Kathleen Curry Santora

Kathleen earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science from the University of Scranton and a Juris Doctor from the Columbus School of Law, The Catholic University of America. She is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar. 

Kathleen currently serves on the board of the American Council on Education (ACE).   She also serves as chair of the steering committee for the Washington Higher Education Secretariat (WHES Steering Committee). She previously served on the boards of the University of Scranton, Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE); the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA); EDUCAUSE (the association for IT professionals); Association Mutual Health Insurance Company (AMHIC) and Academic Search; as a member of the Council of Higher Education Management Associations (CHEMA) Steering Committee, and as a member of the Western New England College (now University) board.

Jerry Blakemore

Plenary Speakers

Stephen Sencer

Stephen D. Sencer serves as Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Emory University. As such he is the chief legal officer for Emory and works closely with the Emory Board of Trustees and Secretary on all governance issues. Steve is also Senior Advisor to the University President, advising the president on strategic priorities and initiatives. Steve serves as Chair of the Emory Innovations, Inc. Board; he also serves on the Board of Directors for Clifton Casualty Insurance Company.

Prior to his current position, Steve practiced law with Williams & Connolly in Washington, DC, and King & Spalding in Atlanta, GA, and served as a trial lawyer in the DeKalb County (GA) District Attorney’s office. He clerked for Judge Amalya Lyle Kearse on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, sitting in New York.

He has close ties with the American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA) and has been involved with many sessions and Special Interest Groups during NACUA meetings involving discussions about academic medical centers. He is a member of the American Association of Universities (AAU) Counsel Committee and the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) Legal Services Review Panel.

Steve is currently Chair-Elect of the NACUA Board of Directors and served as a Member-at-Large on the NACUA Board from 2011 – 2014. As Chair-Elect Steve serves ex officio on all NACUA committees. In the past he served on the following NACUA Committees over the course of many years: Committee on Board Operations; Committee on Legal Education; Committee Finance and Audit, (where in FY 2013-2014 he served as Chair of the Audit Subcommittee and as a member of that Subcommittee for several years); Committee on Program for Annual Conference; and the Committee on Publications. He has attended twenty-five NACUA events and has spoken at several of them. He also was Chair of the working group that planned the “Business of Higher Education” segment of the 2017 General Counsel Institute.

Steve holds a B.S. from Wesleyan University and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. 

Madelyn Wessel

Madelyn Wessel is the University Counsel and Secretary of the Corporation for Cornell University. From 2014-1017, Madelyn served as the University Counsel for Virginia Commonwealth University and as a Senior Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia.  Previously Associate University Counsel at the University of Virginia, Madelyn had a broad practice including intellectual property law, FOIA, technology, libraries, student affairs, civil rights and constitutional law, and employment law.  She served as Deputy and later Chief Deputy City Attorney for the City of Portland, Oregon from 1989-2001.  Madelyn served as an Assistant Attorney General and Chief of the Opinions Division, Massachusetts Department of Justice from 1987-1989.  Madelyn was on the Board of Directors of NACUA from 2013-2016 and served as a long-term Committee member and Chair of NACUANOTES.  Madelyn holds a BA with Honors from Swarthmore College and a J.D. from Boston University.

Jeffrey Koplan, MD, MPH

Dr. Jeffrey P. Koplan is an internationally renowned public health leader with more than 30 years of experience. Dr. Koplan is Vice President for Global Health at Emory University, Principal Investigator for the Global Health Institute – China Tobacco Control Partnership, and Co-founder of the International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI). He founded the Emory Global Health Institute (EGHI) in 2006, served as its Director until March, 2013, and continues to be actively involved in its daily operations in his role as Vice President for Global Health. Prior to founding EGHI, Dr. Koplan was Vice President for Academic Health Affairs at Emory University.

A former Director (1998-2002) and 26-year veteran of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Koplan began his public health career in the early 1970s as a member of the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service.  He has worked on many major public health issues, including infectious diseases such as smallpox, SARS, pandemic influenza and HIV/AIDS, environmental issues such as the Bhopal chemical disaster, and the health toll of tobacco and chronic diseases, both in the United States and around the globe.  He chairs the Institute of Medicine committee on preventing childhood obesity.

From 1994 to 1998, he pursued his interest in enhancing the interactions between clinical medicine and public health by developing and leading the Prudential Center for Health Care Research.

His first collaboration with China was in 1980 as a member of the US-PRC Public Health/Health Services Research Joint Committee, on which he became Co-Chair with Professor Yang Ming Ding (Shanghai No. 1 Medical College, now Fudan) in 1981. Since then he has made more than 40 visits to China on projects for the World Bank, WHO, CDC and China’s Ministry of Health.  He has worked on several World Bank loan projects in China, including serving as a principal advisor on Health Loan VII, health promotion and tobacco control in seven cities. He has been awarded an Honorary Professorship at China CDC and named Honorary Advisor #001 to China CDC at its formation in 2002.

Dr. Koplan is a graduate of Yale University, the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, and the Harvard School of Public Health.  He is a Master of the American College of Physicians and was elected to membership in and service on the governing council in the Institute of Medicine.  He has served on many advisory groups and consultancies in the U.S. and overseas, and has written more than 200 scientific papers.  He is a trustee of the China Medical Board.

Stephen Gange, MD, Ph.D.

Dr. Gange is professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and has been the university’s executive vice provost for academic affairs since 2015.  During the COVID-19 disruption, he has helped lead and organize the university’s 2020 Taskforce and coordinate activities across nine schools.  He co-authored the university’s “What Does Return to Campus/Resumption of On-Campus Activity Look Like?” report outlining the challenges facing the University before reopening and the need for a multi-phased response.

Dr. Gange has more than 250 publications focused on quantitative methods for longitudinal epidemiological studies, evaluating therapies & biomarkers in observational settings, and infectious diseases. He is a Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology, an elected member of both the American Epidemiological Society and Delta Omega Honor Society, and in 2015 received the School’s Ernest L. Stebbins Faculty Award Recognizing Excellence and Innovation.

Nahid Bhadelia, MD, M.A.

Dr. Nahid Bhadelia is an infectious diseases physician and the medical director of Special Pathogens Unit at Boston University School of Medicine. She oversees the medical response program for Boston University’s maximum containment biosafety level 4 program at National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories. She serves on national and interagency groups focused on medical countermeasures, the intersection between public health preparedness, research and clinical care for emerging pathogens. Her research focuses on identification of safe and effective clinical interventions and infection control measures related to viral hemorrhagic fevers.

During the West African Ebola epidemic, she served as a clinician in several Ebola treatment units, working with World Health Organization and Partners in Health. She currently serves as the clinical lead for the Joint Mobile Emerging Disease Intervention Clinical Capability (JMEDICC) program which a joint US-Ugandan effort to create clinical research capacity to combat viral hemorrhagic fevers in Uganda at the border of Democratic Republic of Congo.

She has served as a subject matter expert to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Defense, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and World Bank.

Dr. Bhadelia is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Human Security at the Tufts Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where she teaches a course on human security and emerging infectious diseases.

Augustine M.K. Choi, M.D.

An internationally renowned physician-scientist in the field of lung disease, Dr. Augustine M.K. Choi has focused his research on understanding how chronic and acute lung diseases develop in response to molecular, cellular and genetic triggers. His laboratory studies how oxidative stress and inflammation affect stress response genes and antioxidant enzymes in the lung, and it has contributed much to our understanding of the molecular regulation and function of heme oxygenase-1 and gaseous molecule carbon monoxide in lung and vascular disease.  Dr. Choi is currently examining whether inhaled carbon monoxide can be an effective therapy in human disease.

Dr. Choi has a longstanding commitment to the training of postdoctoral fellows and physician-scientists in lung diseases.  He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed articles and is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He is currently funded by multiple NIH R01 grants and has a program project grant. Among his many awards and honors are the 2011 Ho-Am Prize in Medicine, which is often referred to as the Korean Nobel Prize, and the 2015 J. Burns Amberson Lecture, which recognizes a career of major lifetime contributions to pulmonary research.

Dr. Choi received a bachelor’s degree in 1980 from the University of Kentucky and an MD in 1984 from the University of Louisville. After completing his internship and residency in internal medicine at Duke University and a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins University, he began his academic career in 1990 in the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins. In 1998, he moved to an appointment at Yale University, and in 2000, he became chief of the division of pulmonary, allergy and critical care medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2007, he was appointed the Parker B. Francis Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  He served as the Sanford I. Weill Chairman and Professor of Medicine in the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and as physician-in-chief of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, prior to his appointment as dean in January 2017.

Plenary Speakers

Pamela Bernard

Pamela J. Bernard is Vice President & General Counsel of Duke University. 

Ms. Bernard is responsible for overseeing a variety of legal issues, including litigation, student and employment issues, health law, research, taxation, insurance, athletics, corporate and transactional matters and liability issues for both Duke University and Duke University Health System.  Prior to coming to Duke, she was Vice President and General Counsel to the University of Florida and directed its governing board operations.

 Ms. Bernard is a past President of the National Association of College & University Attorneys and was awarded NACUA's Distinguished Service Award for her contributions to the field of higher education law practice.  She has served on numerous national committees or task forces over the past three decades, including the Association of American Governing Boards, the American Association of Research Universities, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association.  She is a frequent speaker on legal issues and has authored papers and other publications relating to higher education law including authoring the Legal Standpoint column for AGB's Trusteeship Magazine from 2007 - 2011.

Stephen Dunham

Stephen Dunham is the Vice President and General Counsel of The Pennsylvania State University.  He previously served as Vice President and General Counsel of Johns Hopkins University.  Earlier, he served as Vice President and General Counsel of the University of Minnesota and as a litigation partner and Chair of the law firm of Morrison and Foerster resident in their Denver and San Francisco offices.  He has taught at several different law schools and currently serves as Chair of the Board of Soka University of America.  He graduated from Princeton University and Yale Law School.

Bill Mullowney

William J. (Bill) Mullowney, a member of NACUA since 1985, is Vice President for Policy and General Counsel at Valencia College in Orlando, FL. Prior to that, he served as College Counsel for Whittier College and as University Ombudsman at University of Miami, and was an associate at the firm of Rosen & Switkes. Bill served as an at-large member on the NACUA Board of Directors from 2001 to 2005, and as its Secretary from 2007 to 2010, and as its Chair from 2013 to 2014. He has chaired and served on numerous NACUA committees and has attended and/or spoken at NACUA meetings on a regular basis during his membership. In 2017, Bill was awarded the NACUA Distinguished Service Award. In addition to his extensive NACUA leadership and service, Bill also serves on the American Association of Community College's Legal Advisory Group and its Advocacy Council,  the Board of the Association of Florida Colleges, and is a Florida Bar Board Certified Specialist in Education Law. He also designed and has served as program chair for the Community College Conference on Legal Issues since 2006. Bill received his B.B.A. degree from the University of Miami School of Business, and his J.D. and LL.M. degrees from the University of Miami School of Law.   

Jose Padilla

José Padilla joined DePaul University as its Vice President and General Counsel in May 2005, working closely with DePaul’s president, board of trustees, provost, executive vice president and other officers. He directs an office of seven attorneys. Together they provide tactical and strategic counsel on various legal issues affecting the nation’s largest Catholic university. Before joining DePaul, Padilla worked for Illinois Institute of Technology, as an attorney and federal lobbyist. Padilla spent seven years in Washington, D.C.  From 1990 to 1993, he was a lawyer/legislative assistant to the late Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-TX). From 1993 to 1997, he was a senior political appointee in the Clinton Administration, serving as Assistant Commissioner for Congressional and Public Affairs at the U.S. Customs Service. Padilla earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School in 1983 and is licensed to practice law in Illinois and the District of Columbia.  He is currently a director of the Better Government Association, a government watchdog group in Chicago.  He also is a former director of the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan. He remains involved in the Alumni Association as chairman of the board’s diversity committee, which oversees the operation and fundraising of the LEAD Scholars program. Jose served on the NACUA Board of Directors as a Member-at-Large (FY 2009-10) and as an Officer FY 2015-16 (Chair-Elect) and FY 2016-17 (Chair), ending with service as Immediate Past President in FY 2017-18. 

Charles F. Robinson

Charles F. Robinson began his tenure as General Counsel and Vice President for the University of California in January 2007.  As General Counsel, he is the Chief Legal Officer of the University, providing advice to The Regents, the President and other senior University officials; overseeing a legal staff of 85 attorneys at ten campuses, five medical centers and one national laboratory; and retaining and managing outside counsel.

 Prior to joining the University, Robinson served as Vice President, General and Corporate Secretary for the California Independent System Operator Corporation, California’s wholesale electric transmission operator, based in Folsom, CA.  Prior to that, he served as Assistant General Counsel for Packard Bell in Sacramento, Division Counsel for the Raychem Corporation in Menlo Park, and as a Litigation Partner at Heller Ehrman White and McAuliffe in San Francisco. 

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University and a Juris Doctorate degree from Yale University.

 Robinson is currently serving a three-year term (FY 2019-2022) on the Board of Directors of the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA) and as a member of NACUA's Committee on Finance and Audit and on the Finance Committee's Subcommittee on Audit.

Alexandra Schimmer

Alexandra Schimmer became the General Counsel for Denison University in August 2019.  Prior to that, she served as the Deputy General Counsel for The Ohio State University, where she led the day-to-day provision of legal counsel across the university, including for faculty, research, student life, and policy issues; oversaw the university's litigation and labor and employment work; and served on a range of strategic, business, and risk management leadership teams.

Prior to joining Ohio State, Schimmer was Ohio's Solicitor General, where she conducted the state's major appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court and other state and federal courts, and advised state officials and agencies, including all of Ohio's public colleges and universities, on a range of legal matters.  Before that, Schimmer was a litigator in private practice and served as a law clerk for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.  Schimmer also has extensive experience in pro bono legal work, law reform, and law teaching.  For ten years, Schimmer served by appointment of the Governor of Ohio as Ohio Commissioner to the Uniform Law Commission, which drafts model legislation designed to solve problems common to all the states.  She has guest taught at the Yale Law School, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, and was the Harris Distinguished Practitioner at the University of Cincinnati Law School.  And she was the recipient of the Columbus Bar Association's award for Outstanding Pro Bono Service by an Individual, for her litigation work on the Civil Gideon project. Schimmer received her A.B. summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University, her J.D. from the Yale Law School, and prior to law school, was a Fulbright Fellow at Cambridge University in England.

Sonali Wilson

Sonali B. Wilson is currently general counsel and secretary to the Board of Trustees at Cleveland State University. She was first affiliated with the University in 1996 as a lecturer in the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law where she taught advanced brief writing. She became assistant university legal counsel in 1997 and board secretary in 2000. In 2004, she was appointed to her current position. She has been a member of NACUA since 1998, and served on NACUA's Board of Directors. from 2011-2014.  She has served as chair, co-chair and also a member of the Nominations Committee for several years; Chair and member of the Board Advisory Committee for Diversity and Inclusion; a member of the Annual Program Committee (General Counsel and Ethics Subcommittees) and the Continuing Legal Education Committee, and has served as coordinator and moderator during several annual meetings and workshops. Ms. Wilson holds a bachelor's degree from Boston University, a master's degree in government studies from Harvard University, and a juris doctorate degree from Georgetown University Law Center. She is admitted to practice before The United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, The Ohio Supreme Court, and The United States Supreme Court. After law school, she served as the first law clerk to Ohio Supreme Court Justice Herbert R. Brown, now retired. From 1988-1994, she was an appellate litigation associate with the Cleveland office of Arter Hadden, specializing in civil appeals, products liability, construction, school and public law.  She left the firm to establish her own practice, concentrating on estate administration and probate matters, juvenile justice and civil appeals. During this time, Ms. Wilson was an active participant in the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court's “guardian ad litem” program.

Featured Session Speakers

Erwin Chemerinsky

Erwin Chemerinsky became the 13th Dean of Berkeley Law on July 1, 2017, when he joined the faculty as the Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law.

Prior to assuming this position, from 2008-2017, he was the founding Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law, and Raymond Pryke Professor of First Amendment Law, at University of California, Irvine School of Law, with a joint appointment in Political Science.  Before that he was the Alston and Bird Professor of Law and Political Science at Duke University from 2004-2008, and from 1983-2004 was a professor at the University of Southern California Law School, including as the Sydney M. Irmas Professor of Public Interest Law, Legal Ethics, and Political Science. He also has taught at DePaul College of Law and UCLA Law School. 

He is the author of eleven books, including leading casebooks and treatises about constitutional law, criminal procedure, and federal jurisdiction.  His most recent books are, We the People:  A Progressive Reading of the Constitution for the Twenty-First Century (Picador Macmillan) published in November 2018, and two books published by Yale University Press in 2017, Closing the Courthouse Doors: How Your Constitutional Rights Became Unenforceable and Free Speech on Campus (with Howard Gillman).

He also is the author of more than 200 law review articles. He writes a regular column for the Sacramento Bee, monthly columns for the ABA Journal and the Daily Journal, and frequent op-eds in newspapers across the country. He frequently argues appellate cases, including in the United States Supreme Court. 

In 2016, he was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  In 2017, National Jurist magazine again named Dean Chemerinsky as the most influential person in legal education in the United States.

Highlighted Session Speakers

Steve Hughes

I’m Steve Hughes, a professional speaker, and I absolutely love what I do. I love the stage. The travel. The challenge. And most of all, I love seeing the eyes of my audience light up when they make a personal breakthrough.

My unexpected journey to professional speaking began when my brother-in-law issued a dare while we were enjoying a breakfast frittata. Yes, a frittata.

It was April 2003 and he dared me to do five minutes of stand-up comedy at local comedy club. I never considered doing stand-up and the prospect was daunting. But I accepted his challenge and that decision changed my life. While the “The Tonight Show” never called, a lawyer in Chicago did. He heard about me on the comedy circuit (I kept doing it “on the side”) and asked me this career-altering question, “Hey, Steve, could you come up to Chicago and make our lawyers funny?” I told him I couldn’t make someone funny anymore than I could make him/her taller. But what I could do was show them how to add humor to a presentation, how to tell a better story, and how to get people to pay attention when they talked. He said, “Okay,” and flew me up to Windy City.

After speaking at the law firm I returned home and said to my wife, “I think I found what I want to do for the rest of my life.” Happily, she was 100% supportive (but that’s no surprise, she’s the best person ever). So, I immediately quit the advertising agency and never looked back. So you could say that professional speaking found me (which is a heck of a lot better than being found by an IRS audit).

Which brings us to today. When I’m not on the road speaking at a conference, association, law firm, or Fortune 500 company, you can find me at one of my daughters’ tennis matches or cheerleading competitions. I’m also obsessed with home-improvement shows, really good BBQ, and the Kansas Jayhawks.

The moral of the story? The next time you’re out at breakfast and someone gives you a dare, do me a favor and say “yes.” You never know where it might lead.

Jon Krop

Jon Krop is the founder of Mindfulness for Lawyers. He graduated from Harvard Law School, cum laude, and Brown University, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

After law school, Jon clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and worked as a litigator at public-interest law firms in Los Angeles and New York City.

Jon has taught mindfulness at Harvard, Yale, the Pentagon, the world’s top law firms, Fortune 100 companies, and other organizations.

Jon has practiced mindfulness for 13 years and has studied with teachers from around the world, including psychologists, neuroscientists, and traditional Buddhist masters.

Jon has completed numerous meditation retreats, including a seven-month silent retreat.

Terry Hartle

Terry W. Hartle is one of America’s most effective and experienced advocates for higher education. At ACE, where he has served for more than 20 years, he directs comprehensive efforts to engage federal policymakers on a broad range of issues including student aid, government regulation, scientific research and tax policy. His work involves representation before the U.S. Congress, administrative agencies and the federal courts. As an expert voice on behalf of colleges and universities, he is quoted widely in the national and international media on higher education issues.

Given ACE’s historic role in coordinating the government relations efforts of some 60 associations in the Washington-based higher education community, Hartle plays a central part in developing public policy positions that impact all colleges and universities, and also oversees the Council’s external relations functions.

Prior to joining the council in 1993, Hartle served for six years as education staff director for the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, then chaired by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Prior to 1987, Hartle was director of social policy studies and resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a research scientist at the Educational Testing Service. Hartle has authored or co-authored numerous articles, books, and national studies and contributes regular book reviews to The Christian Science Monitor.

Hartle received a doctorate in public policy from The George Washington University (DC), a master’s in public administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University (NY) and a bachelor’s degree in history (summa cum laude) from Hiram College (OH). He was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree by Northeastern University (MA). He has received the Hiram College Alumni Achievement Award, and has been inducted into the Hiram College Athletic Hall of Fame. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Terry is also an honorary member of NACUA.