Developments on Drones, Air Rights, and Takings
With the rapid progress of drone technology, legal claims to low-altitude airspace raise novel questions...
The Regulatory Transparency Project is a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort dedicated to fostering discussion and a better understanding of regulatory policies.
With the rapid progress of drone technology, legal claims to low-altitude airspace raise novel questions...
A Regulatory Transparency Project Webinar
In March 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed a new rule that would establish...
A Regulatory Transparency Project Webinar
In March 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed a new rule that would establish...
Andrew Olmem, Anthony Philip Campau, Susan E. Dudley, Sally Katzen
Regulatory Transparency Project's Fourth Branch Podcast
Eleventh Annual Executive Branch Review Conference — EBRXITheme: Transparency, Accountability, and the Administrative State The White...
Mindy Brashears, Stephen Ostroff, Stephen Alexander Vaden, Frank Yiannas
Food is a necessity for life. It should therefore surprise few that the federal government...
Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law Houston
Josh Blackman is a national thought leader on constitutional law and the United States Supreme Court. Josh’s work was quoted during two presidential impeachment trials. He has testified before Congress and advises federal and state lawmakers. Josh regularly appears on TV, including NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and the BBC. Josh is also a frequent guest on NPR and other syndicated radio programs. He has published commentaries in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and leading national publications.
Since 2012, Josh has served as a professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston. He holds the Centennial Chair of Constitutional Law. Josh is an Adjunct Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Josh has written more than seven dozen law review articles that have been cited more than a thousand times. Josh was selected as the Jurist of the Year by the Texas Journal of Law & Public Policy, received the inaugural Meese III Originalism Award, and was awarded the Inaugural Joseph Story Award. Josh was selected by Forbes Magazine for the “30 Under 30” in Law and Policy. Josh is the President of the Harlan Institute, and founded FantasySCOTUS, the Internet’s Premier Supreme Court Fantasy League. He blogs at the Volokh Conspiracyand posts@JoshMBlackman.
Clinical Professor of Law, Cornell Law School
William A. Jacobson is a Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Securities Law Clinic.
He is a 1981 graduate of Hamilton College and a 1984 graduate of Harvard Law School. At Harvard he was Senior Editor of the Harvard International Law Journal and Director of Litigation for the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project.
Prior to joining the Cornell law faculty in 2007, Professor Jacobson had a highly successful civil litigation and arbitration practice in Providence, Rhode Island, concentrating in investment, employment, and business disputes in the securities industry, including many high profile cases reported in leading newspapers and magazines.
Professor Jacobson has argued cases in numerous federal and state courts, including the Courts of Appeal for the First, Fifth and Sixth Circuits, and the Rhode Island Supreme Court.
Professor Jacobson has a national reputation as a leading practitioner in securities arbitration. He was Treasurer, and is a former member of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association, a professional organization of attorneys dedicated to protecting public investors. He frequently is quoted in national media on issues related to investment fraud and investor protection, and in the past has served as one of a small number of private practice attorneys who trained new arbitrators for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Professor Jacobson is co-author of the Securities Arbitration Desk Reference (Thomson-Reuters), updated annually.
Professor Jacobson also is the founder and publisher of Legal Insurrection, a popular politics and law website. He is frequently quoted in the media on political and legal topics, has authored many Op-Eds in major publications, and appears on television and radio to discuss politics and the law.
Vice President and Deputy Counsel, Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty
Professor of Law and J. Philip Johnson Faculty Fellow, University of North Dakota School of Law
Michael S. McGinniss is Professor of Law and J. Philip Johnson Faculty Fellow at the University of North Dakota School of Law, where he joined the faculty in 2010 and served as the Dean from 2019 to 2022. He chairs the executive committee for the Federalist Society's Practice Group on Professional Responsibility and Legal Education.
Before entering the legal academy, Professor McGinniss served for twelve years as a Disciplinary Counsel for the Supreme Court of Delaware. He currently teaches courses on Professional Responsibility, Advanced Legal Ethics, Civil Procedure, and Federal Courts. He also serves as Faculty Advisor for the North Dakota Law Review and the UND Law Federalist Society student chapter.
Professor McGinniss’ research and scholarship interests are wide-ranging and include lawyer and judicial ethics, lawyer discipline and regulation of the profession, constitutional law (especially First Amendment, separation of powers, and federalism), and cultural challenges faced by conservatives in the law schools and the legal profession. His most recent law review article, Declaring Independence to Secure Integrity: The Supreme Court Justices' Code of Conduct, was published in the Federalist Society Review. His article Expressing Conscience with Candor: Saint Thomas More and First Freedoms in the Legal Profession, was published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.
Professor McGinniss has spoken to Federalist Society lawyer and student chapters across the country about judicial independence and ethics, especially relating to the federal courts and the United States Supreme Court Justices. In addition, he has spoken to several chapters about rising challenges to ideological diversity and targeting of conservative viewpoints in law schools and the legal profession. Although he is very pleased to speak on these and many other topics that may be of interest to lawyer and student chapters, in 2026-2027, he has particular interest in speaking on the topic “Lawyer Discipline as Political ‘Resistance’: Separation of Powers, Federalism, and the Rule of Law,” concerning his work-in-progress on the weaponization of professional disciplinary processes against conservative lawyers for political and ideological purposes.
Commissioner, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law
Hon. Kenneth L. Marcus is an internationally recognized expert in civil and human rights, as well as a leader in the fight against anti-Semitism on and off university campuses. He is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the leading civil rights legal organization fighting against anti-Semitism. The New York Times has called him “The Man Who Helped Redefine Campus Anti-Semitism.” He been described, in that paper, as “the single most effective and respected force” to combat anti-Semitism.
During his public service career, Marcus served as Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education for Civil Rights; Staff Director at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; and General Deputy Assistant U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.
In academia, he serves as Professorial Lecturer in Law at George Washington University. He formerly held the Lillie and Nathan Ackerman Chair in Equality and Justice in America at the City University of New York’s Bernard M. Baruch College, served as Visiting Research Professor of Political Science at Yeshiva University, and was a Board of Visitors member George Mason University and Distinguished Senior Fellow at that university’s law school. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism and previously served as Associate Editor of the Journal for the Study of Anti-Semitism.
Marcus is also author of The Definition of Anti-Semitism (Oxford University Press) and Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America (Cambridge University Press). He has published widely in academic journals as well as in more popular venues such as The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Newsweek, USA Today, and Politico. He is a graduate of Williams College and the University of California at Berkeley School of Law.
Earlier in his career, he was a litigation partner in two major law firms, where he conducted complex commercial and constitutional litigation. He also serves as Chairman emeritus of the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy Civil Rights Practice Group.
Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, United States Department of Housing and Urban Development
Craig Trainor is Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. President Trump nominated Mr. Trainor for this position on February 11, 2025, and the United States Senate confirmed him on October 7, 2025.
A “Day One” Trump-Vance Administration official, he previously served as Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Education, where he spearheaded the Department’s efforts to reorient America’s civil rights regime from an unjust spoils system to one that protects the rights of all Americans. Mr. Trainor’s February 14, 2025, “Dear Colleague” letter is widely considered the Trump Administration’s blueprint for enforcing civil rights laws and restoring the Constitution’s promise of equal protection.
Prior to serving in the Trump-Vance Administration, he was Senior Special Counsel with the United States House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary under Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), and Senior Litigation Counsel with the America First Policy Institute under the Honorable Pam Bondi.
For over ten years, Mr. Trainor was a criminal defense and civil rights lawyer in New York City, litigating cases in New York state court and the United States District Court for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
Prior to founding his law practice, he served as a New York City prosecutor, an associate attorney at a white collar criminal defense firm, and a law clerk to Chief Judge Frederick J. Scullin, Jr., United States District Court for the Northern District of New York.
Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Devon Westhill is the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The U.S. Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s nomination of Westhill on October 7, 2025.
Westhill returns to the USDA where he previously headed the civil rights office as Deputy Assistant Secretary in President Trump’s first term. His previous government appointments also include service at the U.S. Department of Labor, liaison to the Administrative Conference of the U.S., and liaison to the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Prior to returning to government service, Westhill was President and General Counsel of a nonprofit civil rights organization.
Westhill has testified on civil rights matters before Congress, federal agencies, and as an expert witness in federal court. He has spoken hundreds of times at college campuses, conferences, and on radio and TV programs, and he is frequently quoted in print publications, and his writing has appeared in numerous national outlets. A U.S. Navy veteran, Westhill earned his BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his JD from the University of Florida.
Dwight D. Opperman Professor of Law; Director, Center for Labor, New York University School of Law
Samuel Estreicher is a nationally preeminent scholar in US and international-comparative labor and employment law and arbitration law. He has authored more than a dozen books, including Beyond Elite Law: Access to Civil Justice in America (with Joy Radice, Cambridge Univ. 2016); leading casebooks on legislation and regulatory state, labor law and employment discrimination and employment law; and published more than 200 articles in professional and academic journals. He served as Chief Reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement of Employment Law (2015). After clerking for Judge Harold Leventhal of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, practicing in a labor law firm, and clerking for Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. of the US Supreme Court, Prof. Estreicher joined the NYU School of Law faculty in 1978. In addition to serving as counsel to major law firms, he is the former secretary of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the American Bar Association, a former chair of the Committee on Labor and Employment Law of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.15). He maintains an active appellate and ADR practice. The Labor and Employment Research Association awarded him its 2010 Susan C. Eaton Award for Outstanding Scholar-Practitioner. In recent years, Estreicher also has published work in public international law and authored several briefs in the Supreme Court and US courts of appeals on employment and US foreign relations law issues. Prof. Estreicher received his BA from Columbia College, his MS in industrial relations from Cornell University, and his JD from Columbia Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Columbia Law Review. He is a member of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and was appointed in 2016 by the UN Secretary General as a member of the UN’s Internal Justice Commission.
Shareholder, Ogletree Deakins
Brian Hayes is a Shareholder in the Washington, DC office of Ogletree Deakins and serves as Co-Chair of the law firm’s Traditional Labor Practice Group. Immediately prior to his joining the firm he was a Member of the National Labor Relations Board. He was confirmed to that post by the United States Senate in 2010 and his term ended in December of 2012. He is currently a Member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Advisory Committee and was recently named Chairman of the U.S. Chamber’s Subcommittee on the National Labor Relations Act. He also serves as editor in chief for The Practical NLRB Advisor.
Prior to his nomination and confirmation to the NLRB, Brian Hayes served as the Republican Labor Policy Director for the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. He came to Capitol Hill in 2005 after nearly thirty years in private legal practice devoted exclusively to representing management clients in labor and employment matters. While in private practice he represented clients in scores of cases before NLRB, state and federal courts, and a host of other federal agencies such as the EEOC, OFCCP, OSHA, the Department of Labor and their state counterparts. He also has had extensive private practice experience representing employers in collective-bargaining negotiations, arbitrations and other forms of dispute resolution. In addition to his private practice, he served as Counsel to the Employers’ Association of the Northeast, editor-in-chief and contributor to The Health Care Labor Manual, and also served on the adjunct faculty of Western New England Law School teaching courses in labor law, and collective-bargaining, arbitration and employment litigation. Before entering private practice he began his legal career at the NLRB working as a law clerk to the Chief Administrative Law Judge while in law school and subsequently as counsel to the then-Board Chairman. He is a graduate of Boston College and of Georgetown University Law School.
Principal, JacksonLewis
Marvin Kaplan is a principal in the New York City, New York, office of Jackson Lewis P.C.
Marvin, a former Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), advises clients on labor and employment issues, focusing on union organizing and labor-management relations. Over his eight years on the NLRB, Marvin participated in over 900 decisions, including decisions addressing the lawfulness of captive audience speeches and work rules, and the standards for determining the composition of a bargaining unit and whether an individual is an independent contractor, and several rulemakings, defining a joint-employer and laying out procedures governing representation elections.
Prior to his time on the NLRB, he served as Chief Counsel at the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission and a Special Assistant at U.S. Department of Labor. His cross-disciplinary experience makes Marvin particularly well-suited to advise clients on strategic business planning.
His experience at all levels of government in different agencies and branches, including the U.S. House of Representatives, provides a unique perspective on Congressional oversight, legislation, regulations and federal investigations—enabling him to help clients navigate complex compliance challenges and anticipate regulatory developments that could impact their organizations.
He is a graduate of Cornell University and Washington University in St. Louis Law School.
Shareholder & Co-Chair of the Workplace Policy Institute, Littler Mendelson P.C.
Alexander T. MacDonald advises employers on all aspects of the employment and labor landscape, focusing on emerging legislation and regulation. He has extensive experience advising businesses on worker classification, arbitration, the administrative and regulatory process, and the future of work. He frequently writes, publishes, and speaks on these subjects. His work has been cited by scholars and appellate courts. He is a recognized voice for the management perspective.
Alexander is a co-chair of the Workplace Policy Institute (WPI) team. With WPI, he advises employers on legislative, administrative, and regulatory developments at the state and federal level. He advocates for employers in the regulatory and administrative process. He also helps employers protect their businesses by understanding and anticipating cutting-edge legal developments.
Alexander also has extensive experience in traditional labor law. He represents management in all aspects of labor-management relations, including unfair labor practice charges, grievance arbitrations, representation elections, contract negotiations, and related litigation, including litigation in the U.S. courts of appeals.
Before joining Littler, Alexander served as the director, future of work, for a major technology company. He also worked in a national labor and employment law firm and a major public-sector general counsel’s office. He was a law clerk to the senior judges in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
He is also a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. He served in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. In law school, he graduated first in his class
Legal Fellow, Center for Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute
Brent Skorup is a legal fellow in the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies.
Before joining Cato, he was a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at the George Mason University. His research areas include free speech, technology law, Fourth Amendment protections, regulation, and property law. Skorup has published pieces in economics and law journals and in popular media, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg Law, Reuters, and Wired. He’s appeared as a TV and radio interview guest for news outlets like C‑SPAN, NPR, CBS News, ABC News, and CNBC Asia.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, a dissenting opinion at the Illinois Supreme Court, and the ALI's Restatement of the Law of Property have cited his legal research and he has testified as a technology and legal expert in legislative hearings in several states. Skorup has been appointed to several federal and state advisory bodies and he is currently a member of the Texas Advanced Air Mobility Advisory Committee.
Skorup has a BA in economics from Wheaton College and a law degree from the George Mason University School of Law, where he was articles editor for the Civil Rights Law Journal. He was a legal clerk at the FCC’s wireless bureau and Office of General Counsel and at the Energy and Commerce Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Managing Partner - Washington, D.C., Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP
Jane Luxton is the Managing Partner of Lewis Brisbois’ Washington, D.C. office, co-chair of the Government Investigations & White Collar Defense Practice, co-chair of the Government Relations Group Leadership, co-chair of the Environmental and Administrative Law Practice, and vice-chair of the Consumer Financial Services Practice. Jane has extensive experience in environmental as well as other federal regulatory, policy, and litigation matters. She advises businesses, associations, and coalitions in navigating all levels of the federal regulatory process, including appellate advocacy.
Recent matters include:
Jane’s knowledge of environmental and administrative law gained key insights from her experience serving in several prominent positions in the U.S. government. From 2007-2009, she served as general counsel of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, advising the Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere on legal and policy issues related to natural resource damages, coastal zone and fisheries management, endangered species and marine mammal protection, and weather and climate change science. In this role, in which she held a top secret/SCI security clearance, Jane was appointed by the President to head the U.S. delegation to the 2008 Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission. She also received the U.S. Department of Commerce Gold Medal Award in 2008 and 2009.
Jane’s experience includes “first chair” prosecution of antitrust and other criminal cases at the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Attorneys office, Eastern District of Virginia. In private practice, Jane has represented clients in grand jury and other government investigations.
Of Counsel, Covington & Burling LLP
The Honorable Paul J. Ray is currently Of Counsel at Covington & Burling LLP where he advises clients on regulatory opportunities and challenges and helps them formulate and execute advocacy strategies for their regulatory policy priorities before the executive branch and Congress.
During the first Trump Administration, Paul held various senior positions at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, including as acting, and then Senate-confirmed, head of the office. As OIRA Administrator (the "regulations czar"), Paul supervised the review of hundreds of regulations from across the government, drafted numerous executive orders governing the regulatory process, and led the Administration’s regulatory reform effort. As a result of this experience, Paul is well-positioned to help clients understand and achieve regulatory policy priorities in the context of the government’s regulatory agenda and ongoing reform efforts.
Most recently, Paul was also the Director of the Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. In that role, he supervised the formulation of the Foundation’s economic and regulatory policy recommendations and provided technical assistance to congressional committees and staff regarding legislative changes to the regulatory process. In addition to his role at The Heritage Foundation, Paul also served as a Senior Advisor at a strategic advisory firm. Before his time in government, Paul practiced law at a law firm in Washington, specializing in administrative law matters.
Prior to his role at the White House, Paul was Counselor to the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Labor. There he led departmental efforts in high-profile rulemakings and helped formulate the Department’s legal positions and strategy.
Paul served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and as a law clerk to the Honorable Debra Livingston of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Paul is a thought leader in the conservative legal movement and is a frequent commentator and speaker on regulatory policy and reform matters, including at law schools, professional gatherings, and other venues. He is the Chairman of Innovations in Peacebuilding International and the Regulatory Process Working Group of the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project and a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States. Paul is also an adjunct lecturer at the Hillsdale College School of Government.
Managing Partner - Washington, D.C., Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP
Jane Luxton is the Managing Partner of Lewis Brisbois’ Washington, D.C. office, co-chair of the Government Investigations & White Collar Defense Practice, co-chair of the Government Relations Group Leadership, co-chair of the Environmental and Administrative Law Practice, and vice-chair of the Consumer Financial Services Practice. Jane has extensive experience in environmental as well as other federal regulatory, policy, and litigation matters. She advises businesses, associations, and coalitions in navigating all levels of the federal regulatory process, including appellate advocacy.
Recent matters include:
Jane’s knowledge of environmental and administrative law gained key insights from her experience serving in several prominent positions in the U.S. government. From 2007-2009, she served as general counsel of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, advising the Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere on legal and policy issues related to natural resource damages, coastal zone and fisheries management, endangered species and marine mammal protection, and weather and climate change science. In this role, in which she held a top secret/SCI security clearance, Jane was appointed by the President to head the U.S. delegation to the 2008 Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission. She also received the U.S. Department of Commerce Gold Medal Award in 2008 and 2009.
Jane’s experience includes “first chair” prosecution of antitrust and other criminal cases at the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Attorneys office, Eastern District of Virginia. In private practice, Jane has represented clients in grand jury and other government investigations.
Of Counsel, Covington & Burling LLP
The Honorable Paul J. Ray is currently Of Counsel at Covington & Burling LLP where he advises clients on regulatory opportunities and challenges and helps them formulate and execute advocacy strategies for their regulatory policy priorities before the executive branch and Congress.
During the first Trump Administration, Paul held various senior positions at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, including as acting, and then Senate-confirmed, head of the office. As OIRA Administrator (the "regulations czar"), Paul supervised the review of hundreds of regulations from across the government, drafted numerous executive orders governing the regulatory process, and led the Administration’s regulatory reform effort. As a result of this experience, Paul is well-positioned to help clients understand and achieve regulatory policy priorities in the context of the government’s regulatory agenda and ongoing reform efforts.
Most recently, Paul was also the Director of the Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. In that role, he supervised the formulation of the Foundation’s economic and regulatory policy recommendations and provided technical assistance to congressional committees and staff regarding legislative changes to the regulatory process. In addition to his role at The Heritage Foundation, Paul also served as a Senior Advisor at a strategic advisory firm. Before his time in government, Paul practiced law at a law firm in Washington, specializing in administrative law matters.
Prior to his role at the White House, Paul was Counselor to the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Labor. There he led departmental efforts in high-profile rulemakings and helped formulate the Department’s legal positions and strategy.
Paul served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and as a law clerk to the Honorable Debra Livingston of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Paul is a thought leader in the conservative legal movement and is a frequent commentator and speaker on regulatory policy and reform matters, including at law schools, professional gatherings, and other venues. He is the Chairman of Innovations in Peacebuilding International and the Regulatory Process Working Group of the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project and a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States. Paul is also an adjunct lecturer at the Hillsdale College School of Government.
Partner, Mayer Brown
Andrew Olmem is a partner in Mayer Brown’s Washington DC office and a member of its Public Policy, Regulatory & Government Affairs, and Financial Services Regulatory & Enforcement practices. His practice focuses on complex financial services regulatory and public policy matters.
Andrew previously served as the Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council (NEC), where he oversaw the development and coordination of the administrations’ domestic economic policies, including for financial services, technology, telecom, energy, and infrastructure.
Earlier, he also served as the Republican Chief Counsel and Deputy Staff Director at the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. Andrew began his legal career practicing corporate and securities law at Mayer Brown in New York City. Prior to attending law school, he served as an Assistant Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
Principal, Clark Hill Public Strategies & Attorney, Clark Hill PLC
Anthony P. Campau is Principal at Clark Hill Public Strategies and an Attorney at Clark Hill PLC, two related Clark Hill firm entities. Mr. Campau previously served as chief of staff and counselor at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which oversees the development of most new federal regulations and guidance, sets and enforces federal privacy and statistical policy, and plays a leading role in new initiatives like the regulation of artificial intelligence and the development of bilateral regulatory cooperation agreements. He clerked for the Hon. Neomi Rao, Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, was in-house counsel and assistant secretary of the board for a large university, and served as a regulatory fellow at a major think tank in Washington, D.C.
Director, GW Regulatory Studies Center & Distinguished Professor of Practice, Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Administration, The George Washington University
Susan Dudley is the Founder and Director of the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center, established in 2009 to raise awareness of regulations’ effects and improve regulatory policy through research, education, and outreach. She is also a distinguished professor of practice in the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration. She is past-president of the Society for Benefit Cost Analysis, a senior fellow of the Administrative Conference of the United States, and on the Regulatory Transparency Project Regulatory Practice Working Group. Her book, Regulation: A Primer, with Jerry Brito, is available on Amazon.com.
From April 2007 through January 2009, Professor Dudley served as the Presidentially-appointed Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and was responsible for the review of draft executive branch regulations under Executive Order 12866, the collection of federal-government-wide information under the Paperwork Reduction Act, the development and implementation of government-wide policies in the areas of information policy, privacy, and statistical policy, and international regulatory cooperation efforts.
Prior to OIRA, she directed the Regulatory Studies Program at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and taught courses on regulation at the George Mason University School of Law. Earlier in her career, Professor Dudley served as an economist at OIRA, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. She was also a consultant to government and private clients at Economists Incorporated. She holds a Master of Science degree from the Sloan School of Management at MIT and a Bachelor of Science degree (summa cum laude) in Resource Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Professor of Practice and Distinguished Scholar in Residence; Co-Director of the Legislative and Regulatory Process Clinic, New York University School of Law
Sally Katzen served in the Clinton administration as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), as deputy assistant to the president for economic policy and deputy director of the National Economic Council in the White House, and then as the deputy director for management at OMB. She served as the head of the Agency Review Group for the Obama/Biden transition with responsibility for the Executive Office of the President and all government-wide agencies. She has taught both undergraduates and at various law schools. She is a member of the American Law Institute and the National Academy of Public Administration, has served on multiple panels for the National Academy of Sciences, testified frequently before Congress, and is on the board of several non-profit organizations. Before joining the Clinton administration, Katzen was a partner in the Washington, DC, law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, specializing in regulatory and legislative matters, while serving in leadership roles in the American Bar Association (including chair of the Section on Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice and as DC delegate to the ABA’s House of Delegates), as president of the Federal Communications Bar Association and as president of the Women’s Legal Defense Fund. She graduated from Smith College and the University of Michigan Law School, where she was the first woman editor-in-chief of the Law Review. She clerked for Judge J. Skelly Wright of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and served in the Carter administration as the general counsel of the Council on Wage and Price Stability in the Executive Office of the President.
Director, International Center for Food Industry Excellence, Texas Tech University
Dr. Mindy Brashears is the former Under Secretary of Agriculture in Food Safety where she served the USDA as a political appointee from 2019-2021. She is currently the Associate Vice President of Research at Texas Tech University and a Professor of Food Safety and Public Health holding the Roth and Letch family Endowed Chair of Food Safety. She also serves as the Director of the International Center for Food Industry Excellence at Texas Tech University.
She is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and has 3 spinoff companies based on her work. She holds a B.S. in food technology from Texas Tech (magna cum laude) and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in food science from Oklahoma State University. She is married to Dr. Todd Brashears, who is a professor of agricultural education, and has three daughters, Bailey, Reagan (Jimenez) and Presley and one son-in-law, Eli Jimenez. Her research focuses on mitigation strategies in pre-and post-harvest environments and on the emergence of antimicrobial drug resistance in agricultural ecosystems. Her interests are primarily in meat, poultry and vegetable products.
She also has a passion for food security and has led international research teams to numerous places across Latin America and the Caribbean to improve food safety and security in those sectors and to set up sustainable agriculture systems in developing areas. She teaches courses in food microbiology and food safety and offers industry training in food safety and security. She has received multiple awards including the IAFP Laboratorian Award, The AMSA Research and Industry/Extension Award and was named as a Future Icon in the Meat Industry by the National Provisioner Magazine.
MD
Dr. Ostroff retired from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in early 2019.
During his 7 years at FDA, he served as Deputy Commissioner for Foods and
Veterinary Medicine, where he oversaw the agency’s food and animal health
activities of FDA, including responsibilities in the areas of food safety and
nutrition, food labeling, food and color additives, cosmetics, dietary supplements,
animal drugs and animal feed, and research to support the food and veterinary
medicine mission of FDA. Dr. Ostroff also served as FDA’s Chief Scientist and as
the agency’s Acting Commissioner on two occasions in both the Obama and
Trump administrations.
Before joining the FDA, Dr. Ostroff worked at the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta for more than 20 years on infectious disease
surveillance and outbreak investigations, especially management and
coordination of complex emerging infectious disease threats such as anthrax,
Ebola, West Nile virus, SARS, and avian influenza. He was in the US Public Health
Service Commissioned Corps, attaining the rank of Assistant Surgeon General
(Rear Admiral). He also worked at the Pennsylvania Department of Health as
Director of the Bureau of Epidemiology and the Commonwealth’s Acting Physician
General.
Dr. Ostroff received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University
of Pennsylvania. He currently holds adjunct professor appointments at Penn
State College of Medicine’s Department of Public Health Sciences and the
University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology.
Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Judge Stephen Alexander Vaden was appointed as the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture on July 7, 2025. Alongside Secretary Brooke L. Rollins, Deputy Secretary Vaden leads the Department’s operations and implements policies that support America’s food and farm systems. A native of Union City, Tennessee, Deputy Secretary Vaden brings expertise in agricultural policy, law, and rural development. Previously, he served as a judge on the U.S. Court of International Trade and as General Counsel of USDA. Throughout Deputy Secretary Vaden’s time as General Counsel, he led successful Supreme Court litigation, advanced regulatory reform, and supported the implementation of the 2018 Farm Bill. He is a graduate of Yale Law School and Vanderbilt University. A public servant with strong agricultural roots, Deputy Secretary Vaden is committed to revitalizing rural America and ensuring an abundant, affordable, and safe U.S. food supply.
Former Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response, FDA
Frank Yiannas is a former Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response, a position he assumed in December of 2018. In that role he was the principal advisor to the FDA Commissioner in the development and execution of policies related to food safety, including implementation of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). His leadership role within the Agency covered a broad spectrum of food safety priorities, such as outbreak response, traceback investigations, product recall activities, and supply chain innovation across the full spectrum of FDA-regulated products.
Prior to his time at FDA, Mr. Yiannas held leadership roles with two industry giants: Walmart and the Walt Disney Company. At Walmart, which he joined in 2008 and served for over a decade, Mr. Yiannas was the Vice President for Food Safety. In this role, he led the effort to make Walmart the first U.S. retailer to require suppliers to achieve certification against one of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) benchmarked food safety schemes.
At Disney, where he worked for 19 years, he was the Director of Safety and Health. During his tenure, Disney received the prestigious Black Pearl Award for corporate excellence in food safety from the International Association for Food Protection. The recipient of numerous awards, in 2007, he received the National Science Foundation’s International Lifetime Achievement Award for Leadership in Food Safety. He is also the recipient of the Collaboration Award by FDA in 2008 and he was named the 2015 Industry Professional Food Safety Hero Award by STOP Foodborne Illness, a consumer advocacy group.
Mr. Yiannas is a past president of the International Association for Food Protection and a past vice-chairman of the Global Food Safety Initiative. He was also an adjunct Professor in the Food Safety Program at Michigan State University, and in 2017 was awarded the MSU Outstanding Faculty Award.
A microbiologist, Mr. Yiannas received a B.S. in microbiology from the University of Central Florida and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of South Florida.