PhD student, Educational Policy and Leadership with a minor in African Studies

Graduate Research Assistant, Africana Research Centre, Penn State University

Nana-Anna holds an LLB (Ghana), an MSc in Procurement and Supply Chain Management (Ghana) and an LLM (USA). Currently, she is pursuing a doctorate in Education Policy and Leadership with a minor in African Studies at Pennsylvania State University. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked as a legal officer at University of Cape Coast, Ghana where she gained extensive experience in drafting and reviewing legal documents and policies essential for university operations. and a demonstrable ability to navigate complex regulatory environments.

Nana-Anna’s research interests are in exploring how gender equity considerations are integrated into university governance structures, and examining intersectionality in higher education leadership, particularly at how factors like ethnicity, class, and nationality interact with gender. Her research approach blends rich insights from law, policy implementation, and gender studies, to provide diverse perspectives on the legal challenges and opportunities in higher education leadership.

Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Adult and Higher Education

Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education

University of Oklahoma

Kaleb L. Briscoe received her Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Studies with a concentration in Educational Leadership and Higher Education from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She holds a Master of Science in Student Affairs and Higher Education from Indiana State University (ISU) and a Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Science in Business Marketing from Albany State University (ASU). Before completing her Ph.D. program, she served as the Associate Director of Student Life at the University of Houston-Victoria (UHV), where she supervised a team of student leaders and new professionals. Dr. Briscoe was awarded the ACPA–College Student Educators International Commission for Student Involvement Outstanding Service Award and launched the Commission’s first-ever Mentorship Program. This program advocates for new professionals and graduate students to continue their professional development and education by partnering with seasoned professionals in student affairs.

Dr. Briscoe’s research problematizes oppressed and marginalized populations within higher education through critical theoretical frameworks and qualitative methodological approaches. Through her scholarship on campus racial climate, she seeks to disrupt whiteness and white supremacy on predominantly white campuses. Her research shapes administrators, specifically university presidents’ responses to race and racism, by challenging their use of anti-Blackness and non-performative rhetoric. Dr. Briscoe is a recent Spencer Foundation grant recipient for a project entitled Resistance or Racism? Unpacking Critical Race Theory Bans in a Sociopolitical Era of Anti-Racism with co-principal investigator Dr. Veronica Jones Baldwin. Dr. Briscoe’s work has been published in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Higher Education Research and Development, Journal of International Students, and Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice.

Dr. Briscoe, who is originally from Woodstock, Georgia, enjoys traveling, spending quality time with family and friends, and doing service endeavors with her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs,

Assistant Professor of Law and

Joseph H. Goldstein Faculty Scholar at Penn State Dickinson Law

Jeffrey A. Dodge has spent nearly 20 years in legal education. Dean Dodge has broad experience overseeing law school and University-level offices of student services, international programs, admissions, academic success, career services, and more. He has taught and presented on topics in the fields of family law, education law, international human rights, and LGBTQ+ inequality. His scholarship focuses on the intersection of educational access and minoritized communities. Dean Dodge is past chair of the Association of American Law Schools Student Services, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues, and International Legal Exchange sections. He has served on the national diversity committee of the Law School Admissions Council, as an American Bar Association accreditation site evaluator, and a three time director of the CLEO Pre-Law Summer Institute.

W.K. Kellogg Professor in Community College Leadership at the University of Texas at Austin and

Affiliate Faculty at the School of Law.

Dr. Garces’s research examines how legal and education systems shape educational opportunity for historically marginalized student populations in higher education. Her scholarship focuses on race-conscious policies in postsecondary admissions, freedom of expression and racial equity on college campuses, and the use and influence of research in law. Internationally recognized for her scholarship, she has published over 35 articles in top peer-reviewed education journals and law journals, and co-edited three books, most recently, Racial Equity on College Campuses: Connecting Research and Practice (SUNY Press, 2022). She was most recently recognized as one of the top 200 university-based scholars who did the most to shape educational practice and policy in 2023. Dr. Garces holds a doctorate in education from Harvard University, a juris doctor from the University of Southern California School of Law, and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University.

Professor, Department of Educational Policy Studies & Evaluation,

University of Kentucky

Neal Hutchens serves as Professor, Department of Educational Policy Studies & Evaluation, University of Kentucky. Prior to his current position, Dr. Hutchens was Professor and Chair in the University of Mississippi School of Education’s Department of Higher Education and an Affiliated Faculty in the University of Mississippi School of Law. Hutchens earned his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland and his J.D. from the University of Alabama School of Law, where he graduated summa cum laude and was a member of the Order of the Coif and of the Alabama Law Review. His research focuses on legal and policy issues in higher education, with a key strand of his scholarship centered on free speech and academic freedom. Hutchens was the 2015 recipient of the William A. Kaplin Award from the Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy at Stetson University College of Law. Among his publications, Hutchens is on the author team—along with William A. Kaplin, Barbara A. Lee, and Jacob H. Rooksby—for the sixth edition of The Law of Higher Education, a leading treatise on higher education law. He is also a co-author of The Contested Campus: Aligning Professional Values, Social Justice, and Free Speech, which was published by NASPA in 2020.

Vice President, Student Engagement and Enrollment Services,

Old Dominion University

In June 2023, Dr. Hephner LaBanc joined Old Dominion University as Vice President for Student Engagement and Enrollment Services. Previously, she was Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Professor of Higher Education at U. Mass Amherst, where she led a nationally recognized team of student affairs educators dedicated to excellence, innovation, and social justice, and vice chancellor for student affairs and professor of higher education at the University of Mississippi.

Dr. Hephner LaBanc received her Ed.D. from Northern Illinois University (NIU) and has more than 25 years of experience in higher education. Her background includes an accounting degree from The University of Akron prior to graduate study in Higher Education Administration at Kent State University. She has served students in multiple administrative roles at NIU, Arizona State University, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Baldwin-Wallace College, and The University of Akron.

Recognized by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) as a Pillar of the Profession for 2020, Hephner LaBanc is highly committed to the holistic development of all students and strives to nurture a scholar-practitioner culture in her work environment. Among her honors and special recognitions, Hephner LaBanc was named Alumna of the Year at Kent State University and recognized by NASPA for her outstanding service for the “Enough Is Enough” Campaign, a NASPA-sponsored initiative that addresses the rising societal violence that results from campus tragedies.

Her research focuses on preparation of student affairs professionals and transition issues for graduate students, and she has published work related to campus crisis management, concealed carry legislation’s impact on higher education, as well as the intersectionality of free speech and campus values.

Associate Professor, Education Policy Studies

Pennsylvania State University

Maria M. Lewis is an Associate Professor in Education Policy Studies and an affiliate law faculty member at Pennsylvania State University. Her research applies a critical lens to examine the intersection of education law, policy, and leadership. Specifically, her research explores: how the law can hinder or promote equity for minoritized students; the bidirectional relationship between social science research and laws or policies that implicate educational equity; and protecting and enforcing federal civil rights under the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. Dr. Lewis has published her work in journals such as the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Administration Quarterly, Educational Researcher, Teachers College Record, Southern California Law Review, and Rutgers Race and the Law Review. Dr. Lewis holds a J.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin.

Associate Teaching Professor of Education

Curriculum & Instruction

College of Education

Penn State University

Efraín Marimón is an Associate Teaching Professor at Penn State’s College of Education, where he develops programs centered on social justice, law, and education. He founded and directs Penn State’s Restorative Justice Initiative, which promotes educational justice for thousands of individuals impacted by the justice system in Pennsylvania, and he leads the Rising Scholars college pathway program for formerly incarcerated individuals.

Additionally, he co-directs the D.C. Social Justice Teaching Fellowship in collaboration with Georgetown Law, founded the Street Law Program at Penn State Law, and provides law-related education training for global communities. Efraín has received legal accolades for his contributions to law-related education and his commitment to social justice initiatives. He also serves as a systems designer for Penn State Dickinson Law’s Antiracist Development Institute, where he contributed to a book series volume on antiracist leadership.

Assistant Professor of Education Law

Indiana University School of Education

Vanessa Miller (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Education Law at the Indiana University School of Education where she specializes in the intersection of criminal law, criminal procedure, and education. Her scholarship focuses on school and university police, crime and safety, race and the law, and the role of the courts in education law and policy. She was a former postdoctoral associate at the Race and Crime Center for Justice at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and associate at an education law firm. She received her J.D. and Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University. Miller was recently selected as an early career fellow from the Education Law Association and a leading woman in higher education from Diverse.

Associate Professor, Educational Leadership & Higher Education, Boston College

Associate Professor (courtesy), School of Law, Boston College

Dr. Muñiz’s research is grounded in examining oppressive power structures and the strategies to disrupt them in education. Specifically, she examines the ways in which racialization shows up at the intersection of law, policy, politics, and the culture of resistance. Through this racial equity-centered work, she seeks to inform educational equity discourse and scholarship. To do this, she employs a systems thinking lens that counters deficit narratives and centers the onto-epistemological perspectives of students of color as they experience and respond to oppressive power structures.

Dr. Muñiz is a William T. Grant Scholar and her work appears in top peer-reviewed and law journals, including Educational Researcher, AERA Open, American Journal of Education, Southern California Law Review, Syracuse Law Review, Michigan Journal of Race & Law, and Harvard Law & Policy Review. Her research has been funded by the William T. Grant Foundation, The Spencer Foundation, and AccessLex Institute/American Institutes for Research.

Associate Professor, Curriculum & Instruction

Pennsylvania State University

Dr. Ashley N. Patterson (she/hers) is an Associate Professor in the College of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Penn State University where her instructional focus is on literacies, social justice and critical approaches to qualitative inquiry. Her research observes, measures and documents patterns of (in)equity in a variety of educational settings for the purpose of informing the envisioning of new, inclusive, justice-oriented learning environments where students and teachers thrive in the shared space. Patterson highly values collaborative generation of knowledges as witnessed by her many partnerships with community members, non-profit and corporate entities, school systems, and colleagues both inside and beyond the academic realm. She holds dearly as a responsibility and an honor the opportunity to infuse the ways she has come to know the world as a Black woman into all aspects of her work.

Professor, Temple University Beasley School of Law

Dara E. Purvis is a scholar of gender and the law, including feminist legal theory, masculinities, and gender identity. She is particularly interested in the rights of transgender children and determinations of parentage. Her work has appeared in the Boston University Law Review, California Law Review, Wake Forest Law Review, Florida State Law Review, Case Western Law Review, the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, Cambridge University Press, and The New York Times.

Associate Dean for Antiracism and Critical Pedagogy,

Lewis H. Vovakis Distinguished Faculty Scholar, and

Professor of Law at Penn State Dickinson Law.

Shaakirrah R. Sanders teaches Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, and the First Amendment. Professor Sanders is a contributor for SCOTUSblog and has appeared on international and national broadcasts and publications. Her scholarship relates to felony sentencing reform, civil and criminal jury trial rights, and commercial privacy and has been published in Cornell Law Review, Wake Forest Law Review, Irvine Law Review, Washington and Lee Law Review, Michigan Journal of Law Reform, Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, and Hastings Law Journal among other publications. Prior to joining Penn State Dickinson Law in 2023, Professor Sanders was the first Black, African American to achieve the rank of full professor at the University of Idaho and its College of Law.

Director, Academy for Anti-Racist Leadership

Associate Professor of Higher Education

Director, Center for the Study of Higher Education

Program Coordinator, Residential M.Ed. in Higher Education

Penn State University

Dr. LaWanda Ward’s commitment to social justice, equity, and inclusion in higher education is influenced by her family of educators. Her mother, a 1^st grade teacher for almost 30 years, who marched during the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Ward’s research agenda centers on critically analyzing legal issues in higher education including race-conscious admissions, free speech, and academic freedom.

For over 20 years prior to joining the professoriate, Dr. Ward served as a student affairs educator in various roles. She was introduced to higher education administration as a residence life graduate assistant and later as a residence hall director at Illinois State University and Old Dominion University, respectively. As Director of Pro Bono & Public Interest at her alma mater, Indiana University McKinney School of Law, Dr. Ward coached law students and alumni seeking traditional and non-traditional legal careers. Additionally, she established and maintained productive working relationships with community agencies to ensure law students received rewarding and challenging opportunities to gain pro bono experience.

Previously, Dr. Ward was an Assistant Professor at Ohio University. She earned a PhD in Higher Education and Student Affairs with an Interdisciplinary Minor in Socio-Legal Perspectives on Race & Gender in Higher Education from Indiana University, JD from Indiana University McKinney School of Law, MS in Educational Administration from Old Dominion University, MA in Political Science from Illinois State University, and a BA in Political Science from Murray State University.