (I'm currently struggling with erasing that line because it
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just seems so radical!). If selected, I would be honored to serve. I sincerely thank you for your
time and consideration.
-Inga Laurent
7.
Sarah Gerwig-Moore
I am writing to nominate myself to serve with the Balance in Legal Education section. My
colleague Tim Floyd has spoken highly of his work with this section in years past, and I share his
interest in this topic. In fact -- in part at least-- it is what drew me to law teaching.
I am in my seventh year of full-time teaching at Mercer Law School in Macon, Georgia, and I
was granted tenure two years ago. I direct two law clinics and the school's Introduction to Client
Counseling course, so a lot of my work is "skills-focused," but both my clinical and non-clinical
courses include an explicit focus on professional satisfaction. Our school's externship course,
which I helped develop after joining the faculty, includes a seminar component that focuses on
these themes, and I have written and presented on these topics since coming to law teaching.
Since being granted tenure, I have begun to look at ways to connect more with national
movements in legal education. I was a plenary speaker at the AALS Clinical Legal Education
conference last spring (where I also received an award as an emerging clinician). And I have
long admired any effort to help bring balance to "the force" of legal education (which was for me
a very alienating and difficult time of my life, as opposed to my very positive experience in
graduate school). Though I have not worked previously with this section, I would love to become
involved, and if I am selected to join the executive committee, Mercer would fund my travel to
the AALS conference.
I've attached a CV in case that is useful and appreciate all you do.
All best,
Sarah Gerwig-Moore, Associate Professor of Law, Mercer University School of Law
1021 Georgia Avenue, Macon, GA 31201, 478 301 2195
gerwig-moore@law.mercer.edu
8.
Allison Martin
I am interested in sitting on the Executive Committee Board for the AALS Balance in Legal
Education Section. I teach Legal Writing, Litigation Drafting, and Professional
Responsibility. My scholarship includes a focus on engendering hope in law students. Please
see Allison D. Martin & Kevin L. Rand, The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades: Law
School Through the Lens of Hope, 48 Duq. L. Rev. 203 (Spring 2010). In addition, in January
2014, I will be presenting at the AALS Annual Meeting for the Section on Academic Support
Programs: “Early Identification & Intervention: Is There “Hope” for At-Risk Students?” I am a
member of the ABA Commission on Lawyers Assistance Programs Advisory Committee. I have
taught at three different law schools (Illinois, Alabama, and IU McKinney) over my seventeenyear teaching career. Through this varied experience, I have learned much about legal education.
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Please let me know if you need any further information. Thank you for your consideration.
Allison Martin, Clinical Professor of Law, Faculty Advisor, Moot Court Society
Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, martinad@iupui.edu
317-278-4776
9.
Davida Finger
I would like to take a moment and nominate a colleague from Loyola University College of Law
for the Balance in Legal Education committee. Professor Davida Finger is the perfect candidate
for this committee. She incorporates such techniques and teaching methods regarding mindful
practice including yoga and meditation. Prof. Finger's teaching is dedicated to sustainable job
satisfaction in the profession. She exemplifies the important balance between strong work ethic
and life balance. As a young mother, clinical professor, advocate, teacher and overall humble
person, I think her insight would benefit this committee. I have included her biographical page
below for reference, however, if you need more information regarding her teaching philosophy
please let me know and I am happy to forward.
Thank you for continuing this important work!
Davida Finger: http://law.loyno.edu/bio/davida-finger
With kind regards,
Christine Cerniglia Brown, Assistant Clinical Professor, Coordinator of Skills and Experiential
Learning, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law
cecernig@loyno.edu
10.
Scott L. Rogers
I have great admiration for what the Balance in Legal Education Section has accomplished and
its ongoing activities and a tremendous respect for its leadership. It would be a privilege to serve
on the board and I am grateful for the opportunity to proffer my nomination.
In my work at the University of Miami School of Law, I am engaged in supporting an
environment for students to love the learning of the law, immerse in its nuance and intellectual
challenge with a rigor that is stimulating and inspired, and take good care of themselves as they
journey along this meaningful and challenging road. As founder and director of Miami Law's
Mindfulness in Law Program, I look for ways that mindfulness and other contemplative practice
may be creatively brought into the curriculum and across the community to help support the
above objectives.
I teach three courses that are part of the curriculum (Mindfulness in Law, Mindful Ethics, and
Mindful Leadership) along with a 1L course I have been teaching since 2008, "Jurisight for 1L's"
which shares mindfulness insights and exercises with students in their first semester. I very
much enjoy the collaborative nature of this work and finding ways to share it broadly across the
legal education community. You can learn a little more about the program by visiting
www.mindfulness.law.miami.edu. While mindfulness is an important part of the work I do, I
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believe it to be but one avenue among a collection of many that are important, and perhaps
crucial, to share with students, faculty, and law school administrators.
Scott L. Rogers, M.S., J.D., Director, Mindfulness in Law Program, University of Miami School
of Law, 305.284.5527 office, 786.239.9318 cell, www.mindfulness.law.miami.edu,
www.mindfulness.miami.edu, www.scottrogers.com
11.
Ronald Tyler
I write to enthusiastically nominate Professor Ronald Tyler as a board member of the Executive
Committee of the Balance in Legal Education Section of the AALS. Ron's background,
experience and perspective make him an ideal candidate for board membership. I work with Ron
closely here in the Stanford clinics and am wildly enthusiastic about his clinic and his study of
balance-related issues.
Ron is the Director of Stanford Law School’s Criminal Defense Clinic, a position he assumed at
the beginning of the 2012-2013 academic year. He came to Stanford after over two decades as
an Assistant Federal Public Defender. Ron's students spend a fully immersive quarter
representing clients in criminal court in the counties near Stanford —- experiences that are both
rewarding and stressful. One of the core missions of Ron's clinic is to introduce law students to
the enduring value of self-care, both in law school and in their future professional lives.
Consistent with that mission, the clinic curriculum includes a comprehensive series of self-care
workshops. Ron's academic research is well-matched to the Balance in Legal Education
Section’s goals. He is currently focusing on projects addressing vicarious trauma in high-stress
legal careers.
Ron also brings a diverse perspective to the Section in the more traditional sense. In spite of his
relatively recent arrival at Stanford, Prof. Tyler has established himself as a mentor to students of
color, as well as to students within the larger law school community.
Finally, Ron has already proven to be an active member of AALS. This past summer, he served
as a speaker at the AALS New Law Teachers conference, co-presenting on “The Shadow Duties
of a Law Professor.” He has accepted an invitation to return as a plenary speaker for the 2014
AALS New Law Teachers conference.
I am very enthusiastic about nominating Ron. Please don't hesitate to contact me with any
questions. Best, Jayashri
12.
Michelle Denise Mason
I write to express my interest in serving on the AALS Balance in Legal Education Executive
Committee. As of the 2014 AALS Annual Meeting, I will have met my responsibilities as the
past chair of the AALS Student Services Committee. It would be an honor to work
collaboratively and diligently to advance the prescient, innovative teaching, scholarship and
programming offered by your committee.
Eighteen years ago, after graduating from law school I decided to pursue an administrative career
for a myriad of reasons which in the long-run developed into a desire to work closely with, assist
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and counsel students as they attempt to chart their own professional journey. Frankly, the law
school experience was a mixed bag for me. My resume and law school exploits reflect those of
an actively engaged student. However, in each of those pursuits, I never took the time to pause to
identify the career path that would fulfill me both professionally and spiritually. At the end of
law school, I was burned out to the point that I made a decision to walk away from the law. Fast
forward, through a lot of trial and yes, a lot error, and gratefully mentorship and opportunity, my
career choices led to my current position and a rediscovery of a love for the law and its
possibilities. As Senior Associate Dean for Enrollment Management, Student Development and
Outreach and a founding member of my law school, I have worked with the faculty and
administrative peers to identify cross-curricular initiatives and create an environment that
hopefully imbues our students with a similar appreciation for the law, well-prepared for the
challenges of practice.
I would like to close by offering the following: In 2010, after having served as administrative
principal for our law school’s student services areas (admissions, financial aid, career planning
and placement, student affairs, registration, community service and externships), my duties were
added to with my appointment by the Dean as founding director for FIU Law’s Center for
Professionalism and Ethics. The Center's primary goal is to train students through a variety of
curricular offerings and programming to become professional, ethical and community-concerned
leaders. One of my first tasks was to develop a course which well-reflected and supported the
aforementioned goals. Candidly, the course’s structure and my pedagogical approach is muchinformed by your committee’s work. The purpose of my course is to enhance a law student’s
understanding of the legal profession and of its standards through a variety of assigned readings,
self-assessment exercises and structured lectures addressing a host of issues influencing and
impacting legal practice. Moreover, I try to facilitate student exploration and discovery of their
own professional identity, values, role and the attendant responsibilities and duties owed to
clients, the practice and society as a whole. Personally, I relish the opportunity to work side-byside with this committee, in an effort in which I strongly believe. Self-interestedly, I know my
teaching and programmatic choices will only be enhanced and improved by my participation as a
member of your committee. Ultimately, I would endeavor to further incorporate lesson-learned,
bringing discoveries-made back to my students. Additionally, I would devote my energies and
efforts to furthering this committee's worthy and necessary mission. Thank you for your
attention and consideration.
Best, Michelle Denise Mason, Sr. Assoc. Dean for Enrollment Management, Student
Development & Outreach, Director, Center for Professionalism and Ethics, Florida International
University College of Law, 11200 S.W. 8th Street, RDB 2015, Miami, FL. 33199, 305-348-2444,
masonm@fiu.edu
13.
Marlene Krousel
I write to nominate my colleague and mentor Marlene Krousel, Assistant Professor of
Professional Practice, for membership on the AALS Balance in Legal Education Section’s
Executive Committee.
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Professor Krousel has taught legal writing and appellate advocacy at LSU, her alma mater, since
1998. Before joining the LSU faculty, she had a rich and varied professional career, which
began with a judicial clerkship at the First Circuit Court of Appeal for the State of Louisiana, and
was followed by thirteen years of private practice in Baton Rouge. At every stage of her career,
Professor Krousel has made time to give back to her community. She coached the Baton Rouge
High School Mock Trial Team to three state championships, and served as President of the
Family Law Section of the Baton Rouge Bar Association. Committed to all forms of dispute
resolution, Professor Krousel is also a certified Attorney Mediator. In addition to teaching LSU
Law Center students, Professor Krousel teaches legal skills classes at Baton Rouge Community
College. Professor Krousel is known for her dedication to her students. Though she is a firm
instructor, she balances her commitment to legal excellence with kindness and
warmth. Professor Krousel’s door is always open, both figuratively and literally, to anyone who
needs her. I am nominating Professor Krousel for the Balance in Legal Education Section
because she has shown me, a first year professor, how to live up to my professional obligations
without compromising who I am.
What I love most about Professor Krousel is that she sees her students and her colleagues first
and foremost as fellow human beings, and is always on the lookout for a way to make a personal
connection with everyone she meets. She remembers that one of our retired professors likes
persimmons, picks them from her father’s garden, and brings them to the professor on a regular
basis. She knows that I have difficulty walking, and goes out of her way to swoop my papers
from the copy machine, delivering them right to my desk to save my knees the extra trip. When
you see Professor Krousel coming, you can’t help but smile. Professor Krousel has managed to
achieve a balance in life that allows her to give back to her community, her friends and her
family, while still shining as a committed and engaged educator. I look up to her as a mentor
and a friend, and aspire to the kind of career and life she has crafted for herself.
Thank you for your consideration. Please feel free to contact me with any questions regarding
this nomination.
Best regards, Katherine A. Macfarlane, LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center
14.
Staci P. Rucker
Statement of Interest
Less than two weeks ago, I received a call from my dean to inform me that one of our
third-year law students had died of what appeared to be a heroin overdose. Although I had
checked off all the boxes for best practices in dealing with a perceived at-risk student, it just
seemed like there was more to do. After careful reflection, I realize there is, but it is beyond the
scope of responding to the needs of just one law student. If legal educators truly care about the
future of law students and the profession, we must commit to making law school a more humane
experience, which will, in turn, better prepare law students to become more effective and wellrounded practitioners.
As an Executive Committee Board Member on The Balance in Legal Education Section,
I would enthusiastically embrace the opportunity to work with others in the academy to identify
causes of and solutions to substance abuse, ethical erosion and disengagement among law
students. I offer more than six years of experience working with law students as the Director of
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Academic Support, where the significant challenges law students face are often most evident.
Most recently, I was promoted to Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, where I oversee the
Academic Support and Bar Pass Programs and have a larger platform to impact all law students’
experience at the University of Dayton. For example, in a concerted effort to increase student
engagement and to reduce isolation among first-semester law students, I developed and
implemented required Learning Communities for every incoming law student this year. The
mission of the Learning Communities is to support the development of Practice Ready Attorneys
Committed To Inclusive Community and Excellence (PRACTICExcellence). By learning in
community, it is my goal for incoming law students to (1) explore and practice the true values of
our profession; and then (2) model these values as upper-level students and eventual members of
the bar.
I hope to have the opportunity to further explore the root causes of the many challenges
faced by law students today and to recommend comprehensive solutions to help other legal
educators to create a more humane law school experience for students and to ultimately graduate
more effective and well-rounded practitioners. Thank you in advance for your consideration of
my nomination.
Staci P. Rucker, Assistant Dean for Student Affairs & Lecturer in Law, University of Dayton
School of Law, 007 Keller Hall, Dayton, OH 45469-2772, Phone: (937) 229-3794, Fax: (937)
229-4769, srucker1@udayton.edu
15.
Anahid Gharakhanian
I’m writing to express my interest in becoming an Executive Committee Board Member for the
AALS Balance in Legal Education Section. I have been teaching at Southwestern Law School
for over ten years and my work as a teacher and administrator has continuously been guided by
the need to educate “the whole professional” much the same way that we talk about the need to
educate the whole child. For example, in collaboration with like-minded colleagues, my
teaching and work with students have been informed by Carol Dweck’s “Mindset.” And, in my
role as Vice Dean for Academic Affairs, I have tried to introduce others to similar transformative
practices to benefit our own professional development as well as to improve the learning and
growth environment we create for our students. So, in a recent teaching workshop that I
organized for our faculty, I asked colleagues to present on the concepts of “growth mindset” as
well as “deliberate practice” (based on Geoff Colvin’s work). I have also brought mindfulness
information and practice to our school, including presentations for our first-year students and
graduates studying for the bar, focusing this past summer’s faculty retreat on this subject, and cofacilitating a faculty and staff mindfulness group. Having been in practice for almost a decade
before becoming a teacher, and striving to have a joyful and productive life on all fronts, I feel
attuned to law student concerns and what a difference we can make in their professional
formation. Our efforts in our respective institutions are great but it’s also wonderful to have
AALS focused on the welfare of our students beyond their intellectual performance (which in
any event over time can suffer absent some balance).
Many thanks for considering my interest in this Committee.
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Anahid Gharakhanian, Vice Dean and Professor of Legal Analysis, Writing & Skills, Director
of the Externship Program, Southwestern Law School, 3050 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles,
CA 90010-1106, 213.738.6786
16.
Rosemary Queenan
I would like to nominate Professor Rosemary Queenan, Associate Dean of Student Affairs and
Lawyering Professor, Albany Law School, to serve as an Executive Committee Board Member
of the Balance in Legal Education Section of the AALS.
After thirteen years of law practice, Dean Queenan began teaching law students as an Adjunct
Professor and, beginning in 2007, as a full-time faculty member at Albany Law School. In July
2013, she was appointed to the role of Associate Dean for Student Affairs.
Dean Queenan is absolutely committed to working with others to improve the law school
experience for students, faculty and the staff. In her current role as Dean of Students, her goal is
to ensure that Albany Law students have a positive and enriched law school
experience. Specifically, she has utilized her prior experience as a practicing attorney, as well as
her current experiences as a faculty member and mother of two children with special needs, to
guide and support students in developing their professional identity and succeeding in a
demanding law school environment. In that role, she has become aware of the many challenges
law students and faculty face in striving to achieve balance in legal education. I know that Dean
Queenan would welcome the opportunity to collaborate with faculty and administrators at other
institutions on the ways that we can continue to address the many challenges law students and
the general law school community face in ensuring that students experience a fulfilling,
successful legal education experience.
I believe that she will make an excellent contribution as a member of this committee.
Sincerely,
Penelope (Penny) Andrews, President and Dean , Albany Law School
Eric Chaffee – Dayton (not still there)
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CHAIR ELECT
Courtney Lee
I apologize for the delayed response. I’ve been doing quite a bit of soul (and schedule) searching
since Wednesday. I would indeed like to continue on the Board; thank you for having me! I
have truly enjoyed my time with the Section over the past three years (has it really been that
long?!), and I have learned so much from this wonderfully lively, engaged, and dedicated
community. After speaking with Amy and Julie and getting a better feel for the position, I would
like to relinquish my title as Chair of the Other Programming Committee and add my name for
consideration for Chair-Elect in 2014.
If you need any further information from me, please don’t hesitate to ask. Thank you again for
your consideration and for this opportunity.
Best, Courtney
Corie Rosen
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