President, Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth
Shamina Singh has spent her career building connections across the public, private and non-profit sectors to deliver strategies that contribute positively to the global economy. As president of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, she is responsible for ensuring the Center achieves its mission to advance sustainable and equitable economic growth and financial inclusion around the world. Previously, she served as the Global Director of Mastercard’s Government Services and Solutions, where she worked to digitize social subsidy programs in over 40 countries.
In 2015, Ms. Singh was appointed by President Obama to a six-year term on the board of the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency responsible for engaging more than five million citizens in community service. She currently serves as Board Chair. She is also a member of the U.S. Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Public-Private Partnerships, a newly-formed advisory body to the U.S. Government on policies, proposals and strategies for developing public-private partnerships that promote shared value with the private sector worldwide.
Prior to joining Mastercard, Ms. Singh led Government and Public Affairs for Nike and spent five years with Citigroup’s Global Community Development Group. Over a 15-year career in the public sector, she held senior positions in the White House and the U.S. House of Representatives.
Ms. Singh is an alumna of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders program and currently serves on the Council on Economic Growth and Social Inclusion. She is on the board of Global Health Corps and the advisory boards of Data & Society and the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University. She is a Henry Crown Fellow with the Aspen Institute. Shamina holds an M.P.A from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin and a B.S. from Old Dominion University.
Blaine T. Phillips Distinguished Professor in Environmental Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Law and economics expert Jason Scott Johnston joined the Virginia Law faculty in 2010 and is the Blaine T. Phillips Distinguished Professor in Environmental Law. He formerly served as the the Nicholas E. Chimicles Research Professor in Business Law and Regulation at Virginia Law, and the Robert G. Fuller, Jr. Professor of Law and director of the Program on Law, Environment and Economy at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Johnston’s scholarship has examined subjects ranging from natural resources law to torts and contracts. He has published dozens of articles in law journals, such as the Yale Law Journal, and in peer-reviewed economics journals, such as the Journal of Law, Economics and Organization. He is currently working on a book that critically analyzes the foundations of global warming law and policy, a series of articles on the economics of regulatory science and another series of articles on various aspects of the law and economics of consumer protection. He has served on the Board of Directors of the American Law and Economics Association, on the National Science Foundation’s Law and Social Science grant review panel, and on the Board of the Searle Civil Justice Institute. He won Penn Law’s Robert A. Gorman Award for Teaching Excellence in 2003.
After earning his A.B. from Dartmouth College and both his J.D. and Ph.D. (economics) from the University of Michigan, Johnston clerked for Judge Gilbert S. Merritt on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He then taught at Vermont Law School and Vanderbilt Law School before joining Penn’s faculty. He has been a visiting professor or held fellowship appointments at Yale Law School, the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, the American Academy in Berlin and the Property and Environment Research Center.
Officer, Consumer Banking, The Pew Charitable Trusts
Thaddeus King is an officer for Pew’s consumer banking project, an initiative that advocates for policies that better protect and inform American checking accountholders. He works on major research report releases that focus on improving the safety and transparency of key banking practices, including disclosures, overdraft fees, and arbitration. He also has contributed extensively to research on alternative consumer transaction accounts, particularly prepaid accounts and mobile payments.
King previously worked as a law clerk at the National Association of Federal Credit Unions, in the departments of regulatory affairs and regulatory compliance, and as a research assistant focused on financial regulation at The George Washington University Law School. He is a member of the State Bar of Maryland. King holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of South Carolina and a J.D. from The George Washington University Law School.
Director of Litigation and Senior Attorney, Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute
Theodore H. Frank is director at the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute and the Center for Class Action Fairness. Frank founded and ran CCAF as a non-profit, public interest law firm in 2009.
Frank has won several landmark appeals and tens of millions of dollars for consumers and other plaintiffs through his class action work. Adam Liptak of The New York Times calls Frank “the leading critic of abusive class action settlements” and the American Lawyer Litigation Daily referred to him as “the indefatigable scourge of underwhelming class action settlements.”
Previously, Frank clerked for the Honorable Frank H. Easterbrook on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and was a litigator at firms in Washington and Los Angeles and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Frank is a frequent public speaker and has testified before Congress multiple times on legal issues. He has been profiled by The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, GQ, and the ABA Journal, among other publications.
In 2008, Frank was elected to membership in the American Law Institute. He also serves on the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society Litigation Practice Group. Frank graduated from The University of Chicago Law School in 1994 with high honors and as a member of the Order of the Coif and the Law Review. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the state bars of California and Illinois.
Director of Equality and Opportunity Litigation, Pacific Legal Foundation
Joshua directs the litigation for PLF’s Equality and Opportunity Program, where he fights to dismantle unconstitutional barriers to opportunity, freeing individuals to rise based on their choices, character, and ability.
Joshua joined PLF as an attorney in 2007. His litigation practice has covered all PLF subject areas with a particular focus on equality and opportunity. Joshua argued PLF’s 13th case before the United States Supreme Court, Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, where the court ruled that a California regulation that allowed union organizers onto private property violated the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause. Other litigation highlights of his include ending a decades-long racial quota in Hartford, Connecticut, lifting a ban on boys’ dancing in Minnesota, and vindicating an entrepreneur’s right to start a moving business in Kentucky.
Joshua’s writings have been published by the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. And his research has been published in journals such as Texas Review of Law & Politics, Alabama Civil Rights & Civil Liberties Law Review, Journal of Civil Rights & Economic Development, and Northern Illinois University Law Review. He has appeared on national television and radio, including PBS Newshour, NPR’s All things Considered, Stossel, and Univision.
Joshua earned his BA with distinction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a triple major in political science, international relations, and German. He earned his JD cum laude from Michigan State College of Law where he was on the law review and trial practice institute. Joshua lives in Sacramento, California with his wife and three children. He loves playing chess and rooting for Wisconsin sports teams.
Joshua is a member of the bar only in the state of California.
President, Harned Strategies LLC
Karen Harned is President at Harned Strategies LLC. Previously, she served as Executive Director of the National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, a post she held from 2002-2022. Prior to joining the Legal Center, Ms. Harned was an attorney at a Washington, D.C. law firm specializing in food and drug law, where she represented several small and large businesses and their respective trade associations before Congress and federal agencies. She also served as Assistant Press Secretary to U.S. Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma from August of 1989 to March of 1993. Ms. Harned received her B.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 1989 and her J.D. from The George Washington University National Law Center in 1995. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.
As Executive Director of the NFIB Small Business Legal Center, Ms. Harned commented regularly on small business cases before federal and state courts, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. She has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, NBC Nightly News, CNN, CNBC and MSNBC, as well as National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and radio outlets across the country. Her opinion editorials and articles regarding healthcare, lawsuit abuse, regulation, and other issues important to small business have been published in newspapers and other publications nationwide.
Ms. Harned has testified before Congress on the small business impact of regulation and the civil justice system. Additionally, she has conducted numerous webinars and legal compliance seminars for small business owners across the country on issues relating to employment law, including unionization and immigration.
Inside the U.S. Attorney’s Office: A Conversation with US Attorney Hayden O'Byrne and Harout Samra
Miami Student Chapter
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