VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director of the Clinic for Asylum, Refugee, and Emigrant Services ( CARES ) and Visiting Assistant Professor of Law
- in 2021 As Visiting Assistant Professor of Law and Director
- Visiting Assistant Professor of Law / Director of the Clinic for Asylum, Refugee, and Emigrant Services ( CARES )
Biography
Abel Rodríguez joined Villanova in 2021 as Visiting Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Clinic for Asylum, Refugee, and Emigrant Services (CARES). He teaches the clinic seminar and supervises student representation in affirmative and defensive asylum cases as well as other forms of immigration relief.
He joins Villanova while on leave from his role as Director of the Center on Immigration and Associate Professor of Religion, Law, and Social Justice at Cabrini University. At Cabrini, he has taught courses on immigration law and policy, ethics and race, and religion and law. In collaboration with grassroots organizations, he has also engaged students in advocacy for migrant justice at the state and national level. This advocacy work has included efforts to end family detention, the fight for driver's licenses for all in Pennsylvania, and comprehensive immigration reform.
Prior to Cabrini, Rodríguez served as a staff attorney at Nationalities Service Center (NSC) and immigration specialist at the Defender Association of Philadelphia, where he specialized in deportation defense for the formerly convicted and advised noncitizens of the immigration consequences of criminal convictions. At NSC, he taught the Temple Law School Immigration Clinic. He was also the Langer, Grogan, and Diver Fellow in Social Justice at Esperanza Immigration Legal Services, where he represented older adults and people with disabilities in their immigration matters.
In addition to these teaching and practice experiences, Rodríguez teaches Crimmigration at Penn Law School. His research focuses on sanctuary and asylum as well as the intersection of criminal and immigration law.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of Admission
Job Titles:
- Director of Financial Assistance
Job Titles:
- Assistant to the Director / Student Services Representative
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Employer Outreach
Amelia E. Curotto, Esq. '17 serves as the liaison between employers and Villanova Law, managing employer relationships and marketing students and alumni to new employment opportunities. After graduating from Villanova Law, Amelia clerked for the Honorable Richard F. Wells in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Camden Vicinage. Following her clerkship, she practiced as a healthcare litigation attorney for over four years at Burns White. While in private practice, she was a mentor for incoming associates and law clerks and was active in developing training programs. Amelia's interest in being an ambassador for the Villanova Law experience began while she was a student, serving as editor-in-chief of Volume XXIV of the Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal and a member of the 3L Legacy Committee in 2016-2017. She earned her BA in history with a minor in Italian from Providence College.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Assistant Dean for Library & Information Services, Assistant Professor of Law
- Assistant Dean for Library and Information Services & Associate Professor of Law
Amy Emerson is the Director of the Law Library and Associate Professor of Law. She manages law library operations and strategic planning, oversees the legal research curriculum, and teaches courses in law and technology.
Prior to joining Villanova, and following nine years in private practice, Professor Emerson served as Associate Director for Library Administration and Adjunct Clinical Professor of Law at Cornell Law School. While at Cornell, she created the Legal Research Clinic and became its Director, building the first generalist legal clinic of its kind.
Professor Emerson received her B.A. with honors from Wells College, and dual J.D. and M.L.S. degrees with honors from Syracuse University.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director for Law Library Services, Legal Research Instructor
- Associate Director for Library Services
Professor Spare coordinates law library services to faculty, students and visitors for reference, ILL, circulation, reserves, collection development and permissions. She also teaches legal research in the first-year curriculum, serves as a faculty advisor in the Professional Development course and guest lectures in upper-level classes on research strategies in areas such as administrative law, criminal law, sexuality and the law, government documents, and fact finding. Before coming to Villanova Law in 2005, Amy provided research services in a major law firm in Houston, Texas and headed the Government Publications Department at Rice University, a patent and trademark depository library. As a practicing attorney, she worked for the Alaska Public Defender's Offices in Bethel and Anchorage and for Central Pennsylvania Legal Services. Amy holds a JD from Northeastern University College of Law and an MLIS from the University of Texas at Austin.
Job Titles:
- Senior Paralegal
- Senior Paralegal, Federal Tax Clinic
Andrea joined the Clinical Program in November 2014 as a FLAC paralegal, and she moved to the Tax Clinic in January 2015. Prior to coming to Villanova, Andrea worked for Cozen O'Connor, and Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath, LLP as a paralegal in their Corporate and Securities departments. In addition to her role as the Federal Tax Clinic paralegal, she is also the Senior Paralegal for the Clinic and oversees the administrative duties of running the Clinical Program. Andrea enjoys working with law students and helping low income clients.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of Admission
Job Titles:
- Student Service Representative
Job Titles:
- Director of Business Services
Job Titles:
- Senior Assistant Director of Financial Assistance
Job Titles:
- Associate Director
- Associate Director of Career Strategy
- Associate Director of Career Strategy ( Professional Development )
Becky Fitzsimmons, Esq. is the associate director of career strategy. Becky counsels students and alumni in all aspects of career exploration and professional development. Becky practiced commercial finance in the Cincinnati office of Dinsmore & Shohl LLP, first as an associate and later as a partner. She also served as general counsel for Chavez Properties/Parking Company of America. Prior to joining Villanova, Becky served as the director of communications for Northern Kentucky University's Chase College of Law. Before accepting that position, she served as Chase's career development coordinator, where she counseled students and alumni, coordinated Chase's mandatory pro bono program, and managed a variety of professional development initiatives. While in law school, Becky worked as a law clerk and a summer associate in the Baltimore office of Ballard Spahr LLP. Becky earned her JD from The University of Maryland Carey School of Law, and her BA from Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College).
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of Admission
Bernadette is currently on maternity leave. Please contact gotovu@villanova.edu in her absence.
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean for Finance, Administration & Strategy
Job Titles:
- Director, Clinical Program Director, Farmworker Legal Aid Clinic Co - Director, Community Interpreter Internship Program and, Associate Professor of Law
- Professor of Law / Director, Farmworker Legal Aid Clinic / Co - Director, Community Interpreter Internship Program
Caitlin Barry is a community lawyer whose work focuses on migrant justice, gender self-determination and grassroots empowerment. Caitlin directs the Farmworker Legal Aid Clinic, where she teaches the clinic seminar and supervises students advocates in immigration and employment matters and collaborates with local community-based organizations on advocacy and outreach projects. Caitlin joined the Villanova faculty in 2012 as a Reuchlein Clinical Teaching Fellow and became the Director of the Farmworker Clinic in 2015. From 2011-2012, Caitlin supervised the Temple Immigration Law Clinic at Nationalities Service Center (NSC) as an adjunct professor. Prior to her clinical teaching, Caitlin served as a staff attorney at NSC, specializing in deportation defense for individuals targeted by the criminal system, and from 2007 to 2012 she was also the Immigration Specialist at the Defender Association of Philadelphia, a position she created with a 2007 post-graduate fellowship from the Berkeley Law Foundation. She is a graduate of the New College of Florida and Temple Law, where she was awarded the Beth Cross Memorial Award for Public Interest Service and the Leonard Sigal Memorial Award for Academic Excellence in Criminal Law.
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Job Titles:
- Director of Admission Operations
Job Titles:
- Administrative Assistant for Faculty Support
Job Titles:
- Financial & Operations Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Director, Federal Tax Clinic and Assistant Professor of Law
Christine Speidel directs the Federal Tax Clinic. In the Clinic, she teaches students to practice law by representing needy members of Villanova's neighboring communities in federal tax disputes. Professor Speidel frequently speaks and writes on issues affecting low-income taxpayers, particularly related to health care reform. Her research interests lie in the intersection of poverty law with tax law and tax procedure. Professor Speidel is a contributor to the Procedurally Taxing blog and an editor of the practice manual Effectively Representing Your Client Before the IRS. Speidel is active in the American Bar Association Section of Taxation, and she is the immediate past chair of the Section's Pro Bono and Tax Clinics Committee.
Prior to her appointment at Villanova, Professor Speidel practiced law at Vermont Legal Aid. She directed the Vermont Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic and was a staff attorney for Vermont Legal Aid's Office of the Health Care Advocate as well as the Poverty Law Project. She represented low-income individuals in tax, health care, domestic violence, and public benefits matters, and also advocated for systemic policy changes.
Job Titles:
- Alumni Relations Specialist
Job Titles:
- Catering Events Sales Manager
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of Admission
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Law
- Director, Civil Justice Clinic and Visiting
Deeya Haldar, Associate Professor of Law, is the Director of the Civil Justice Clinic ("CJC"). The CJC works with low-income clients needing legal assistance in the areas of family, housing, consumer and employment law. Professor Haldar previously served as an adjunct professor for the Drexel Civil Litigation Field Clinic at Philadelphia Legal Assistance, working with law students to represent domestic violence survivors in Philadelphia's Family Court. Professor Haldar also served as a supervisor of the Family Law Unit at Philadelphia Legal Assistance. Before Philadelphia Legal Assistance, Professor Haldar worked as a law guardian at The Legal Aid Society of New York and clerked for Justice Carolyn Berger of the Delaware Supreme Court. Professor Haldar also performed pro bono service as a volunteer attorney with the Support Center for Child Advocates and Philadelphia VIP. She earned her BS in Human Development and Family Studies from Cornell University and her JD from New York University School of Law.
Michele R. Pistone, Director, Clinic for Asylum, Refugee and Emigrant Services and Professor of Law (Professor Pistone is creating the Villanova Interdisciplinary Immigration Studies Training for Advocates Program with the College of Professional Studies through the 2020-2021 academic year.)
Job Titles:
- Maintenance Technician
- Collection Maintenance Technician
Diane works in library collection maintenance, including library binding and shelving. She maintains the law school archives, scans archival material for the Law Library Digital Repository and coordinates access to the archives. She fulfills law faculty scanning requests and inter-library loan scanning of Falvey Library materials that are held in the Law Library. She serves as a member of the Law Library Public Relations Committee. Diane particularly enjoys planning the library showcase displays of archival material. Diane has worked in the library since 1990 and has lived in the area since 1964.
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean for Development & Alumni Relations
Job Titles:
- Access Services Librarian & Legal Research Instructor
Professor Kearney teaches first-year legal research, supports faculty scholarship and teaching as a liaison librarian, consults with students on research strategies and supervises the student circulation workers at the library. She received her Master of Library Science (MLS) from Indiana University Bloomington and J.D. from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. For undergraduate studies, she attended Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA. During law school she gained experience working with public defender's offices in Nashville and Atlanta and with the federal defenders for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Professor Kearney joined the library in March 2022.
Job Titles:
- Senior Associate Director of Admission
Job Titles:
- Paralegal
- Paralegal / Clinic for Asylum
- Paralegal, Clinic for Asylum, Refugee and Emigrant Services ( CARES ) and the Farmworker Legal Aid Clinic ( FLAC )
Gabriela has been with the Clinical Program since March 2020. She is the paralegal for CARES and FLAC and helps to coordinate the Interpreter Program. She was born in San Salvador, El Salvador and moved to the United States in July 2008. After having personally experienced the challenges that come with dealing with the U.S. immigration system, she knew she wanted to work in the immigration field to be able to help other immigrant families. Prior to joining the Clinical Program, she was a Legal Assistant at Landau, Hess, Simon, and Choi where she assisted families with adjustment of status, asylum proceedings, special immigrant juvenile cases, cancellation of removal and various other immigration procedures. Gabriela is fluent in Spanish and English. She currently attends Montgomery County Community College to obtain her A.A. in Liberal Studies.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of Financial Assistance
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of Admission / Connecticut and Rhode
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director for Public Service and Pro Bono Initiatives
Janine is the director for public service and pro bono initiatives at Villanova Law, where she also serves as adjunct faculty. In this new role, she is excited to cultivate external partnerships to create opportunities for student exposure and involvement in public interest and pro bono work. Before returning to her beloved alma mater in this role, Janine served as the director for Pursuing Justice for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren in Pennsylvania Project at SeniorLAW Center, a 40+ year legal aid organization based in Philadelphia. In this role, she managed a statewide initiative poised to increase access to legal representation, education, and resources to grandparents who become primary caretakers of minors due to parental absenteeism. She was responsible for the oversight and execution of a project budget in excess of $1M, which was primarily federally funded. Janine also practiced family law in Pennsylvania and New Jersey beginning in 1997, the year she earned her JD from Villanova. She earned her BA in vocal music at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey and continues to enjoy a professional singing career as well.
Job Titles:
- Head of Digital Initiatives and Legal Research Instructor
- Head of Digital Initiatives, Legal Research Instructor
Jason serves as the Head of Digital Initiatives. He was previously the Access Services Librarian at the Howard University School of Law where he taught Legal Research, managed circulation, and assisted with faculty research projects. He has practiced law in Maryland and Washington D.C. He received his Masters of Library Science (MLS) from the University of Maryland at College Park and subsequently worked as a librarian for an AM Law 100 firm in Washington, D.C. He received his J.D. from Tulane Law School and a BA in History and Political Science: International Relations from Tulane University.
Job Titles:
- Student Service Representative
Job Titles:
- Nutrition Promotion Manager
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean for Professional Development and Leadership
Jennifer A. Henfey, Esq. '99 joined the Office of Career Strategy and Advancement after practicing law for twelve years at Blank Rome LLP, an international law firm in Philadelphia. Following graduation from Villanova Law, she joined Blank Rome as an associate in the financial services practice group and was elevated to partner in 2008. Jennifer has extensive experience in hiring and recruiting. While in private practice, she chaired the firm's recruiting and retention committee and served as the firm's hiring partner. In addition, she was a member of the firm's Philadelphia recruiting and retention committee from 2001 to 2011 and served as a co-chair of the firm's summer program from 2003 through 2005. Jennifer is an active member of the National Association for Law Placement, having served as the vice president for finance and on the Board of Directors, Nominating Committee, Conference Planning team, and Regional Resource Council.
Job Titles:
- Paralegal
- Paralegal / Civil Justice Clinic
- Paralegal, Civil Justice Clinic, Health Law Clinic and Clinic for Law and Entrepreneurship
Jennifer has been the paralegal for the Civil Justice Clinic, Health Law Clinic, and Clinic for Law & Entrepreneurship since October 2017. She graduated from Duquesne University School of Law and practiced in the area of family law. She has also worked in the business sector as well as the education field, substitute teaching and working with children with special needs. Jen's diverse background lends itself to working in the various clinics.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of Financial Aid
Job Titles:
- Faculty Scholarship Librarian and Legal Research Instructor
- Faculty Scholarship Librarian, Legal Research Instructor
John serves as the Faculty Scholarship Librarian. He received his law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law and practiced historic preservation and land use law in Baltimore. After obtaining his MLS from the University of Maryland, College of Library and Information Science, he was assistant law librarian at the Montgomery County (MD) Circuit Court Law Library and a legal information analyst at the Law Library of Congress. Before coming to Villanova, he was a reference and instructional services librarian at the Drexel University Kline School of Law where he developed and taught courses on intellectual property legal research and health law legal research. He is a frequent writer on legislative history as well as other legal and legal research topics. His article A Legislative History of the Affordable Care Act: How Legislative Procedure Shapes Legislative History, 105 L. Libr. J. 131, 163 (2013) was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in King v. Burwell, 135 S. Ct. 2480, 2492, 192 L. Ed. 2d 483 (2015).
Job Titles:
- Director of Professional Development and Leadership
Julia Moscato Besselman joins us from the University of Delaware, where she was the assistant director of student success and employer relations. At UD, she developed and implemented a professional development and leadership program for over 500+ student-athletes. During her time at Delaware, Julia also launched the department's first alumni mentoring program, oversaw all employer relations efforts, and advised student organizations, including the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. While earning her master's in higher education administration from Penn State University in 2019, she served as the programming graduate assistant in career services. She received her BS from Penn State University.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of Admission
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of Admissions
Job Titles:
- Catering Office Assistant
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Alumni Relations
Job Titles:
- Director, Clinic for Law & Entrepreneurship / Associate Professor of Law
- Director, Clinic for Law and Entrepreneurship and
- Professor
Biography
Komal Vaidya joined the Villanova faculty in July of 2019 as the Director of the Clinic for Law and Entrepreneurship. She teaches seminar and supervises student representation of small businesses, nonprofits, and other social and community-oriented enterprises.
Prior to joining Villanova, she served as a Clinical Fellow and Acting Director in the University of Baltimore School of Law (UB) Community Development Clinic. There, she supervised student representation on transactional and business law matters, many of which also supported grassroots economic empowerment. In addition, she worked alongside coalitions to advocate for water equity and community land trusts in Baltimore.
Professor Vaidya also provided transactional support to community organizers and manufactured housing residents in the Denver Metro area. Specifically, she provided expertise that enabled communities to form homeowners' associations and use zoning law to halt displacement and promote community ownership of land. Further, while a staff attorney at the Lawyers' Committee for Better Housing in Chicago, she collaborated with community organizations on displacement related efforts.
In addition to her teaching experience at UB, she taught Lawyering Process at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and was an Equal Justice Works Foreclosure Fellow in the University of Illinois College of Law Community Preservation Clinic. Her research interests focus on collective ownership, local political economies, and progressive property rights. She is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and Illinois.
Job Titles:
- Director of Career Strategy and Recruitment
Kristin L. Archibald, Esq. '01 joined the Career Strategy Office after practicing law for five years in the Philadelphia region. As director of recruitment, Kristin has primary responsibility for the Law School's year-round recruitment programs. She works closely with our employer community to expand and maintain high-quality student recruiting programs and job fairs, as well as markets Villanova Law to the legal community. Kristin counsels students in individual sessions and group education programs on the whole spectrum of career planning concerns. Kristin brings a wealth of recruiting, marketing, and mentoring experience to her role as director of recruitment. While in private law practice, Kristin was active in client development and mentoring junior attorneys and staff. She has also gained valuable experience outside of the traditional practice of law through her management and recruitment positions. Through her previous positions, she has honed her skills in marketing, managing and preparing candidates in their career strategies.
Job Titles:
- Director of Financial Aid
Job Titles:
- Head of Staff Development and Legal Research Instructor
- Head of Staff Development, Legal Research Instructor
Lori currently serves as the Head of Staff Development for the library, providing training to support library projects and identifying professional development opportunities for the librarians and library staff. She also manages our law databases, helps to maintain the law library's website, creates and manages the library's research guides and develops additional tutorials for faculty and student use. Lori teaches the Advanced Legal Research elective course and guest lectures on research in seminar paper and other courses as well as the law school clinics. Lori joined the Villanova Law Library in 2010, after working as the firm librarian for a large law firm based in Los Angeles. She holds a JD from Northeastern University School of Law and a Masters in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University. She graduated summa cum laude from Shippensburg University with a BA in Psychology and a BS in Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement.
Job Titles:
- Administrative Assistant
- Administrative Assistant for the Law Library
Lorraine joined the library in November 1994 as a Cataloging Assistant. She also worked at the Circulation Desk and in Interlibrary Loan before becoming the Administrative Assistant for the library. Currently, in addition to her duties as Administrative Assistant for the library staff, Lorraine continues to work at the circulation desk, manages the library student worker's hours for the payroll office, assists with editing and updating the website, coordinates the journal/moot court /transfer student writing competitions, and manages student, faculty, and staff Wildcard access on behalf of the law school.
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant to the Dean
Job Titles:
- Director of Operations
- Senior Associate
Job Titles:
- Student Services Administrative Assistant
Job Titles:
- Manager, Colleges IT Support
Job Titles:
- Professor of Law & Co - Chair, Public Interest Committee
Job Titles:
- Head of Cataloging and Government Documents
- Head of Cataloguing & Government Documents
Mary Jo supervises Law Library cataloging and our participation in the Government Document Depository Program. She maintains the Law Library catalog database, processes new materials for the collection and assembles data for the monthly acquisitions list and statistical reports. She researches and fulfills interlibrary loan requests for faculty and students, including those from student journals, and processes interlibrary loan requests from other academic libraries. Mary Jo joined the Villanova Law Library in 2004. She holds a Masters in Library and Information Sciences from Drexel University and a Bachelor's Degree in Education from Kutztown University.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Dean of Students & Academic Success
Job Titles:
- Director of Experiential Learning
Job Titles:
- Assistant Dean for Admissions
Job Titles:
- Director, Graduate Tax Program
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director and Program Manager of the McCullen Center
Job Titles:
- Director of Technology for Admission
Melanie is currently on maternity leave. Please contact gotovu@villanova.edu in her absence.
Job Titles:
- Director of Communication & Marketing
Job Titles:
- Director of Clinical Programs
- Director, Interdisciplinary Mental and Physical Health Law Clinic and Profesor of Law
- Professor of Law / Director, Interdisciplinary Mental and Physical Health Law Clinic
Biography
Michael Campbell is the Director of Clinical Programs and also directs the Interdisciplinary Mental and Physical Health Law Clinic. He joined the Faculty as a Reuschlein Clinical Teaching Fellow in 2008, and served as a Visiting Assistant Professor from 2012 to 2015. He came to Villanova from the Pennsylvania Health Law Project ("PHLP"), an organization that he co-founded in 1993 and for which he served as Executive Director from 2003 until 2008. A graduate of Villanova University and Temple Law School, Mike has been representing low-income Pennsylvanians for his entire career, starting as a VISTA Volunteer. He was a Managing Attorney of the Senior Citizen Unit of the Delaware County Legal Assistance Association in the 1980s, and later represented poor Pennsylvanians seeking quality health care at PHLP. Mike's prior teaching experience includes co-teaching a seminar in Publicly Financed Health Care Law and an interdisciplinary seminar on Emerging Issues in Publicly Financed Managed Health Care at Penn Law School. The interdisciplinary course brought together students at Penn's schools of Law, Medicine, Graduate Nursing and Graduate Social Work.
Job Titles:
- Director of Dining Services
Job Titles:
- Scholarly Services Associate
Michael is a Scholarly Services Associate, responsible for monitoring and maintaining the library's collections of Villanova Law faculty scholarship, student publications, and digital collections. He curates and publishes these items to SSRN, LawArXiv, SelectedWorks, and our BePress Digital Commons repository, while monitoring faculty profiles and citation counts in HeinOnline and other platforms as they become available. Michael also maintains and updates the library's ongoing print subscriptions. Michael joined the Law Library staff in 1992. He attended Hofstra University and has a BA in History from Villanova University.
Job Titles:
- Leader
- Adjunct Fellow With the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation
- Director of Clinic for Asylum, Refugee and Emigrant Services ( CARES ) & Professor of Law
- Director, Clinic for Asylum, Refugee and Emigrant
- Professor of Law
Biography
Professor Pistone is a Professor of Law and directs and teaches the Clinic for Asylum, Refugee and Emigrant Services (CARES). She founded the Law School's in-house Clinical Program, which she built and directed for nine years. Professor Pistone has also taught at Georgetown University Law Center, twice as a Visiting Professor at American University Washington College of Law and as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Malta.
Professor Pistone is an Adjunct Fellow with the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, where she co-authored Disrupting Law School: How disruptive innovation will revolutionize the legal world. Founded by Harvard Business School Professor Christensen, the think tank applies Professor Christensen's theory of disruptive innovation to education and health care. She is also a Fellow at the Institute for the Advancement of American Legal System's Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers. ETL partners with law schools seeking to align legal education with the needs of the evolving profession.
Professor Pistone is a regular speaker on both refugee and immigration law and legal technology and legal education. Professor Pistone's research focus on technological innovations in the practice of law and in legal education, asylum and refugee law, immigration law, migration, clinical education, and Catholic social thought. She is co-author of a groundbreaking book entitled Stepping Out of the Brain Drain: Applying Catholic Social Teaching in a New Era of Migration (Lexington Books 2007). She has also written numerous articles and book chapters.
Professor Pistone is a leader in advocating for the incorporation of online technologies and learning sciences in law school teaching. She founded LegalED, an online community of legal scholars focused on enhancing legal education and learning. The website hosts hundreds of videos on law school teaching and also on legal topics. She is a regular speaker at conferences on these topics and has taught hundreds of legal scholars to use technology in their teaching. Professor Pistone directed and produced an 11-video series for the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) and a series of videos on immigration law with FWD.us. She also hosted two Igniting Law Teaching conferences at American University Washington College of Law, each of which brought together 35+ legal scholars from around the world to give TEDx-styled on Talks topics related to law teaching. The teaching pedagogy series from those conferences is available here. Her TEDx Talk on the Future of Higher Education has been viewed more than 12,000 times.
Professor Pistone is our TEDxVillanovaU licensee and has organized three TEDxVillanovaU conferences on campus. Professor Pistone blogs, on occasion, for Best Practices in Legal Education, Legal Technology Blog (part of the Law Professor Blogs Network) and the Christensen Institute.
Prior to joining the Villanova faculty in 1999, Professor Pistone was a teaching fellow in the asylum clinic (Center for Applied Legal Studies) at Georgetown University Law Center. Professor Pistone received her B.S. cum laude New York University, her J.D. cum laude from St. John's University School of Law, and her LL.M. from the Georgetown University Law Center. At St. John's, she was a member of the St. John's Law Review. Before joining the Villanova faculty in 1999, she was an associate in the corporate and telecommunications departments at Willkie Farr & Gallagher in New York City and Washington, D.C., the Legal Director of Human Rights First in Washington, D.C., where she emerged as a leading advocate for justice in the immigration law system.
Michele R. Pistone, Director, Clinic for Asylum, Refugee and Emigrant Services and Professor of Law (Professor Pistone is creating the Villanova Interdisciplinary Immigration Studies Training for Advocates Program with the College of Professional Studies through the 2020-2021 academic year.)
Job Titles:
- Professor of Law & Harold Reuschlein Scholar Chair
Job Titles:
- Safety and Sanitation Training Manager
Job Titles:
- Member of the NUTRITION & MARKETING STAFF
- Technology Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of Admission
Job Titles:
- Admission Resource Center Supervisor
Job Titles:
- Director of Student Affairs & Wellbeing
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Financial Assistance
Job Titles:
- Assistant Dean for Career Strategy and Advancement
Nicole joined the Office of Career Strategy and Advancement as assistant dean in the summer of 2022 after serving as the director for law firms at the University of Colorado Law School since 2017. Prior to working and living in Boulder, Nicole was a career counselor at the University of Connecticut School of Law. A 2011 graduate, Nicole began her legal career at a nonprofit that provided free legal services to individuals with a chronic disease and worked at two small law firms before realizing her passion for mentoring students and transitioning into career development. Nicole is an active member of the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) where she recently chaired the Task Force on Supporting Gender Non-Binary Individuals in the Legal Progression, served on the Regional Leadership Council, and now serves on the organization's new Diversity Standing Committee. She has written and presented extensively on diversity, equity and inclusion matters, such as dismantling racism in the legal profession. Nicole has a JD, with human rights certificate, from the University of Connecticut School of Law; an LLM, masters in comparative law, from the University of Mannheim and University of Adelaide; and a BA from the University of Connecticut.
Job Titles:
- Senior Assistant Director of Admission
Job Titles:
- Dining Location Staff Member
- Manager
Job Titles:
- Dining Location Staff Member
- General Manager
Job Titles:
- Senior Assistant Director of Admission
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Admissions
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of Academic Affairs
Job Titles:
- Senior Associate Director of Financial Assistance
Robert currently supports the scholarly work of faculty as a faculty liaison librarian and as the foreign, comparative, and international law specialist. In addition to his reference and research support, he teaches several sections of Legal Research in the first-year curriculum. He also guest lectures on a variety of research topics including health law, litigation writing, and tax law for the Clinic and the Graduate Tax program.
Before joining the Law Library staff in 2006, Robert practiced law in Missouri, and was later a Reference Librarian at the University of Missouri -Columbia School of Law Library. Robert earned his B.A. from Columbia College in Columbia, Missouri, his J.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law, and his M.A., Information Science and Learning Technology, from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Information Science and Learning Technology.
Job Titles:
- Food and Beverage Manager
Job Titles:
- Senior Assistant Director of Admission
Rosemary is currently on maternity leave. Please contact gotovu@villanova.edu in her absence.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of Communication & Marketing
Job Titles:
- Associate Director Career Stretgy ( Public Interest )
- Associate Director of Career Strategy
- Associate Director of Career Strategy ( Public Interest )
Sharon Buckingham, Esq. '85 joined the Office of Career Strategy after a career that included a wide range of experience in the legal profession. Sharon practiced as a litigation attorney for six years with Pepper Hamilton & Scheetz, where she chaired the Summer Associates Committee and was very involved in the firm's recruiting efforts. Her interaction with law students led her to leave practice to teach Legal Writing at Villanova Law and later to return to Pepper Hamilton to assume a unique leadership role in the firm's talent management program, first as the firm-wide director of recruitment and professional programs and later as the firm's first director of associate development. She has deep experience in attorney and law student counseling and mentoring and in developing legal training programs. Sharon also has consulted with law firms as a private legal writing instructor, and she has been a guest presenter on various topics, including interviewing and succeeding in legal employment, at the NALP Conference and at other law schools.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Academic Success
Job Titles:
- Director of Technology Services for Financial Assistance
Job Titles:
- Faculty Director, Associate Professor of Practice
Job Titles:
- Associate Director for Collection Management
Steve coordinates law library activities involving the book collection and online resource procurement, including acquisitions, cataloging and collection management. He also manages the integrated library system and its public catalog interfaces. In addition, Steve supervises the law school archives and prepares law library statistical and budget reports. Steve joined the library in 1989 after working as a cataloger at the University of Virginia law library. He has a Masters in Library Science from the University of Maryland, a Masters in English Literature from the University of Virginia and a Masters in Theology from Wheaton College, Illinois.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Law & Faculty Director, the David F. and Constance B. Girard - DiCarlo Center for Ethics, Integrity, and Compliance
Job Titles:
- Assistant
- Career Program Assistant
Taylor Gray is the career program assistant in the Office of Career Strategy and Advancement. Taylor assists the law school counselors and students with professional opportunities and handles the office's administrative tasks. Prior to joining Villanova Law, she worked for Eastern University in the Career Development Office. Taylor also earned her bachelor's degree in history and political science from Eastern and now is studying at Villanova to earn her master's in political science with a concentration in gender studies.
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean for Faculty Research & Development
Job Titles:
- Director of Administration
Job Titles:
- Administrative Assistant for Faculty Support