2023-2024 Faculty Diversity Committee

Committee Chairperson: Jill Engle

Jill C. Engle is a clinical professor of law at Penn State Law in University Park. Previously, she was director of Penn State Law's Family Law Clinic, which represents clients in domestic violence and other family law cases, and was the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2019 to 2022. The Clinic also does policy work for the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence, among other organizations. Professor Engle’s scholarship examines gender-based violence, economic inequality, international human rights, racial justice, and best practices in legal education. Before teaching law, Dean Engle did public interest work, including with Head Start and the National League of Cities, worked in private law in State College and Washington, D.C., and taught media law at Penn State. While in law school she was part of the legal team with Morgan Lewis in Washington, D.C. that handled a pro bono appeal for a Texas death row inmate in federal court.

Committee Chairperson: Dean Ferguson

Geoffrey Scott

Geoffrey Scott has a wide range of teaching and scholarly interests with a focus on intellectual property and the intersection of the worlds of artistic expression, scientific invention, and the law. He has given particular attention to domestic and international entertainment law issues with an emphasis on music and rights of personality, the protection of cultural properties in Europe and Asia, and the representation of the individual professional athlete.

Samuel C. Thompson 

Samuel C. Thompson, Jr. directs Penn State’s Center for the Study of Mergers and Acquisitions. He is also a Professor of Law and the Arthur Weiss Distinguished Faculty Scholar.  He teaches mergers and acquisitions, focusing on corporate, securities, tax, accounting, and antitrust aspects of these very complex transactions.  He also periodically teaches basic federal income tax, international tax, and corporate tax.

Michelle Vollmer 

Michelle Vollmer directs the Veterans and Servicemembers Legal Clinic, teaches Civil Pretrial Practice & Advocacy, Veterans Benefits Law, and created and teaches in the law school’s Explore Law program. She also helped to develop and taught Introduction to Common Law Analysis and Language, an online course for foreign-trained lawyers. 

Megan S. Wright

Megan S. Wright is an Associate Professor of Law and Medicine—Penn State Law’s first joint appointment with the College of Medicine—as well as an affiliate faculty member with the Department of Sociology and the Rock Ethics Institute in the College of the Liberal Arts. She teaches Introduction to Health Law, Bioethics and Law, and Public Health Law. Her primary research is the intersection of medical decision making, disability, elder law, bioethics, and private law, and she has published extensively in law reviews and peer-reviewed journals, including Boston College Law Review, Arizona Law Review, Florida State University Law Review, Maryland Law Review, North Carolina Law Review, Stanford Technology Law Review, Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics, Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics, and JAMA Internal Medicine, among others. 

LaShady Hardy: Staff Ex-officio member

LaSha Hardy is an Executive Assistant at Penn State Law in University Park.