Campus Connections

Issue Date: May 7, 2007

News and Notices

President’s report to the Board of Trustees

“In the pages of the Board Book you will find evidence of the growth in quality at Lewis & Clark and of our rising reputation in our community and beyond,” writes President Tom Hochstettler in his report to the Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees met on campus Friday and Saturday, May 4 and 5.Read more of the report online.

Preeminent Washington, D.C., trial lawyer speaks at law school commencement

Michele A. Roberts, one of the most highly regarded trial lawyers in Washington, D.C., will address graduates at the law school’s commencement on Saturday, May 26, at 11 a.m.

In its 2003 listing of the top 75 lawyers in the District of Columbia, Washingtonian magazine rated Roberts number one, describing her as “the finest pure trial lawyer in Washington: magic with juries, loved by judges, feared by opposing counsel.” In 2005, the Washingtonian listed Roberts among the top 10 lawyers in the city and, in 2006, the Legal Times named her one of the top 10 white-collar lawyers in Washington.

Roberts began her career as a staff attorney with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. While there, Roberts represented hundreds of clients and was trial counsel in over 40 jury trials in Superior Court. During her final two years at the agency, Roberts served as Chief of its Trial Division. Since her departure from the Public Defender Service, Roberts’ practice has expanded to include complex criminal and civil litigation in state courts, federal courts, and administrative proceedings.

Roberts is a frequent lecturer and presenter to both the bench and bar on a variety of topics related to litigation and trial practice. She is currently a member of the adjunct faculty at Harvard Law School and has previously served as an adjunct faculty member at George Washington University School of Law and as an instructor with the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. Roberts is also a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. A graduate of Wesleyan University, she received her J.D. from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley, and is currently a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld.

Approximately 222 law school students will have completed their J.D. degrees and 5 will have completed their LL.M. degrees during the 2006-07 academic year. Approximately 200 are expected to participate in the commencement ceremony at Griswold Stadium.

For further information, contact Sherry Thompson, law school commencement coordinator, at 503-768-6648 or slt@lclark.edu.

Law Students honored for more than 9,000 hours pro bono work

Law school students reported 9,093 hours of pro bono work for the 2006-07 academic year—the equivalent of one person working full-time for four and a half years. To honor the students for their volunteerism, the law school awarded 82 pro bono awards and 32 community service awards.

The law school’s pro bono program was created in 1998 to formally recognize students for their volunteer service in the community. On April 12, the law school made its ninth annual presentation of the Pro Bono Honors Awards and the sixth annual presentation of the Community Service Honors Awards.

More than 15 percent of the law school’s student body received an award this year. Kasia Rutledge ’07 was honored with a Community Service Award and a Pro Bono Award each of her three years at Lewis & Clark. Several students received the awards for a second or third time.

To be eligible to receive one of the awards, students need to have completed a minimum of 30 hours of not-for-credit and not-for-compensation work for a government, public-interest, or non profit organization between April 2006 and March 2007.

“The amount of work law students have done this year is truly astounding!” says Maya Crawford, PILP coordinator. “It reminds us to never underestimate the difference that one person can make.”

More information is available online.

Goldwater honors

Three undergraduate students have won honors for their academic leadership in science. Frances Delaney ’08 and Natalie Miller ’08 have both won 2007 Barry M. Goldwater scholarships. Katie Holzer ’08 was recognized with an honorable mention from the Goldwater Foundation.

Goldwater scholars are selected on the basis of academic merit. This year, the scholars were selected from among 1,110 candidates nominated by colleges and universities nationwide.

Frances Delaney, chemistry major

Delaney came to Lewis & Clark from her hometown of San Francisco knowing that she wanted to study science, but unsure of which field she would pursue. She has had the opportunity to study a broad range of topics within chemistry while at Lewis & Clark. She has calculated how molecules may interact through computational chemistry. This summer she will study a chemical in one variety of seaweed that makes fish averse to eating the seaweed.

Delaney, a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a recipient of the College’s prestigious Neely scholarship, plans to travel abroad after graduation, and then to pursue a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry.

Natalie Miller, biochemistry major

Miller grew up in Hamilton, Montana, where she was heavily influenced by the presence of two biological research labs. She chose to major in biochemistry after taking a course with Deborah Lycan, professor of biology, whom she describes as “an excellent mentor.”

In Lycan’s lab, Miller researches ribosomes—molecular machines that cells assemble in order to synthesize proteins. She investigates how yeast cells regulate the process of moving ribosomes from the yeast cell’s nucleus, where the ribosome is assembled, to the yeast cell’s cytoplasm, where it is used. She also has researched chlamydia at the Rocky Mountain Lab in her hometown.

Katie Holzer, biology major

Holzer discovered her love of science while growing up in Northfield, Minnesota. She initially envisioned herself as a doctor, but her love of research and passion for the environment eventually steered her in the direction of behavioral ecology and conservation biology.

During her time at Lewis & Clark, Holzer has researched baboons in the Serengeti while undertaking a study-abroad program to eastern Africa, and she has studied geckos in the lab of Kellar Autumn, associate professor of biology. She has also investigated honeybee cognition and the home range of coyotes through a program sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

Holzer will spend the summer in Tanzania studying the coevolution of snails and crabs through another National Science Foundation program. A member of the Dean’s List, Holzer has been recognized for her academic achievements and leadership through Lewis & Clark’s Mary Stuart Rogers scholarship program. Holzer plans to eventually pursue a Ph.D. in behavioral ecology or conservation biology.

The one-year Goldwater scholarships will cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500.

New director of CAS Alumni and Parent Programs

On May 1, Andrew McPheeters joined the College’s Alumni and Parent Programs staff as the department’s new director.

McPheeters’ experience is in student recruitment and retention, career development, and alumni services. He most recently served as dean of student and alumni affairs at the National College of Natural Medicine in Portland. His prior appointment was as dean of students at Franklin College in Lugano, Switzerland.

An alumnus of Gonzaga University, McPheeters received his bachelor of arts degree in political science and his master’s degree in administration and curriculum.

Students receive grant for peace work in Nicaragua

“One in every two women in Nicaragua has been physically mistreated at some point by her husband or companion,” according to the United Nations interagency campaign on women’s human rights in Latin America and the Caribbean. In an effort to address this domestic violence, four undergraduate seniors were awarded a $10,000 grant from philanthropist Kathryn Wasserman Davis and $2,500 from Lewis & Clark.

Elizabeth Fussell, Frazer Lanier, Megan McBride, and Kate Iris Hilburger will spend this summer working at the Xochilt Clínica, a community-run health clinic in El Viejo, Nicaragua. The grant money will provide funding to the clinic for women’s health care efforts. The team will organize educational workshops to promote sexual health education and awareness of domestic violence for adults, and theater workshops to address health and safety issues in the home for young people.

The grant from Kathryn Wasserman Davis came through the 100 Projects for Peace program. This program, designed by Davis as a national competition, awarded 100 projects designed to promote peace $10,000 each.

Fussell, who has worked at the Xochilt Clínica twice before, will be graduating in May along with Lanier and McBride; Hilburger will graduate in December.

People News

Published, presented, honors, and achievements

Faculty and staff serve as ambassadors for the College through their publications, presentations, awards, grants, and other accomplishments. Highlights include:

Maggie Finnerty, professor of law, was a recipient of one of the Portland Business Journal’s “Forty Under 40 Awards.” The Business Journal received well over 200 nominations. Selection criteria included professional accomplishment, community involvement, and professional recognition.

Jens Mache, associate professor of computer science, published a paper titled “The Cost of Preserving Privacy: Performance Measurements of RFID Pseudonym Protocols” with coauthor Chris Allick ’06. Allick presented the paper at the second International Conference on Availability, Reliability, and Security held in April in Vienna, Austria.

In February, Mache published a paper in the in the journal IEEE Transaction on Education, 50 (1), 3-9. The article, coauthored with Amy Apon, professor of computer science at the University of Arkansas, is titled “Teaching Grid Computing: Topics, Exercises, and Experiences”.

More listings of faculty and staff achievements can be found in our online pressroom.

Events

Crime Victim Law conference focuses on the “architecture of justice”

The National Crime Victim Law Institute (NCVLI) will sponsor its sixth conference focused on the rights of crime victims in the criminal process. The conference, titled “Architecture of Justice: An Integration of Victims’ Rights,” is scheduled Friday and Saturday, May 18 and 19.

The annual conference gives attorneys, advocates, and policy makers a chance to hear the latest issues and success stories for the crime victims’ rights movement. Featured speakers include John Gillis, director of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime, and Mary Beth Buchanan, acting director of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women.

Gillis oversees priority initiatives including International Terrorism and Victim Assistance, Human Trafficking, and the Crime Victims’ Fund. He previously served as the chair of the California Board of Prison Terms and was with the Los Angeles Police Department for more than two decades.

Following the 1979 murder of his daughter Louarna, Gillis helped found Justice for Homicide Victims and the Coalition of Victims Equal Rights, a statewide organization that works on behalf of the rights of victims and their families. He is also the founder of Victims and Friends United and an active member of Memory of Victims Everywhere and Parents of Murdered Children, a support group for families of homicide victims.

Mary Beth Buchanan serves as the liaison between the Department of Justice and federal, state, and international governments on the crimes of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. She is responsible for handling the department’s legal and policy issues regarding the implementation of the Violence Against Women Act and oversees an annual budget of almost $400 million.

Buchanan also serves as the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. She was appointed by President Bush on September 5, 2001, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on September 14, 2001. Buchanan is the first woman in Pennsylvania’s history to be presidentially appointed to this position. A U.S. attorney, Buchanan oversees the prosecution of all federal crimes and the litigation of civil matters in which the federal government has an interest throughout the 25 counties in western Pennsylvania.

Additional NCVLI conference presenters include Paul Charlton, former U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona; Veraunda Jackson, former prosecuting attorney who specialized in sex crimes and child abuse; Jamie Mills, a private practitioner in Hartford, Connecticut, whose practice is limited to representing employees in labor and employment related matters, advocacy organizations in public policy and impact litigation, and victims of sexual assault and abuse in civil cases; Diane Moyer, legal director for the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape; and Lyn Schollett, general counsel to the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, a statewide network of 34 rape crisis centers.

The conference offers general Minimum Continuing Legal Education credits through the Oregon Law Institute at Lewis & Clark Law School. Registration for the two-day conference is $249, with additional discounts for government, academic, or nonprofit attendees. The event is supported by a grant from the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The conference will be held at the Doubletree Hotel & Executive Meeting Center Portland-Lloyd Center in Portland, Ore.

For registration or more information, visit the institute’s website at www.ncvli.org or call extension 6819.

Upcoming

Visit the campus Web calendar for events coming up in May.