President and CEO, The Buckeye Institute
Robert Alt is the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Buckeye Institute where he has catalyzed exponential growth since he took the organization’s helm in 2012. He has since founded Buckeye’s renowned Economic Research Center and established its impactful Legal Center.
Alt is a distinguished scholar and attorney with particular expertise in legal policy, criminal justice, national security, and constitutional law. He previously worked for former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III, regularly provides commentary on television and radio programs, and his writings have appeared in countless outlets.
In 2004, Alt spent five months in Iraq as an embedded war correspondent.
Alt has testified before Congress multiple times—including at the confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan—the Federal Election Commission regarding matters of constitutional and administrative law, and numerous state legislatures.
Alt serves as an officer on the boards of The Philadelphia Society and the Federalist Society’s Columbus Lawyers Chapter. He taught national security law, criminal law, and legislation at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, as well as constitutional law and political parties and interest groups at Ashland University.
Alt earned his Doctor of Law degree from The University of Chicago Law School, where he was Symposium Editor and the winner of the Mulroy Prize for Excellence in Appellate Advocacy as well as research assistant to Professor Richard Epstein. Following law school, he clerked for Judge Alice Batchelder on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Alt graduated with his Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and political science magna cum laude from Azusa Pacific University where he also won the Outstanding Senior Award in Political Science.
Alt is an accomplished high-altitude alpinist and endurance athlete who has successfully climbed 6.75 of the famed Seven Summits of the World including Mount Everest. He is the creator of PROFOUND CLIMBING™ and a frequent speaker across the country and around the world on legal and public policy topics as well as effective leadership, management, decision-making, and teamwork in contexts ranging from extraordinary life/death situations to ordinary professional/business settings.
Partner, Coffey Burlington PL
Mr. Coffey is a former U.S. Attorney, Southern District of Florida (1993-1996); and most recently Chair, Southern District Conference, Florida Federal Judicial Nominating Commission (April 2009 – present). He is annually recognized as one of Florida Trend’s Legal Elite, Florida “Super Lawyer,” and South Florida Legal Guide’s “Top Lawyers”, recognized by the National Law Journal as one of its Lawyers of the Year for 2000, as Member of Gore Legal Team. He concentrates on complex litigation at trial and appellate levels, in state and federal court.
A frequent teacher and guest lecturer, he has been Guest Legal Analyst providing legal commentary for international networks: CNN International, Telemundo, Univision, Canadian Broadcasting Company; national networks: CNBC, CNN, CNN Headline News, FOX, MSNBC and NBC; and local television: ABC-10, CBS-4, América TeVe, Telemundo-51, Univision-23, TeleMiami. As a teacher, Mr. Coffey is adjunct faculty member for University of Miami School of Law, Florida Constitutional Law (2008 – present), Florida International University (Administrative Law 2011), and Trial Advocacy Program (1991 – 1993); and a Lecturer in trial skills and substantive law for The Florida Bar, The Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers, Dade County Bar Association, University of Miami School of Law, Professional Education Systems, Inc., National Business Institute, Inc. and CLE International, Inc.
Former Staff Judge Advocate, United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM)
Colonel Rodger A. Drew, Jr., was the Staff Judge Advocate for the United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), located in Miami, Florida, which is one of ten unified Combatant Commands in the Department of Defense. It is responsible for providing contingency planning, operations, and security cooperation for Central and South America, and parts of the Caribbean, including Cuba; as well as for the force protection of U.S. military resources at these locations. SOUTHCOM is also responsible for ensuring the defense of the Panama Canal and canal area. SOUTHCOM is a joint command comprised of more than 1,200 military and civilian personnel representing the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and several other federal agencies.
Colonel Drew was born in Merced, California, and, as a military dependent, was raised primarily in San Antonio, Texas. A member of the Texas A&M University Corps of Cadets, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in history and was commissioned in the United States Air Force in 1984. During an educational delay he attended the University of Houston School of Law, graduating in 1987. He entered extended active duty as a judge advocate in December 1987. He has served as a trial counsel, area defense counsel, circuit defense counsel, civil litigation attorney, staff judge advocate, and military judge.
Colonel Drew has taught on various litigation, judicial methodology, courtroom technology, human rights, and international humanitarian law topics as an adjunct faculty member of The Judge Advocate General’s School, United States Air Force; The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, United States Army; the National Judicial College, and the Defense Institute of International Legal Studies.
Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow, The Heritage Foundation
Becky Norton Dunlop, a prominent leader, strategist, and counselor in the conservative movement, is The Heritage Foundation’s Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow.
Dunlop, who joined the leading think tank in 1998, holds the only policy chair in the country to be officially named for the 40th president. She succeeds Ed Meese, the U.S. attorney general under Reagan, who assumed emeritus status.
Dunlop oversees special projects, travels as an ambassador for Heritage, and works tirelessly to assure that the legacy of principles, policies, and practices represented by the life and service of Ronald Reagan remain in the hearts and minds of Americans.
Previously, Dunlop was Heritage’s vice president for external relations from 1998 until May 2016. She served on the Trump Transition team.
Dunlop was a senior official in the Reagan administration from 1981-1989 inside the White House, at the Justice Department, and at the Interior Department.
She served from 1994-1998 as Secretary of Natural Resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia in the Cabinet of then-Virginia Gov. George Allen.
As political director for the American Conservative Union from 1973- 1977, she was instrumental in organizing grass-roots activists for Reagan’s unsuccessful 1976 race for the Republican nomination and advised his successful 1980 nomination and general election campaigns.
From Reagan’s first inauguration in 1981 to 1985, her White House posts included Deputy Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel and Special Assistant to the President and Director of his Cabinet office. During Reagan’s second term, Dunlop served as senior special assistant to Meese, then attorney general, in charge of managing Cabinet-level domestic policy issues. She oversaw major policy reports on the environment, the family, federalism, tort reform, privatization, and welfare reform.
She completed her service in the Reagan administration as deputy undersecretary of the Interior Department and as assistant interior secretary for fish, wildlife, and parks.
Dunlop is one of the few of the insiders from the beginnings of the Reagan era who remain active in public policy leadership.
As Virginia’s natural resources chief, Dunlop worked to streamline, decentralize, and down-size agencies while protecting and improving the environment. She is one of the few “free-market environmentalists” to have headed a state agency and put ideas into action. Her book, “Clearing the Air” (Alexis de Tocqueville Institute, 2000), chronicles some of her experiences in advancing those principles.
In 2002, President George W. Bush appointed her to a part-time post as chairwoman of the Federal Service Impasses Panel. The seven-member panel resolves disputes between federal agencies management and labor unions. Under her leadership, it took on several hundred cases and eliminated backlogs.
Other current leadership roles include the boards of the Virginia Institute for Public Policy, the Reagan Ranch Board of Governors, the Reagan Alumni Association, the Association for American Educators and the AAE Foundation, the Council for National Policy and the American Conservative Union.
In addition to topics addressing conservative principles and their roots in the nation’s founding, Dunlop is a sought-after public speaker on the idea that personnel is policy; on energy, natural resources and the environment (including free market environmentalism); on federalism as a former member of a governor’s Cabinet; Capitalism and the Rule of Law, and on the Reagan administration (including the 40th president’s effective leadership style).
A graduate of Miami University in Ohio, she currently resides in Arlington, Virginia, with her husband, George S. Dunlop. The Dunlops are members of Oakland Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia.
Director, Center for Health and Homeland Security, University of Maryland School of Law
Michael Greenberger is the Founder and Director of the Center for Health and Homeland Security (CHHS) at the University of Maryland and a professor at the School of Law. CHHS works on a broad range of homeland security and emergency response issues for federal, state and local governmental agencies, as well as medical researchers. CHHS has a staff of more than 70 professionals, many of whom are recent graduates of the School of Law. More information about CHHS can be found at www.mdchhs.com.
Professor Greenberger designed and teaches two courses focused on counterterrorism and emergency response: "Homeland Security and The Law of Counterterrorism;" and "Law and Policy of Emergency Public Health Response Seminar/Course," which brings students and faculty from the various university professional schools together to study effective governmental policies pertaining to catastrophic public health emergencies. Professor Greenberger also teaches a seminar on Futures, Options and Derivatives at the School of Law.
Professor Greenberger currently serves as the Chair of the Maryland Governor's Emergency Management Advisory Council (GEMAC). He was recently appointed by President of the American Bar Association to the Advisory Committee of the Standing Committee on Law and National Security.
In 1999, Professor Greenberger began service as Counselor to the United States Attorney General, and then became the Justice Department's Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General. In the latter capacity, Professor Greenberger assisted the United States Attorney General and Associate Attorney General in supervising the work of the Justice Department's Civil, Civil Rights, Environmental, Antitrust, and Tax Divisions. Also within his portfolio of responsibilities were several counterterrorism projects concerning both law enforcement and public health policy, including organizing a nationwide counterterrorism war game ("TOPOFF I").
In 1997, Professor Greenberger left private practice to become the Director of the Division of Trading and Markets at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) where he served under CFTC Chairperson Brooksley Born. In that capacity, he was responsible for supervising exchange traded futures and derivatives. He also served on the Steering Committee of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, and as a member of the International Organization of Securities Commissions' Hedge Fund Task Force. Professor Greenberger has frequently been asked to testify before Congressional committees on issues pertaining to dysfunctions within the United States economy caused by complex and unregulated financial derivatives.
Professor Greenberger has recently served as the Technical Advisor to the United Nations Commission of Experts on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System and the International Energy Forum's Independent Expert Group on reducing world-wide energy price volatility. He also participated on an expert panel advising The University Center for Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Response at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) on "Best Practices for Explosive/Incendiary Incidents."
Professor Greenberger has recently appeared both in the media and at academic gatherings to discuss financial regulation, including appearances on CNN, ABC's "World News Tonight," the CBS Evening News, the NBC Evening News, CNBC, MSNBC, The Jim Lehrer News Hour, NPR's "Fresh Air," PBS's "Frontline," BBC Radio, and C-SPAN. Professor Greenberger's recent testimony and related media can be found at www.michaelgreenberger.com.
Prior to entering government service, Professor Greenberger was a partner for over 20 years in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Shea & Gardner, where he served as lead litigation counsel before courts of law nationwide, including the United States Supreme Court.
Professor Greenberger is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Lafayette College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Law Review. He is a Life Member of the American Law Institute and he has served on the Board of Governors of the D.C. Bar and as a board member of three nonprofit public interest organizations. Professor Greenberger has also served on the D.C. Circuit Advisory Committee on Procedures and as a mediator for the United States Courts for the District of Columbia.
Ella A. and Ernest H. Fisher Professor of Law, Ohio Northern University Claude W. Pettit College of Law
Professor Lewis joined the Ohio Northern faculty in August, 2006. Lewis flew F-14's for the United States Navy in Operation Desert Shield, conducted strike planning for Desert Storm and was deployed to the Persian Gulf to enforce the no-fly zone over Iraq. He was a Topgun graduate in 1992 and was featured in a NOVA documentary on Topgun and aircraft carriers.
After his naval service, Lewis graduated from Harvard Law School, cum laude, was a management consultant with McKinsey and Company, and served as a litigation associate with McGuireWoods, LLP, in Norfolk, Virginia.
Professor Lewis has published more than a dozen articles and essays on various aspects of the law of war and the conflict between the US and al Qaeda. His work has been cited by the Seventh, Ninth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals. He has testified before Congress on the legality of drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen and on the civil liberties tradeoffs associated with trying some Al Qaeda members or terrorist suspects before military commissions. His op-eds have appeared in numerous media outlets including the LA Times and the New York Post and he has appeared on Public Radio International to discuss the increasing use of armed drones in warfare. He has delivered scores of presentations and panel presentations before military and law school audiences alike including presentations to the international Military Operations Law conference in Queensland, Australia, the US Army's JAG School in Charlottesville, VA and law school events at Stanford, Chicago, Columbia, Penn, Duke, Texas and Northwestern among others.
Professor Lewis received the Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching for the 2007-08 academic year.
He currently teaches Commercial Law, International Law, a Law of War Seminar and Torts. He has also taught Corporate Finance and Accounting for Lawyers. His other teaching interests include Civil Procedure and Contracts.
Professor of Law, Roger Williams University School of Law
As an expert in National Security Law, Professor Peter Margulies focuses on the delicate balance between liberty, equality, and security in issues involving law and terrorism. Professor Margulies has written almost a dozen articles discussing the War on Terror. He currently works with RWU Law Professor Jared Goldstein, along with litigators from the law firm Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, in representing two Afghan detainees. Professor Margulies led a national conference entitled “Legal Dilemmas in A Dangerous World: Law, Terrorism and National Security” held at RWU.
Professor Margulies also has an extensive background in immigration law and has represented Haitian refugees and conducted outreach to community legal service providers.
Peter Marguiles teaches Immigration Law, National Security Law and Professional Responsibility. He has filed amicus briefs in high-visibility cases with the U.S. Supreme Court and has been frequently cited in the New York Times, the National Law Journal and other media outlets.
Professor of Law and Public Policy, Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law
Greg McNeal is an award winning entrepreneur, professor, and investor. He co-founded AirMap, a multinational aerospace and defense company honored as one of the “World’s Most Innovative Companies” by Fast Company and ranked as an Inc.com 25 Most Disruptive Company. The company also received a Los Angeles Business Journal Innovation Award, and a Consumer Electronics Show “Innovation Award.” The company was acquired in 2021.
He invests in and advises companies and entrepreneurs in SAAS, Defense, AI, and entertainment. The companies he founded or serves on the corporate board of have raised over $100 million in funding with his direct participation in the process. Those investors include Microsoft, Flexport, Sony, Qualcomm, Rakuten, Baidu, Airbus, and top global financial services and venture capital funds including Greycroft, Social Capital, General Catalyst, Lux Capital, Bullpen Capital, Bay Bridge Ventures, Teamworthy Ventures, Operate Studio, TenOneTen, Temasek, Macquarie Group, Graph Ventures and many others. The companies he advises have raised substantially more funding, in part due to his advice and mentorship.
He is a tenured Professor of Law and Public Policy at Pepperdine University and a faculty member with the Palmer Center for Entrepreneurship and the Law and teaches courses in technology, public policy, internet, and privacy law.
As a public policy and legal expert, Greg has worked with the White House, the Department of Defense, the State Department, and independent regulatory agencies on matters related to technology, law and policy. He has on multiple occasions testified before Congress and state legislatures about entrepreneurship and emerging technology and has aided state legislators, cities, municipalities, and executive branch officials in drafting legislation and ordinances related to technological advances and has been appointed by Cabinet officials to serve on Federal Rulemaking Committees.
He is a frequent keynote speaker at industry events and academic conferences related to technology, law, and public policy. He advises venture capital firms and other investors, start-ups, law enforcement, consulting firms, and Fortune 500 companies about the legal and regulatory issues associated with emerging technologies.
He regularly appears on television and radio to discuss technology and business, wrote a column on business and technology for Forbes and has authored Op-Eds for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Washington Times, among others. In his early career he worked on national security, international criminal law and counterterrorism matters and served as an Army officer.
Professor Emeritus of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Jeremy A. Rabkin is a Professor Emeritus of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University. Before joining the faculty in June 2007, he was for over two decades a professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University. Professor Rabkin serves on the board of directors of the Center for Individual Rights, a public interest law firm based in Washington, D.C. Previously he was a board member of the U.S. Institute of Peace and the board of academic advisors of the American Enterprise Institute.
Professor Rabkin’s books include Law Without Nations? (Princeton University Press, 2005). He authored “If You Need a Friend, Don’t Call a Cosmopolitan,” a chapter in Varieties of Sovereignty and Citizenship (Sigal R. Ben-Porath & Rogers M. Smith eds., University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012). His articles have appeared in major law reviews and political science journals and his journalistic contributions in a range of magazines and newspapers, including the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
Director, European Union Research Center, George Washington University
Scheherazade Rehman is the Director of the European Union Research Center and Professor of International Finance/Business and International Affairs at The George Washington University. She is a Senior Research Fulbright Scholar and an expert on international financial markets, financial crises management, and the eurozone. Prior to GWU she served as a foreign exchange and money market trader in the Middle East. She has advised OPIC, USAID, U.S. State Department, World Bank, IMF, and various central banks/finance ministries. Dr. Rehman regularly guests on various national and international televised programs on financial matters on PBS Newshour, BBC World News, CNBC, Voice of America, C-Span Washington Journal, Colbert Report, among others and has appeared several times before U.S. Congress, and regularly at the Brookings Institute to discuss the current financial crisis. Dr. Rehman has written over 80 scholarly articles, book chapters, conference papers, and published 7 books, including The Path To European Economic and Monetary Union, Financial Crisis Management in Regional Blocs, The Quest For Exchange Rate Stability in the Next Millennium, and the latest (co-authored) titled Corruption and Its Manifestation in the Persian Gulf (2010).
Professor of Political Science and Law, Florida International University College of Law
Professor Stack holds a joint appointment as Professor of Political Science and Law. He is Director of the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship Studies at Florida International University, and Director of the Ethnic Studies Certificate Program. He twice served as chair of the Department of Political Science, and has been editor of the Florida International University Press. He has also served as chair of the board of directors of the Institute for the Study of Public Policy and Citizenship, and as chair of the University Research Council. He was instrumental in the founding of the College of Law, and chaired the search and screen committees for many of the top administrative positions in the law school. A highly respected teacher, Professor Stack is the recipient of several university teaching awards, including most recently a Professorial Excellence Program Award by the State University System of Florida. Professor Stack's teaching interests include American Constitutional Law, Comparative and International Law, and Administrative Law. He is the author and/or editor of nine books and more than 30 articles and chapters in edited books.
Professor of Law, Florida International University College of Law
Hannibal Travis teaches and conducts research in the fields of cyberlaw, intellectual property, antitrust, international and comparative law, and human rights. He joined FIU after several years practicing intellectual property and Internet law at O’Melveny & Myers in San Francisco, California, and at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York. He has also served as the Irving Cypen Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Florida, a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at Villanova University, and a Visiting Fellow at Oxford. He graduated summa cum laude in philosophy from Washington University, where he was named to Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he served as a teaching assistant in philosophy classes taught at Harvard College. After law school, Professor Travis clerked for the United States District Court in Los Angeles, California. Professor Travis has published articles on copyright, trademark, and antitrust law in a variety of journals and books. He has also published works on antitrust law, telecommunications law, and net neutrality in American University Law Review, Hofstra Law Review, and Santa Clara Law Review.
His works have focused on the intellectual property implications of new technologies and user-generated content, as well as antitrust law as applied to broadband and Wi-Fi Internet access markets. He has contributed to symposia and edited volumes on the international and comparative law of copyright and performers’ rights, including a piece on software contracts and copyright that was selected by West Group as one of the best articles relating to intellectual property law that was published in 2010. Professor Travis has also published widely on genocide, cultural survival, and human rights. He is currently an editorial advisory board member of Genocide Studies International (University of Toronto Press), and has served as a peer reviewer for manuscripts submitted to Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Edinburgh University Press, Routledge, and Genocide Studies and Prevention (the journal of the International Association of Genocide Scholars). He has coached FIU’s Jessup International Law Moot Court team, Lefkowitz Trademark Law Moot Court team, and BMI Copyright Law Moot Court team. He is a member of the Copyright Society of the USA and the American Law and Economics Association.
Assistant Professor, Queen's University Faculty of Law
Noah Weisbord is an Associate Professor at Queen's Law. His research focuses on the role of the criminal law in managing, reflecting or exacerbating intergroup conflict. A current project examines self-defence in Canadian criminal law from historical, comparative, and conceptual perspectives. Noah is a leading expert on the crime of aggression—individual criminal responsibility for aggressive war—and he assisted diplomatic delegations to define the crime. His monograph on the crime of aggression was published with Princeton University Press in June 2019.
Noah’s scholarly articles have appeared in the Harvard International Law Journal, the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, the Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law, Law and Contemporary Problems and other publications. Noah’s opinion and editorial commentary has been published in the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Globe and Mail and the National Post.
Noah received his S.J.D. from Harvard Law School under the supervision of Dean Martha Minow. In addition to an S.J.D., Noah holds LL.B. and B.C.L. degrees, a Master of Social Work (M.S.W.) as well as undergraduate degrees in Psychology (B.Sc.) and Social Work (B.S.W.) from McGill University. Prior to joining Queen’s Law, Noah was an Associate Professor at Florida International University College of Law and a visiting Assistant Professor at Duke Law School.
What the Future Holds: Balancing Law, Liberty, and National Security