A diverse discussion surrounding laws and policies that have contributed to the urban/rural divide and the aspiration of an alternative, more resilient and more just future.
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WVU College of Law
CLE credit will be available for attendees. |
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Introduction |
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Professor Ann Eisenberg
Professor Eisenberg joined the faculty at West Virginia University College of Law in 2023 as Professor of Law and Research Director for the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development. She teaches Property Law, Energy Law, and other courses at WVU. Prior to coming to WVU, she was on the faculty at the University of South Carolina School of Law for seven years. Since entering legal academia, Professor Eisenberg has focused her scholarly agenda on law in rural communities. She recently published the book that is a focus of the symposium, Reviving Rural America: Toward Policies for Resilience. |
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An Academic Perspective for Rural Policy Promoting Resilience |
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Professor Michelle Wilde Anderson
Michelle Wilde Anderson is a professor of local government law, poverty, environmental justice, and state/local climate law at Stanford Law School and the Stanford School of Sustainability. Her book The Fight to Save the Town: Reimagining Discarded America (published by Simon & Schuster) was awarded the 2023 Zócalo Public Square Book Prize for Nonfiction. Her other writing has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and dozens of other publications. Anderson is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Housing Law Project and a board member for the East Bay Community Law Center in Oakland. |
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Professor Lisa Pruitt
Lisa R. Pruitt is Distinguished Professor of Law at UC Davis School of Law where she writes and teaches about rural people and places, among other topics. In particular, Pruitt has theorized why rural attitudes toward law and the state more generally are more likely to keep law and legal actors at arm’s length. She also studies the difference rurality makes at the junctures where rural residents encounter the law. She has written, for example, about abortion access, voting rights, domestic violence, drug abuse, termination of parental rights, and delivery of indigent defense in the rural context. Pruitt’s work has been published in the Yale Law Journal Forum, the Alabama Law Review, the South Dakota Law Review, and the Harvard Law and Policy Review, among others. She has also been published in a number of peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Rural Studies and the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society. Her writing has appeared in many anthologies, including the award-winning Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy. Pruitt is President-Elect of the Rural Sociological Society, which awarded her the Excellence in Research Award in 2021. She earned her law degree (summa cum laude) from theUniversity of Arkansas, which also granted her B.A. degree (highest honors) in Journalism. Pruitt holds a PhD in Laws from the University of London, where she studied as a British Marshall Scholar. She grew up in the rural Arkansas Ozarks. |
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Professor Sean Kammer
Dr. Sean M. Kammer is a professor of law. Prior to joining the USD Law faculty, he taught natural resources law courses at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon and legal history at the University of Nebraska. A graduate of Duke Law School, Professor Kammer also earned his doctor of philosophy in history from the University of Nebraska. |
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Prioritizing the Most Precious Resource: Miners and Mining Communities Panel |
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Christopher Williamson A proud Appalachian and native of the coalfields of southern West Virginia, Christopher J. Williamson was nominated by President Joe Biden to serve as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health on December 6, 2021, and confirmed via voice vote by the United States Senate on March 29, 2022. He served as the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s Assistant Secretary until January 20, 2025. As Assistant Secretary, Williamson was responsible for leading a large enforcement agency with a $388 million annual budget and approximately 1,700 employees located in over 80 field offices throughout the United States. Prior to becoming Assistant Secretary, Williamson served for almost six years as Senior Counsel to former National Labor Relations Board Chairman Lauren McFerran. Prior to joining the NLRB, he served in the Obama Administration at the U.S. Department of Labor at MSHA and the Office of the Solicitor. Williamson previously worked in the United States Senate as Labor Counsel to Chairman Tom Harkin on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and as a Legislative Assistant to Senator Joe Manchin III. Williamson began his career in public service as an attorney-advisor to Administrative Law Judge Jacqueline R. Bulluck at the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission. He earned a Juris Doctor from the West Virginia University College of Law, a Master of Public Policy from American University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Economics from West Virginia University. Williamson currently resides with his wife and children in Crofton, Maryland. |
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Sam Petsonk Sam Petsonk is a Morgantown native who serves as a lawyer for coal miners across the Appalachian Region. Sam’s law practice includes labor and employment law, workplace safety and health, black lung benefits, retirees’ rights, the rights of people in recovery, and various class action matters. He is the past president of the West Virginia Employment Lawyers Association, and the recipient of legal fellowships for consumer protection and workers’ rights. Sam previously worked as a legislative assistant on labor and energy issues for the late U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd and Senator Carte Goodwin in Washington, DC. He earned his juris doctorate from the Washington & Lee University School of Law, and his bachelor of arts in geography at Brandeis University. |
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Gary Hairston
Gary Hairston is the president of the Fayette County Black Lung Association and the National Black Lung Association. He worked in underground coal mines for nearly 30 years in West Virginia. He was diagnosed with black lung disease in his late forties. |
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Square Pegs in Round Holes: Fitting Rural Priorities into State & Federal Regulatory Schemes |
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Katherine Garvey
Katherine “Kat” Garvey began her career at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region VII in the National Agricultural Compliance Assistance Center and with the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics. Garvey is an ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems Certified Lead Auditor. She developed and audited environmental management systems for military and large agricultural operations. Garvey transitioned from federal to local government in 2006, when she worked for the City of Lee’s Summit, Missouri as the Environmental Coordinator. She helped the City comply with permitting requirements for their airport and landfill. In addition, she helped the City develop a solid waste management plan, stormwater plan, stream buffer ordinance, and a natural resource inventory map. She continued her focus on local protection of natural resources as an Assistant Professor of Law and Staff Attorney at the Land Use Clinic at Vermont Law School. In Vermont, Garvey worked with local governments, land trusts and other non-profits to address legal questions related to land conservation in the Northeast. Professor Garvey received her JD from the University of Missouri in Kansas City in 2004, and LLM from Vermont Law in 2010. |
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Staci Thornsbury
Staci Thornsbury is the managing attorney at the Land Use and Sustainable Development Law Clinic. Staci obtained her undergraduate degree in Political Science from West Virginia University in 1994 and then graduated from West Virginia University College of Law in 1997. Following law school, Staci clerked with the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. After her clerkship, she entered private practice. Staci brings to the clinic almost 25 years of practical legal experience with a large part of that focusing on real property, real estate title, and real estate transactions. Additionally, Staci has worked as an instructor at the undergraduate level teaching courses on various legal topics, including real property, wills and estates, mineral title and contracts. She loves the opportunity to help underserved areas of West Virginia through her work with the LUSD. |
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Devon McDaniel
Devon McDaniel is a Technical/Grant Writer at the West Virginia Grant Resource Center, focusing on broadband grants that improve technology access across communities. With a strong background in the nonprofit sector, Devon has significant experience in program capacity building, creating strategic partnerships, and optimizing resources to drive meaningful initiatives. Devon earned a Bachelor's degree in Multidisciplinary Studies from West Virginia University, with concentrations in Human Services, Disability Studies, and Family and Youth Intervention. Additionally, Devon holds a Master's degree in Nonprofit Leadership and Management from Arizona State University. |
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Katie Loudin
Katie Loudin is an innovator in the community development and nonprofit sectors in central Appalachia. Katie is currently the Director of Strategic Development at the West Virginia Community Development Hub where she has served on the Executive Leadership Team since May 2021. In her role at The Hub, Katie has been a primary program strategist for the organization, securing funding through federal and private grant resources to serve rural and historically underinvested communities across Appalachia while building a strong organizational culture. Prior to joining The Hub, Katie built an early career of developing young leaders and growing nonprofit organizations. Katie was the Director of Community Engagement at West Virginia Wesleyan College from 2010 until 2020, when she joined the One Foundation as the WV Program Director and eventually, as the Executive Director. Katie became deeply invested in growing the capacity of the community and economic development ecosystem through her role at the One Foundation. Katie graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan College with a B.A. in Sociology and Applied Music in 2007 and taught English on a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship in Thailand after graduating from Wesleyan. Katie then earned a Master of Public Affairs degree from Indiana University in Nonprofit Management and Policy Analysis in 2010 before returning to West Virginia as a young professional. Katie lives in Buckhannon, West Virginia with her family. Katie serves on the board of the WV Hive and is an active community member, serving on the board of the Buckhannon Community Theatre and the Upshur County Public Library. |
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Rural Regulation, Access Loss, and Anti-government Sentiment |
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Dr. Jennifer Sherman
Jennifer Sherman is a Professor of Sociology and Affiliate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Washington State University. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2006. She served as President of the Rural Sociological Society from 2023-2024, and currently serves as Past President. Her research looks at the ways in which job loss, poverty, and inequality affect individuals and families, particularly in rural communities in the Northwestern U.S. She is author of the 2009 book, Those Who Work, Those Who Don’t: Poverty, Morality, and Family in Rural America, and the 2021 book Dividing Paradise: Rural Inequality and the Diminishing American Dream, which won the Rural Sociological Society’s Frederick H. Buttel Outstanding Scholarly Achievement Award for a Book in 2023. She also co-edited the 2017 volume, Rural Poverty in the United States, which won the Buttel Award for a Book in 2018. She has authored articles on topics including rural poverty and survival; rural education; surveillance of low-income parents; relationship issues and violence in poor families; farmers’ decision-making processes; and inequality and the impacts of gentrification in high-amenity rural communities. Her work has been featured in sources including The LA Times, National Public Radio, Politico, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and The Boston Globe. Her current grant-funded research examines the drivers and impacts of rural jail incarceration in Washington State. |
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Make Appalachia Great Again: Investing in Labor, the Environment & Infrastructure |
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Dr. Anne M. Lofaso
Anne Marie Lofaso is a Professor of Law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, where she teaches labor law, employment law, employment discrimination law, and constitutional law. She is the former Arthur B. Hodges Professor of Law at the West Virginia University College of Law, where she taught for over 18 years. Professor Lofaso is a labor law expert. She has authored over seventy law review articles, primarily on labor and employment law, and over a dozen scholarly blogs, primarily in the area of human rights. She has co-authored two casebooks, Modern Labor Law in the Public and Private Sectors and Public Sector Employment Law, and one textbook, Mastering Labor Law. She is the author and editor of two labor law treaties, NLRA: Law and Practice and Drafting the Union Contract, and the editor of several other books including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act After 50 Years: Proceedings of the New York University 67th Annual Conference on Labor. Professor Lofaso is an active public intellectual who has presented hundreds of lectures around the world and throughout the United States, has presented congressional testimony on labor law, and has appeared in numerous news outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, Bloomberg Radio, the Daily Labor Report, and Law360 to discuss labor law topics. Professor Lofaso is a former Special Federal Employee who served as the Vice President of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and a former Commission of the Human Rights Commission for the City of Morgantown. Professor Lofaso earned her A.B. from Harvard University, magna cum laude, J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Carey School of Law, and D.Phil. from Oxford University, where she wrote her doctoral dissertation on mass economic dismissals in the U.S., Great Britain, and the European Union. |
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Associate Dean Matthew Titolo
Professor Titolo received his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was Associate Editor of the California Law Review. He earned a Ph.D. in English literature at the University of California, Los Angeles. Before joining the WVU law faculty, Professor Titolo was an associate at Latham & Watkins LLP, in Silicon Valley, California, where he practiced complex commercial litigation. Professor Titolo was a Fulbright Scholar in Spain in 2018-2019. His current research focuses on 19th-century American legal and political history. Professor Titolo teaches an American legal history survey course, an advanced seminar in legal history, as well as commercial law courses. He is currently completing a Ph.D. in History at WVU. |
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Professor Nicholas F. Stump
Nicholas F. Stump is a faculty member with the George R. Farmer Jr., Law Library. His scholarship is informed by critical environmental law, law and social movement studies, law and political economy, and law and rural studies. He teaches in the legal and scholarly research curriculums with an emphasis on energy and environmental law and public interest research methods. |
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Professor Robert Bastress
Robert Bastress is the John W. Fisher II Professor of Law and teaches Constitutional Law, West Virginia Constitutional Law, and Employment Discrimination. Prior to coming to WVU in 1978, he practiced law in Kentucky for the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund and was an Abraham Freedman Fellow at the Temple University School of Law in Philadelphia. Throughout his career, Bastress has engaged in extensive litigation dealing with constitutional, civil rights, and employment law issues. He is a Fellow of the West Virginia State Bar Foundation and a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. Bastress is the author of The West Virginia Constitution (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed., 2016), and co-author of Interviewing, Counseling and Negotiating Skills for Effective Representation (Little Brown & Co., 1990). He earned his J.D. from Vanderbilt University and LL.M. from Temple University. |
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