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Seventh National Academy for IDEA Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers July 16 - 18, 2008
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Selene A. Almazon Director of Advocacy Servies, Maryland Coalition for Inclusive Services Hanover, MD |
Selene Almazan is the Director of Advocacy Services for MCIE and has worked there since 1992. She received her Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, and her Juris Doctor degree from Antioch School of Law. Before coming to MCIE, she was a Legal Aid Attorney who represented children in foster care with an emphasis on special education matters. Selene is on the Board of Directors for the national Council of Parent Advocates and Attorneys (COPAA).
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Lynwood E. Beekman, Esq. Special Solutions, LLC Okemos, MI |
Lyn Beekman co-authored Michigan’s state mandatory special education law and, subsequently, many of its rules. During the past 30 years, he has represented parents and their children with disabilities, the Michigan Education Association and its members, including teachers, school psychologists, school social workers, bus drivers, paraprofessionals, and school districts on matters relating to special education and Section 504. Since 1978, he has served as a hearing officer in over 230 hearings. Lyn has provided consultation assistance or hearing officer trainings for 28 states and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He also serves as a mediator. These activities, together with presentations encouraging the use of various alternative dispute resolution processes (some quite non-traditional), so dominated his time that he left the practice of law to establish Special Education Solutions (SES), a special education dispute resolution and training center.
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William A. Coats Vandeberg Johnson & Gandara Tacoma, WA |
Mr. Coats served as an Assistant Attorney General for the state of Washington from 1972 to 1975. He joined a predecessor of Vandeberg Johnson & Gandara in 1975. He was admitted to the Washington State Bar in 1972. Mr. Coats currently serves as Chair of Vandeberg Johnson & Gandara's School Practice Group. He received his J.D. (1972) and his B.A. (1969) from the University of Washington.
Mr. Coats has served as an Adjunct Professor for Central Washington University and Western Washington University. He has been a frequent panelist and speaker in programs concerning school law, municipal law, and labor and employment issues. He is a member of the Washington State Council of School Attorneys (President 1978) and was a member of the Continuing Legal Education Committee of the Washington State Bar Association. He is a member of the bar sections on Labor and Employment Law, Urban, State and Local Government Law, and Administrative Law.
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William L.E. Dussault Law Offices of William L.E. Dussault Seattle, WA |
Mr. Dussault took his B.A. (1969) and his J.D. (1972) at the University of Washington. He immediately become involved in the private practice of disability law, first as a partner with Sweet & Dussault and, since 1984, as a sole practitioner. In addition to his practice, he teaches law and ethics at the School of Nursing of the University of Washington, is an Adjunct Professor on Disability Law at the School of Law of the University of Washington, and a guest lecturer at the University of Oregon and Seattle University. He is vice chairperson of the American Bar Association’s Family Law Committee on Mental Disability. He also is counsel to the Association for the Severely Handicapped and is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of the Association for the Severely Handicapped. He is chair of the National Human Rights Committee of the Association for Retarded Citizens of the U.S. and has presented at the ARC-US Annual Meeting.
He has been a member of the Executive Board of the Pacific Northwest Institutes on Special Education & Law since 1984. He has made presentations to the National Institute on Special Education & the Law and the International Institute on Head Injury and the Law at Emmanuel College at Cambridge University. He has also been a Contract Review Officer for the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, and testified to the Senate on the Handicapped Children’s Protection Act.
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Michele R. Eaddy Thrun Law Firm, P.C. East Lansing, MI |
Michele R. Eaddy graduated from the University of Michigan (B.A., 1985) and the University of Illinois College of Law (J.D., 1988). She is a member of the State Bar of Michigan, Ingham County Bar Association, and the American Bar Association. Ms. Eaddy is a member and a past President of the Michigan Council of School Attorneys. She is also a member of the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan and Lansing Black Lawyers Association. Ms. Eaddy joined the firm in 2001. Her practice focuses on special education law, labor and employment law, and general school law.
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Nancy F. Krent |
A partner in the law firm of Hodges, Loizzi, Eisenhammer, Rodick & Kohn, Nancy Fredman Krent graduated with honors with an A.B. from the University of Michigan, where she also received her law degree, graduating law school summa cum laude. Prior to joining the firm, she practiced for eleven years in Washington, D.C. and Charlottesville, Virginia, in the areas of private and public sector employment law and school law. Ms. Krent has just concluded her term as Chairman of the National School Boards Association Council of School Attorneys. In that capacity, she also serves as an ex officio member of the National School Boards Association Board of Directors. She has taught public school law, and is a frequent lecturer for the Council of School Attorneys. She is co-author of NSBA monographs on the Americans with Disabilities Act, selecting a school attorney, and sexual harassment.
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Stephen A. Rosenbaum, Esq. Staff Attorney, Protection & Advocacy, Inc. Oakland, CA |
Stephen Rosenbaum is a staff attorney with Protection & Advocacy, Inc. in Oakland, California, specializing in the educational rights of students with disabilities. Previously a senior litigation attorney with the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, Rosenbaum holds the position of Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law (his alma mater), where he teaches Mental Health Law, Advocacy & Policy; Social Justice Skills & Practice Issues; and Civil Rights Litigation. He also is Lecturer in Law at Stanford University (Disability Rights Law) and has taught public interest skills courses and administrative law at other Bay Area law schools.
For the past several years, Mr. Rosenbaum has served as a trainer for the COPAA (Council of Parent Attorneys & Advocates) advance attorney training conference and has conducted or participated in many training workshops for parents, school professionals and special education hearing officers. He served as an expert reviewer for the University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities’ Special Education Advocate Training Project of the University of Southern California. Rosenbaum was also a member of the Due Process Advisory Committee of the California Special Education Hearing Office and of special education advisory committees in the Berkeley school district, where his oldest son attends a high school “transition” program for students with developmental disabilities. He has written several law journal articles on the subjects of education, disability and human rights.
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Jerome M. Sattler Emeritus Professor, Department of Psychology, San Diego State University La Mesa, CA |
Jerome M. Sattler, Ph.D. is a Diplomate in Clinical Psychology of the American Board of Professional Psychology. He received his Ph.D. in 1959 and his M.A. in 1953 from the University of Kansas. His B.S. in psychology was from City College of New York in 1952. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and was awarded a Fulbright lectureship in 1972. He has taught at Fort Hays Kansas State College, the University of North Dakota, and since 1965, joined the Psychology Department at San Diego State University. In August 1994, he retired from active teaching and became Professor Emeritus.
ALJ / HO National Academy