Integrating Doctrine & Diversity Speaker Series

Executive Power in the Classroom: Addressing Project 2025 and Executive Orders in the Law School Curriculum

These days the current administration is invoking and testing its executive powers on what seems like a daily basis. This presents both a challenge and an opportunity for law school faculty striving to connect doctrine with real-world legal developments. The roadmap Project 2025 outlines, together with the president’s executive orders, shape governance, policy, the news cycle, and public conversation. Law professors must grapple with how to effectively incorporate these contemporary issues into their classrooms. They also must consider how to fit all of the work into one semester and how to navigate the emotions and well-being of students at this chaotic time. This webinar will explore strategies for engaging students with these dynamic legal and political developments in courses such as Indian law, family law, and legal research. Panelists will share the ways in which they have included conversations about Project 2025 and executive orders into their classrooms this Spring semester. Please join us for a lively look into important pedagogical issues.

This event is co-sponsored by Roger Williams University School of Law, City University of New York School of Law, George Washington University Law School, Berkeley Law, JURIST, and Antiracist Development Institute.

1:00 - 2:00 PM EST

Register Here - Integrating Doctrine & Diversity Speaker Series - April 9

In 2021, RWU Law began sponsoring an ongoing Integrating Doctrine & Diversity Speaker Series in collaboration with CUNY School of Law and JURIST. Each previous installment has been attended by hundreds of legal education professionals from across the country.

View Previous Integrating Doctrine & Diversity Speaker Series Sessions

Meet the Speakers

Ally Coll
Assistant Professor, City University of New York School of Law

Ally Coll is an Assistant Professor at the City University of New York School of Law, where she teaches Administrative Law and Federal Courts. Her scholarship focuses on how the Constitution’s federal power structures affect the advancement of civil and equal rights in the United States. She was previously an Assistant Professor of Legal Studies at George Mason University’s School of Policy and Government, where she taught courses on constitutional law, civil rights law, public law, and the judicial process. From 2018 to 2023, Coll lead a non-profit advocacy organization she cofounded to address workplace harassment in the wake of the #MeToo movement. 

Dr. James D. Diamond
Visiting Lecturer in Law, Yale Law School

Dr. James D. Diamond is Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School and Senior Counselor for Indigenous Programs at the Yale Center for Environmental Justice.

From 2022 to 2024, he served as Director of the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. Previously, he was the founding Director of IPLP’s Tribal Justice Clinic (2016–2021), where he supervised legal advocacy on behalf of tribal communities.

Dr. Diamond was also Dean of Academic Affairs at the National Tribal Trial College, where he trained Indigenous survivors of domestic and sexual violence to serve as judicial victim advocates. He first joined the NTTC faculty in 2016.

His academic research focuses on the aftermath of violent crime and restorative justice. His doctoral dissertation formed the basis of his book, After the Bloodbath: Is Healing Possible in the Wake of Rampage Shootings? He is also the coauthor of Introduction to Criminal Law: A Contemporary Approach and has published extensively on criminal law in tribal courts.

Before entering academia, Dr. Diamond practiced law in Connecticut for 25 years, focusing on criminal law. He served six years as an Assistant State’s Attorney before transitioning to criminal defense. He is certified as a criminal trial specialist. 

He is admitted to practice law in three tribal courts, in the states of Connecticut, New York and Arizona, as well as numerous federal courts including the United States Supreme Court. 

Jeffrey A. Dodge
Assistant Professor of Law, Joseph H. Goldstein Faculty Scholar, and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Penn State Dickinson Law

A talented academic administrator with nearly 20 years spent in legal education, Dodge has broad experience overseeing law school and university-level offices of academic affairs, student services, international programs, admissions, academic success, career services, and more. He has taught and presented on topics in the fields of family law, LGBTQ+ rights, and education law. Dodge has served as chair of three AALS sections, as an ABA accreditation site inspector, and on the LSAC’s national diversity committee. He recently completed three concurrent appointments as the director of the CLEO Pre-Law Summer Institute.

Tanya Johnson
Research & Instructional Services Librarian, UConn School of Law | Thomas J. Meskill Law Library

Tanya is a Research and Instructional Services Librarian at the UConn School of Law, where she supports faculty, students, and researchers with a wide range of legal research and reference needs. She supervises student research assistants, conducts research for faculty, and provides extensive instructional services.  Tanya teaches courses including Advanced Legal Research, Research for Social Justice, and Diversity & Inclusion in the Legal Profession.  She also serves as an adjunct professor at Central Connecticut State University, where she teaches undergraduate courses on Business Law and Ethics.  Tanya earned her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where was an editor for the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and her M.L.I.S. from Rutgers University.  Prior to her library work, she practiced law in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, specializing in First Amendment law and complex litigation, and served as a Deputy Law Clerk for a Justice on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. 

Dr. Taino J. Palermo
Legal Director, Center for Indigenous Peoples Rights

For over 20 years, Dr. Taino J. Palermo has worked to affect change in policy and practice in the areas of nonprofit management, community and economic development, and education reform. Dr. Palermo is a founding faculty member of College Unbound and served as the Director for both the Community Development and Healthy Communities degree programs at Roger Williams University’s University College in Providence, Rhode Island where he founded the state’s first and only graduate program in Community Development. In 2022, Dr. Palermo completed his law degree at Roger Williams University School of Law where he co-founded the American Indian Law Student Association, and most recently, co-founded the Center for Indigenous Peoples Rights, the only pro bono legal services and policy center on the east coast. Dr. Palermo also teaches Federal Indian Law and Tribal Courts & Governments courses at Roger Williams University School of Law.

Meet the Moderator

Nicole P. Dyszlewski is one of the editors of Integrating Doctrine and Diversity: Inclusion and Equity in the Law School Classroom. She currently serves as Assistant Dean of Academic Innovation at Roger Williams University School of Law. She received a B.A. from Hofstra University, a J.D. from Boston University School of Law, and an M.L.I.S. from the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Library and Information Studies. She is a member of the Massachusetts State Bar and the Rhode Island State Bar. Her areas of interest are mass incarceration, access to justice, and systems of race and gender inequality in law. Nicole was the 2020 recipient of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Volunteer Service Award and the 2015 recipient of the AALL Emerging Leader Award.