Asa Hutchinson (Co-Chair)
Asa Hutchinson is a senior partner in the Asa Hutchinson Law Group in Rogers, Arkansas, specializing in white collar criminal defense, complex litigation, international export controls and sanctions, corporate international relations, homeland security, and corporate investigations and compliance. He served in the administration of President George W. Bush as Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security at the Department of Homeland Security from 2003 to 2005, where he was responsible for more than 110,000 federal employees housed in such agencies as the Transportation Security Administration, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. He was Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration from 2001 to 2003. Prior to joining the Bush Administration, Hutchinson represented the 3rd District of Arkansas as a Republican Congressman, first winning election in 1996. Hutchinson served on the House Judiciary Committee along with the House Select Committee on Intelligence.
In 1982, he was appointed as United States Attorney by President Ronald Reagan, at the time the youngest person to receive such an appointment. He earned a J.D. from the University of Arkansas School of Law.
James R. Jones (Co-Chair)
James R. Jones is a partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP. Prior to joining Manatt, he served as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico (1993-1997), where he was very successful in his leadership during the Mexican peso crisis, the passage and implementation of NAFTA and in developing new, cooperative efforts to combat drug trafficking. He also assisted U.S. businesses with commercial ventures in Mexico.
As a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Oklahoma (1973-1987), he was Chairman of the House Budget Committee for four years and a ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee, where he was active in tax, international trade, Social Security and health care policy. Jones was only 28 when President Lyndon Johnson selected him as Appointments Secretary, a position equivalent to White House Chief of Staff, the youngest person in history to hold such a position.
Jones? previous experience also includes the position of President at Warnaco International, as well as Chairman and CEO of the American Stock Exchange in New York (1989-1993). He earned a LLB from Georgetown University Law Center in 1964.
Talbot ?Sandy? D?Alemberte
A former President of the American Bar Association (1991-92), Talbot ?Sandy? D?Alemberte was appointed President of Florida State University in 1993, serving in that capacity through January 2003. Prior to that, from 1984 to 1989, he served as Dean of Florida State University College of Law.
A member of the American Law Institute, D?Alemberte also served as President of the American Judicature Society (1982-84). He has won numerous national awards for his contributions to the profession. He is the author of The Florida Constitution. D?Alemberte served as a member of the Florida House of Representatives from 1966 to1972.
He is currently a partner of D?Alemberte & Palmer, a Tallahassee firm specializing in appellate work. He continues to teach as a member of the University faculty at the FSU College of Law. He remains an active member of many legal and higher educational committees and boards. D?Alemberte received his juris doctor with honors from the University of Florida in 1962, and he has received nine honorary degrees.
Richard A. Epstein
Richard A. Epstein is the inaugural Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at New York University School of Law. He has served as the Peter and Kirstin Bedford Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution since 2000. Epstein is also the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law Emeritus and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1972. Prior to joining the University of Chicago Law School faculty, he taught law at the University of Southern California from 1968 to 1972.
He has published numerous books and articles on a wide range of legal and interdisciplinary subjects, and has taught courses in administrative law, civil procedure, constitutional law, and criminal law, among many others. He served as editor of the Journal of Legal Studies from 1981 to 1991, and of the Journal of Law and Economics from 1991 to 2001. From 2001 to 2010 he was a director of the John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics at the University of Chicago. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1985 and has been a Senior Fellow of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago Medical School since 1983. He received an LLD from the University of Ghent in 2003.
David P. Gushee
Dr. David P. Gushee is the Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics and Director of the Center for Theology and Public Life at Mercer University. Gushee teaches at McAfee School of Theology and throughout Mercer University in his specialty, Christian ethics. As Director of the Center for Theology and Public Life, he organizes events and courses to advance quality conversations about major issues arising at the intersection of theology, ethics, and public policy. Gushee came to Mercer in 2007 from Union University, where he served for 11 years, ultimately as Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy.
Gushee has published fifteen books, with four more in development, and many hundreds of essays, book chapters, articles, reviews, and opinion pieces. He is a columnist for the Huffington Post and a contributing editor for Christianity Today, as well as an active voice on social media. He also currently serves on the board of directors of the Society of Christian Ethics, his primary professional association, and on the Ethics, Religion, and the Holocaust Committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where he has also taught a faculty seminar course.
He earned his Bachelor of Arts at the College of William and Mary (1984), Master of Divinity at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (1987) and both the Master of Philosophy (1990) and Doctor of Philosophy (1993) in Christian Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York.
Azizah Y. al-Hibri
Dr. Azizah Y. al-Hibri is a professor emerita at the T. C. Williams School of Law, University of Richmond, having served on the faculty from 1992 until her retirement in 2012. She is also a founding editor of ?Hypatia: a Journal of Feminist Philosophy,? and the founder and chair [president] of KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights.
For the last two decades, al-Hibri has written extensively on issues of Muslim women?s rights, Islam and democracy, and human rights in Islam. She has published in a number of legal publications, and authored several book chapters. Al-Hibri has also traveled extensively throughout the Muslim world in support of Muslim women?s rights. She has visited fourteen Muslim countries and met with religious, political and feminist leaders, as well as legal scholars, on issues of importance to Muslim women.
In 2011, Dr. al-Hibri was appointed by President Obama to serve as a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. She is the recipient of the Virginia First Freedom Award, presented in 2007 by the Council for America?s First Freedom, the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented in 2009 by the Journal of Law and Religion, and the Dr. Betty Shabazz Recognition Award, presented by Women in Islam in 2006. She earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania in 1975 and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1985. She was also named a Fulbright Scholar in 2001.
David R. Irvine
David Irvine is a Salt Lake City attorney in private practice, a former Republican state legislator, and a retired Army brigadier general.
Irvine enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve in 1962, and received a direct commission in 1967 as a strategic intelligence officer. He maintained a faculty assignment for 18 years with the Sixth
U.S. Army Intelligence School, teaching prisoner-of-war interrogation and military law. He was the Deputy Commander for the 96th Regional Readiness Command. He served four terms in the Utah House of Representatives.
Claudia Kennedy
Claudia J. Kennedy is the first woman to achieve the rank of three-star general in the United States Army, taking her from the Women?s Army Corps in the late 1960?s to the position of Deputy Chief of Staff for Army Intelligence in 1997-2000. She oversaw policies and operations affecting 45,000 people stationed worldwide with a budget of nearly $1 billion.
During her military career, General Kennedy received honors and awards, including the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the Army Distinguished Service Medal, four Legions of Merits which are awarded for ?exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements.?
She is the Chair of Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services. She has consulted for Essex Corporation and for Walmart, Inc. She has appeared as a military consultant for NBC and CNN and as a guest on Larry King Live, Aaron Brown, Wolf Blitzer and ABC?s Good Morning America among others. Kennedy holds a B.A. degree in Philosophy from Rhodes College.
Thomas R. Pickering
Thomas R. Pickering is vice chairman of Hills & Company, an international consulting firm providing advice to U.S. businesses on investment, trade, and risk assessment issues abroad, particularly in emerging market economies. Until 2006, he was senior vice president for international relations for Boeing.
From 1997 to 2001, Pickering served as U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. From 1989 to 1992, he was Ambassador and Representative to the United Nations. In a diplomatic career spanning five decades, he has served as U.S. ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Pickering also served on assignments in Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He also served as Executive Secretary of the Department of State and Special Assistant to Secretaries William P. Rogers and Henry A. Kissinger from 1973 to 1974. Between 1959 and 1961, he served in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the State Department, in the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and from 1962 to 1964 in Geneva as political adviser to the U.S. delegation to the 18-Nation Disarmament Conference. He earned the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the U.S. Foreign Service. Most recently, he helped lead an independent State Department panel charged with investigating the attacks on the mission in Benghazi.
Pickering entered on active duty in the U.S. Navy from 1956-1959, and later served in the Naval Reserve to the grade of Lieutenant Commander. He earned a Master?s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Upon graduation from Tufts, he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship and attended the University of Melbourne in Australia where he received a second master?s degree in 1956. He is also the recipient of 12 honorary degrees.
William S. Sessions
William S. Sessions served three United States presidents as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, earning a reputation for modernizing the FBI by initiating and developing the forensic use of DNA, the development and automation of digital fingerprinting capabilities with the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, as well as recruiting of women and minorities for service in the FBI. He initiated the ?Winners Don?t Use Drugs? program for combating drug usage by young people.
Prior to joining the FBI, Sessions was the chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, where he had previously served as United States Attorney. He also served on the Board of the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, D.C., and on committees of both the State Bar of Texas and as the chairman of the Automation Subcommittee of the Judicial
Conference of the United States.
Sessions is a partner in Holland & Knight?s Washington, D.C. office and the recipient of the 2009 Chesterfield Smith Award, the firm?s highest individual recognition given to a firm partner. Sessions served as an arbitrator and mediator for the American Arbitration Association, the International Center for Dispute Resolution, for the CPR Institute of Dispute Resolution and FedNet, for arbitration and mediation of disputes by former federal judges. Sessions holds a J.D. degree from Baylor University School of Law and was named as one of five lawyers, in 2009, as an Outstanding Texas 50-year lawyer by the Texas Bar Foundation.
Gerald E. Thomson
Dr. Thomson is the Lambert and Sonneborn Professor of Medicine Emeritus at Columbia University. Following his post graduate training at the State University of New York-Kings County Hospital Center, Thomson remained on the faculty there and directed one of the nation?s first artificial kidney units for the maintenance of patients with end stage renal failure. He joined the Columbia faculty in 1970, serving as Director of Medicine at the affiliated Harlem Hospital Center from 1970-1985. He was Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff of the Columbia University Medical Center from 1985-1990 and Senior Associate Dean from 1990-2003. Thomson has served on and headed numerous National Institutes of Health and other agency advisory committees on hypertension, end stage renal disease, cardiovascular disease, public hospitals, minorities in medicine, human rights, and access to health care. Thomson is a 2002 recipient of the Columbia University President?s Award for Outstanding Teaching.
Thomson is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies and was Chair of an Institute of Medicine committee that issued a 2006 report that reviewed the National Institutes of Health Strategic Research Plan on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Thomson is a former Chairman of the American Board of Internal Medicine and past President of the American College of Physicians.
Affiliations are listed for identification purposes only.?
