S. Kern Alexander Jr. shaped the study of school finance and education law for more than five decades as a scholar, university president, and expert witness. He has authored, co-authored, or edited more than thirty books, including American Public School Law and The Law of Schools, Students and Teachers in a Nutshell, texts that have introduced generations of administrators, attorneys, and scholars to the field. In 1974 he co-founded the Journal of Education Finance, which he has edited continuously since, establishing it as the leading academic venue for research on public school funding. As an expert witness in school finance litigation in twenty-two states, he provided testimony and analysis that state supreme courts adopted in constitutional rulings on funding equity. He served as President of Western Kentucky University and of Murray State University and later as Excellence Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he is Professor Emeritus. A founder of the Oxford Round Table, he remains a trusted advisor on national education policy.

Joseph C. Beckham combined a law degree and a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Florida into a career of more than four decades in higher education law and leadership. He joined Florida State University in 1980 and served there for over thirty years, including as chair of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and as the Allan and Joyce Tucker Professor of Educational Leadership; he is now Professor Emeritus. His scholarship includes Meeting Legal Challenges, Legal Aspects of Teacher Evaluation, and the Education Law Association’s Contemporary Issues in Higher Education Law, together with hundreds of articles and case commentaries on employment relations, faculty rights, collective bargaining, and academic governance. Within ELA he served as President (1991) and as a member of the Board of Directors, chaired numerous editorial, conference, and governance committees, and received the Marion A. McGhehey Award in 1996. A consultant to state education agencies, school districts, universities, and federal agencies, he mentored generations of educational leaders, school attorneys, and doctoral candidates.

Lois F. Berlin brought the perspective of a working school leader to the Education Law Association across a career of more than four decades in public education. After teaching children with special needs at the Camphill Rudolf Steiner Schools near Aberdeen, Scotland, she joined the Alexandria City Public Schools in Virginia as a special education teacher and rose through the system as assistant principal of Cora Kelly Magnet School, principal of Jefferson-Houston and George Mason Elementary Schools, and Associate Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction. She served as Superintendent of the Falls Church City Public Schools from 2004 to 2011, a tenure marked by some of the highest graduation rates and SAT results in the nation, and returned from retirement in 2017 to lead Alexandria as Interim Superintendent. Her stewardship of ELA, including service on the Board of Directors and as President (2006), and her commitment to mentoring practitioners, administrators, and emerging leaders have strengthened the Association's bridge between attorneys, scholars, and school practitioners. ELA recognized her contributions with the Marion A. McGhehey Award in 2016. Her career demonstrates how education law, thoughtfully applied, strengthens schools and the communities they serve.

David C. Bloomfield is Professor of Educational Leadership, Law, and Policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, where he has devoted his career to making legal principles accessible and actionable for school leaders. Through texts such as American Public School Law and a steady body of policy analysis, he has equipped administrators, policymakers, and educators with the legal frameworks needed to advance equity, accountability, and student rights. He is widely known for bringing education law into the public square as a clear and trusted commentator on school governance, civil rights, and constitutional questions in education. His long service in ELA leadership, joined to his advocacy for fair and well-informed educational policy, has shaped both scholarly discourse and school practice.

Christopher P. Borreca practiced education law for more than three decades as a founding partner of Thompson & Horton LLP, representing public school districts and public charter schools nationwide. A former teacher and school administrator, he brought both classroom and front-office experience to his advocacy. His work shaped modern special education law in the Fifth Circuit: he was part of the legal team that argued Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District v. Michael F. (1997), which established the circuit’s four-part test for a free appropriate public education, and two decades later he defended that standard in C.G. v. Waller Independent School District (2017) following the Supreme Court’s decision in Endrew F. He also assembled a coalition of more than fifty school districts to secure substantive changes to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act during its 2004 reauthorization. He served as President of the Education Law Association in 2008, on the Board of Directors of the National School Boards Association’s Council of School Attorneys, and on the Legislative Advisory Board of Association of School Business Officials International (ASBO). For more than a decade he also taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Law Center and College of Education.

Nelda H. Cambron-McCabe is Professor Emerita at Miami University, where she chaired both the Department of Educational Leadership and the Department of Educational Psychology. Over more than four decades she helped define the core of school law and leadership preparation as co-author of the award-winning treatise Public School Law: Teachers’ and Students’ Rights, now in its eighth edition, and of Legal Rights of Teachers and Students, and as a contributor to Schools That Learn and The Superintendent’s Fieldbook. Her scholarship addresses student constitutional rights, school finance equity, social justice leadership, and legal accountability. She served as President of the Education Law Association (1993–1994) and on its Board of Directors, and received the Marion A. McGhehey Award in 1997. She also served as President of the American Education Finance Association, co-founded national superintendent networks, and served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Education Finance and West’s Education Law Reporter. Miami University awarded her its highest honor, the Benjamin Harrison Medallion.

Philip T. K. Daniel served for decades as the William Ray and Marie Adamson Flesher Professor of Educational Administration at The Ohio State University, where he is now Professor Emeritus, Academy Professor, and Faculty Scholar in Residence. His more than two hundred publications, including Law, Policy, and Higher Education: Cases and Materials and Education Law and the Public Schools: A Compendium, address equal protection, school desegregation, affirmative action, academic freedom, intellectual property, emerging technologies, and the rights of vulnerable students. A contributor to the Education Law Association for more than three decades, he received the Marion A. McGhehey Research Award in 2006 and has delivered dozens of keynote, general session, and research presentations in national and international forums. He has served on the editorial boards of West’s Education Law Reporter and Education and Urban Society. Ohio State recognized his service with its Distinguished Service Award, the President’s and Provost’s Award for Distinguished Faculty Service, the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching, and induction into the College of Education and Human Ecology Hall of Fame.

Richard Fossey is Paul Burdin Endowed Professor Emeritus at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he taught education law and policy after also holding the Mike Moses Endowed Chair at the University of North Texas. A graduate with honors of the University of Texas School of Law, he began his career representing Alaska Native school districts in Aleut, Athabaskan, and Inuit communities in Anchorage, Alaska, before earning a doctorate in education administration and social policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He edited Catholic Southwest, a journal of Catholic history and culture in the American Southwest, and was named a Fellow of the Texas Catholic Historical Society in 2019. His honors include induction into the Friar Society for Service to the University of Texas, the Carlos Eduardo Castañeda Award for Meritorious Service to the Texas Catholic Historical Society, and the M. A. McGhehey Award for Outstanding Service to the Education Law Association. Now retired at Lake Mary, Mississippi, he continues to write, including the novel The Dixie Apocalypse.

L. Kelly Frels has been a leading figure in school law for more than five decades. Joining Bracewell LLP in 1970 after graduating from the University of Texas School of Law, he served as lead attorney for the Houston Independent School District through its desegregation transition of the 1970s and 1980s, was the lawyer principally responsible for establishing Houston Community College, and guided public school systems, community colleges, and universities through governance, employment, civil rights, and First Amendment matters; he later served as the firm's managing partner (1995-2001). In 1971 he was among the five founders of the State Bar of Texas School Law Section, which he chaired and which in 2012 created the Kelly Frels Lifetime Achievement Award in his honor, naming him its first recipient. He served as President of the Education Law Association (1979), as Chair of the National School Boards Association's Council of School Attorneys (1977-1978), and as President of the Houston Bar Association (1994-1995) and the State Bar of Texas (2004-2005). ELA recognized him with the Marion A. McGhehey Award in 1991, and the National School Boards Association presented him its inaugural Chairman's Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2004.

Janet Little Horton, a founding partner of Thompson & Horton LLP and a former public school teacher, has represented school districts across the full range of education law for more than four decades. Her practice is defined by her work in special education and disability law, including the defense of districts in due process hearings, civil rights litigation, and Office for Civil Rights investigations involving Section 504 and the ADA. Her counsel on conflict avoidance, ARD committee processes, teacher employment decisions, and early District of Innovation plans set operational standards for Texas school systems. She served on executive board of the National Organization on Legal Problems in Education, which is now the Education Law Association, from 1989-1992. In addition, she served on the Executive Committee of the National School Boards Association’s Council of School Attorneys, chaired the Texas Association of School Boards Council of School Attorneys, and chaired the State Bar of Texas School Law Section, which honored her with the Kelly Frels Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. She co-authored the Education Law Association’s treatise A Documentation System for Teacher Improvement or Termination and is a Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation.

Dixie Snow Huefner was among the first university scholars to hold advanced credentials in both special education and law, and she brought that interdisciplinary perspective to a career on the faculty of the University of Utah Department of Special Education, following a clerkship with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Her books, including Getting Comfortable with Special Education Law and Navigating Special Education Law and Policy, and her widely cited law review and journal articles have shaped understanding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the free appropriate public education standard, least restrictive environment requirements, and student privacy under FERPA. A longtime contributor to the Education Law Association, she served on the Board of Directors, chaired the Publications Committee, and served on numerous Annual Conference program and planning committees while providing editorial leadership for West’s Education Law Reporter. At Utah she was elected President of the University of Utah’s Academic Senate, and she advised the Utah State Legislature, the Utah State Board of Education, and disability advocacy organizations.

Terrence (Terry) Leas began his career as a middle school teacher and rose to lead two community colleges, serving as President of Riverland Community College in Minnesota (2003-2012) and of Big Bend Community College in Washington (2012-2020), after earlier service as a dean at Yakima Valley Community College. As a college executive he championed innovative instructional access and personalized learning while navigating institutional governance, federal compliance, and student rights in the two-year sector. A member of the Education Law Association since 1989, he received the Dissertation of the Year Award in 1990, edited NOLPE Notes (1991-1997), served on the Board of Directors, and was elected President in 2000. His editorial service extended across the field’s principal publications: the review board of Education Law Into Practice (1986-2003), the Author’s Committee of West’s Education Law Reporter (1992-1998, 2010-2012), and the advisory board of The Encyclopedia of Law and Higher Education (2009-2020). His scholarship on the legal history of higher education and civil rights, including analyses of college desegregation and student protections, together with sustained service and generous support of ELA’s Legacy Fund, event sponsorships, and the Joseph C. Beckham Award, earned the Distinguished Service Award (1997) and the Marion A. McGhehey Award (2010).

Martha M. McCarthy began as a public school teacher and central office administrator before a scholarly career that made her one of the most widely read authors in education law. Chancellor’s Professor at Indiana University and later Presidential Professor at Loyola Marymount University, she has authored, co-authored, or edited dozens of treatises and monographs, including the canonical Public School Law: Teachers’ and Students’ Rights, now in its eighth edition, along with more than 350 refereed articles, chapters, and policy reports. Her work has shaped doctrine on church-state relations, First Amendment expression by students and teachers, Title IX protections, equal educational opportunity, and the preparation of educational leaders. She served as President of the Education Law Association (1985), President of the University Council for Educational Administration, and Vice President for Division A of AERA. ELA honored her with the Marion A. McGhehey Award in 1992. She is an AERA Fellow, received UCEA’s Campbell Lifetime Achievement Award, and was named a Living Legend by the International Council of Professors of Educational Leadership. She holds an honorary doctorate from Lehigh University, and Indiana University established the Martha McCarthy Education Law and Policy Institute in 2013.

Julie F. Mead has dedicated more than three decades to the study and advancement of education law, policy, and educational equity. A former public school special education teacher, she served for many years on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, where she also served as department chair and associate dean, and where she is now Professor Emerita. Her scholarship focuses on special education law, school choice policy, charter schools, and the legal rights of students with disabilities. She is the co-author or co-editor of foundational works, including Charter Schools and the Law: Establishing New Legal Standards, The Principal’s Legal Handbook, and Special Education Law: Cases and Materials. Within the Education Law Association, she has provided extensive leadership and service, serving as ELA President in 2022 and on the Board of Directors, as well as chairing numerous program and award committees. Her connection to ELA’s Dissertation of the Year Award spans her career: she received the award in 1994, before it became the endowed Joseph C. Beckham Dissertation of the Year Award, and six of her doctoral students have since won it (four with Dr. Mead as dissertation chair and two with her as a committee member). Her career exemplifies a deep commitment to preparing ethical school administrators and ensuring that legal requirements serve the best educational interests of all children.

Allan G. Osborne Jr. built his understanding of education law from the ground up, serving as a teacher of students with moderate special needs, special education coordinator and director, and elementary school principal. His career illustrates how legal standards and daily school operations can be integrated so that compliance and compassionate administration together serve students with disabilities. A member of the Education Law Association since 1982, he has served the Association in nearly every capacity, including as President (2003), on the Board of Directors, and on numerous editorial and conference committees, and he has received the Marion A. McGhehey Award and multiple Distinguished Service Awards. His scholarship, including Special Education and the Law: A Guide for School Practitioners and Legal Issues in Special Education, along with dozens of chapters and hundreds of articles, has defined special education law for educators, attorneys, and policymakers. He co-edited Education Law Into Practice and chaired editorial committees for West’s Education Law Reporter.

Lynn Rossi Scott has spent more than four decades representing educational institutions and helping shape the practice of school law in Texas and nationally. At Brackett & Ellis, P.C., and in earlier practice, she has advised school districts, charter schools, private schools, independent schools, universities, community colleges, and education foundations across matters including employment, special education, student discipline, construction, procurement, real estate, policy development, elections, and open government, while also representing educational entities before administrative agencies and state and federal courts. She was instrumental in developing model construction contract amendments used by school districts across the country and has trained generations of school attorneys, administrators, board members, and educators through state and national programs. Ms. Scott chaired both the State Bar of Texas School Law Section and the Texas Association of School Boards’ Council of School Attorneys and served as President of the Education Law Association in 2017. ELA honored her with the Marion A. McGhehey Award in 2019, and the State Bar of Texas School Law Section presented her with the Kelly Frels Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023. Her career has connected sophisticated legal practice with sustained professional leadership and service to the institutions and people responsible for public education.

Jacqueline A. Stefkovich has shaped the intersection of education law and ethical leadership through scholarship focused on students’ constitutional rights and the responsibilities of school leaders. A former teacher and school counselor who later served as head of Penn State’s Department of Education Policy Studies and as associate dean for graduate programs, research, and faculty development, she brought practitioner, legal, and administrative perspectives to the preparation of educational leaders. Her scholarship includes Search and Seizure in the Public Schools, The Law and Education: Cases and Materials, and Best Interests of the Student: Applying Ethical Constructs to Legal Cases in Education, which developed an influential framework for examining legal decisions through the ethical obligations educators owe students. She also co-authored Ethical Leadership and Decision Making in Education and published extensively on students’ Fourth Amendment rights, school law, and ethical decision-making. Through her scholarship, teaching, international work, and mentorship at Penn State and beyond, Stefkovich helped establish a durable connection between legal compliance and the deeper responsibility of educational leaders to place students’ rights, responsibilities, respect, and best interests at the center of decision-making.

J. David Thompson, a founding partner of Thompson & Horton LLP, has advocated for public school districts, junior colleges, and other educational entities for more than three decades. He represented hundreds of school districts in constitutional challenges to the Texas public school finance system, arguing successfully before the Supreme Court of Texas that the state’s funding mechanisms violated the Texas Constitution and establishing precedents that reshaped school resourcing and student opportunity across the state. For more than thirty years he has served as legislative counsel to the Texas Association of School Administrators, the Houston Independent School District, and other educational bodies, contributing to nearly every major legislative development affecting Texas public education. As general and board counsel he has shaped practice in governance, board-executive relations, policy development, and ethics. He is a longstanding member of the Education Law Association, the National School Boards Association’s Council of School Attorneys, and the Houston Bar Association.

David P. Thompson is Professor Emeritus and former Chair of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at The University of Texas at San Antonio, where he concluded a forty-one-year career in public education that began as a high school mathematics teacher, coach, and assistant principal before he entered higher education in 1994. Through nearly 120 publications in venues including West’s Education Law Reporter, the Journal of Law & Education, the Journal of School Leadership, and Educational Administration Quarterly, he has shaped how school administrators and teachers understand and apply the law. With Fred Hartmeister and Julie Mead he co-authored eleven editions of School Official and the Courts, published by the Educational Research Service. Within the Education Law Association he served as co-editor of the School Law Reporter, contributed to the Yearbook of Education Law, and served on conference program and technology committees, and he has been a frequent presenter at the Professional Practices Institute of the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification. His mentorship of doctoral students and his commitment to preparing ethical school leaders have extended his influence across a generation of practitioners and scholars.

Julie K. Underwood, who holds both a law degree and a doctorate in educational leadership, has shaped education law at the national and judicial levels for more than four decades. As Associate Executive Director and General Counsel of the National School Boards Association, she directed the legal advocacy program for public school boards and oversaw the 3,000-member Council of School Attorneys, authoring dozens of amicus curiae briefs and joining oral argument teams before the Supreme Court of the United States in cases including Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, Board of Education v. Earls, and Garcetti v. Ceballos. She was the first woman to earn tenure in the Department of Educational Administration at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the first woman to serve as Dean of its School of Education, a post she held for a decade; she also served as interim provost and as Dean of Miami University’s School of Education and Allied Professions. Her publications include early editions of ELA’s The Principal’s Legal Handbook, Legal Aspects of Special Education and Pupil Services, and School Law for Teachers, along with long-running legal commentary for Phi Delta Kappan.

Perry A. Zirkel is University Professor Emeritus of Education and Law at Lehigh University, where he also served as Dean of the College of Education and held the Iacocca Chair in Education. He holds a Ph.D. and a J.D. from the University of Connecticut and an LL.M. from Yale University, and his more than 1,750 publications have made him one of the field’s most prolific authorities on school law, with a particular focus on special education. He led the organization now known as the Education Law Association as its President from 1995 to 1996 and later co-chaired Pennsylvania’s special education appeals panel for seventeen years. His books include A Digest of Supreme Court Decisions Affecting Education, Student Teaching and the Law, and the two-volume Section 504, the ADA and the Schools. His scholarship has been recognized with the Education Law Association’s Steven S. Goldberg Award for Distinguished Scholarship and research awards from the American Educational Research Association, the Council for Exceptional Children, and the Council of Administrators of Special Education.