Professor Stacy Hawkins is an award-winning teacher and scholar. She formerly served as the Vice-Dean of Rutgers Law School in Camden, where she also teaches courses in Constitutional Law, Employment Law and an original seminar on Diversity and the Law. She is the recipient of numerous honors, including the 2023 Chancellor’s Award for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Leadership, the 2022 BLSA Champion for Social Justice Award, and the 2018 AALS Derrick A. Bell Award, which is given to those junior faculty who exemplify a commitment to diversity and critical race theory in their teaching, scholarship and service. She was also named Faculty of the Year by the graduating class of 2013 and Co-Professor of the Year by the graduating class of 2018. Professor Hawkins’s scholarship focuses on the intersection of law and diversity and can be found in journals published by the University of Michigan Law School, Fordham Law School, UCLA School of Law, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, the University of Maryland School of Law, and Columbia Law School, among others. She is a recognized expert on employment law and diversity, has given testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, and has been interviewed or quoted in various news outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, CNBC, NBC, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Time, Bloomberg News, The Courier Post, and Philadelphia Magazine. In addition to law teaching, Professor Hawkins has spent more than two decades advising and training clients in both the public and private sector on issues of workplace diversity. She has held or holds a number of professional and civic appointments, including as a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on Diversity, Inclusion & Community Engagement, as an Advisory Board Member of the Public Interest Law Center, and as an inaugural member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Diversity Team. Professor Hawkins earned her B.A. from the University of Virginia and her J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center, where she earned various honors including the title of national champion of the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition.

Judge Stengel is the chair of Saxton Stump’s Internal Investigations Group and CEO of Optimal Dispute Resolutions, an ADR practice providing mediation and arbitration services in a wide variety of cases. Since joining the firm, Judge Stengel has been appointed to several high-profile matters, including as the special investigator for the National Football League (NFL) concussion settlement program and as a member of the Independent Oversight Committee for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Independent Reconciliation and Reparations Program (IRRP). Judge Stengel began his career as a judge on the Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas in 1990. ln 2004, he was appointed to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania by President George W. Bush. He became chief judge on August 1, 2017. Judge Stengel has received various awards and been appointed to several boards. One of those awards includes the President’s Award from the Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Judges for preparing and presenting a panel on racial disparity in sentencing at a statewide conference. While serving as a state court judge, Judge Stengel served on the Executive Committee and Education Committee for the Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Judges and as the President of the Lancaster Bar Association. As bar president, he formed the Diversity Task Force and Lancaster Bar Association Foundation. At the federal level, he was appointed to the Judicial Conference Committee on Judicial Resources and was subsequently named chair of the committee by Chief Justice John Roberts. He also served on the Third Circuit Judicial Council and various committees and working groups in the federal judiciary. Prior to his career as a judge, Judge Stengel was in private practice first with Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote, P.C. He then began his own practice in Lancaster with his father, Lawrence E. Stengel, Esq. Judge Stengel received his Bachelor of Arts from Saint Joseph’s University and his Juris Doctor from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He previously taught at Lancaster Catholic High School, Millersville University, Franklin and Marshall College and the Beasley School of Law at Temple University.

Erwin Chemerinsky is Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Prior to assuming this position he was the founding dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law, and a professor at Duke Law School, University of Southern California Law School, and DePaul Law School. He is the author of 20 books and over 200 law review articles. His most recent major book, No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States, was published in August 2024. He frequently argues appellate cases, including in the United States Supreme Court. In 2022, he was the President of the Association of American Law Schools.

Ms. Conrad is a partner in the Commercial Litigation Department and Chair of the Higher Education Practice Group with White and Williams LLP, resident in Center Valley. She practices in the area of employment law and litigation with a focus on representing businesses, educational institutions and non-profit organizations in all aspects of workplace disputes. In addition to representing management in employee relations matters, Ms. Conrad’s practice includes the defense of federal and state discrimination claims, wrongful discharge claims, whistleblower claims, employment contract matters and restrictive covenant cases. Ms. Conrad’s practice includes representing colleges and universities in employment and education law matters with an emphasis on tenure related disputes and student discipline proceedings. Ms. Conrad also conducts investigations related to compliance, personnel and misconduct. Ms. Conrad received her B.A., magna cum laude, from Lycoming College and her M.Ed., summa cum laude, from The Pennsylvania State University and her J.D., cum laude, from Temple University School of Law. Ms. Conrad has been selected in a survey of her peers as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer and in The Best Lawyers of America. She has received the Athena Award from the Chamber of Commerce, and the Take the Lead Award from the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania and has been named by Lehigh Valley Business as a Woman of Influence. In May 2019, Ms. Conrad received the Anne X. Alpern Award from the PBA WIP and in 2022 and 2023, was named on the Lehigh Valley Business Power List in Law. Ms. Conrad is President of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and a Past President of the Lehigh County Bar Association. Ms. Conrad is a Past Woman Governor on the PBA Board of Governors and a Past Chair of the PBA DEI Team. She is a Past Chair of the PBA Labor and Employment Law Section and a Past Chair of the PBA Commission on Women in the Legal Profession. Ms. Conrad currently serves as a Vice-Chair of the PBA Federal Practice Committee and serves on the PBA Civil Litigation Section Council and Labor Employment Section Council. Ms. Conrad is a member of the National Association of College and University Attorneys. Ms. Conrad is a certified Level 2 Civil Rights Investigator, and Title IX Hearing Officer.