Members of the ľĂľĂČČ School of Law Advisory Board gathered in Greensboro this week for their regular fall meeting, providing strategic guidance and professional insights to university and law school administrators while devoting significant time to students through panel discussions and small-group mentoring conversations shared over meals.

The 21-member board includes prominent attorneys, judges and business leaders from across the country who advise Elon Law and ľĂľĂČČ leaders on the law school’s development and strategic direction.

A Wednesday, Sept. 16, panel featured Jennifer Bowden L’09, principal at R. Steve Bowden & Associates; Marla Crawford, general counsel at Cimplifi; and Gerald Walden G’14, general counsel at The Fresh Market. Student Bar Association President Trey McClenny L’26 moderated.

Their conversation offered students practical advice drawn from careers spanning private practice, corporate law, litigation and emerging legal technology. Among their key takeaways:

Treat law school like your first professional job.

Bowden encouraged students to take advantage of access to professors and seek their guidance rather than trying to navigate difficult material alone. Walden similarly urged students to make law school a priority and to be intentional about learning from classmates who excel in different legal areas, as well as faculty.

Stay open to where a legal career can lead.

All three panelists described careers that evolved in directions they hadn’t necessarily anticipated in law school. Crawford encouraged students not to arrive with a fixed idea of where they must end up. Opportunities others overlook, she said, can sometimes become defining moments in a career. For her, that arose through first managing discovery, which became her specialty and led to managing the nation’s first electronic discovery case in the complex Enron case that began in 2001. She then leveraged that skill to become an expert in technology and the law, and is now focused on AI.

Get legal experience (even if it isn’t your dream job).

The panelists emphasized internships, summer work and other law-related opportunities as ways to test practice areas and workplace environments. ľĂľĂČČ can learn as much from discovering what they don’t enjoy as from finding an immediate fit.

Build relationships deliberately.

Walden reminded students that their professional networks already include the classmates sitting beside them. When meeting practicing attorneys, he advised students to follow up, reference the conversation and give the attorney something memorable to know about their own interests and goals.

Referencing a specific conversation and expressing interest in continuing it can help turn a brief introduction into a meaningful professional connection, he said.

The panel was only one part of the board’s interaction with students. Members joined students for a community dinner in the Elon Law Library on Wednesday, Sept. 16, creating opportunities for informal conversations about careers, law school and professional life.

Those connections continued Thursday, Sept. 17, when board members met with students in smaller mentoring conversations over lunch.

The interactions reflect Elon Law’s emphasis on connecting students with practicing attorneys, judges and other leaders throughout their legal education, as well as the Advisory Board’s dedication to providing top-notch law school experience to law students as they develop professional networks and clearer understanding of opportunities available.

Criminal doctrine claims to distinguish morally culpable action from conduct driven by severe mental disease or defect. Yet in practice, society remains deeply resistant to extending even minimal grace when punishment is at stake. We love to punish, and we distrust anything that resembles an excuse. The defendant before me needed treatment; he needed help. But within a system oriented toward retribution, illness collapses into guilt. The institutional response becomes predictable: contain, control and confine the beast.

Nothing in a casebook prepared me for the raw immediacy of a mind splintered long before the law judged him.

His delusions dominated the evidence. I listened to voicemails he left after beating his mother beyond recognition with the leg of a table. He referred to himself as a Navy SEAL and carried on a conversation with someone who existed only in his mind. The forensic psychiatrist explained how his inward and outward projections tethered him to an alternate reality. In that reality, CIA agents listened through devices in his teeth and loved ones were replaced by alien spies.

The murder scene reflected this fractured world: He believed he had killed the alien inhabiting his mother’s body and attempted to give her a new one. He called his family and described the event in a chilling voice that even his social worker said didn’t sound like him.

As the psychiatrist detailed the defendant’s psychosis, the voices that commanded him and the delusional system shaping his actions, I felt the weight of the law’s expectations pressing against the limits of human cognition. We ask jurors — ordinary people with no psychiatric training — to translate hallucinations and delusions into legal categories.

Mental illness exists on a scientific spectrum. Insanity, by contrast, is a legal term of art. South Carolina, like many states moving away from the insanity defense, is taking a giant leap in the wrong direction.

A finding of “not criminally responsible” due to paranoid schizophrenia should carry substantial moral and legal weight, yet it rarely moves a modern jury. Cultural narratives about personal responsibility and dangerousness prime jurors to distrust the very concept. To compound the problem, South Carolina provides no instruction about the consequences of a verdict. Courts warn that “focusing on outcomes could prejudice the jury,” leaving jurors to choose among vague constructs like “Guilty but Mentally Ill” (GBMI), a verdict functionally indistinguishable from guilty. GBMI reflects a deeper cultural shift: Mental illness itself is becoming morally blameworthy.

That trial stayed with me. It revealed the limits of our current system and the urgency of reform. It pushed me to study GBMI, juror misunderstanding and the consequences of sanism in criminal adjudication. If justice is to mean anything for defendants whose minds break from reality, the law must bridge the gap between doctrine and science.

Tarrah Casey L’26 is a third-year student at Elon Law and presented her research on how courts evaluate remorse in sentencing autistic defendants at the 2025 Autism Law Summit. She completed her Residency-in-Practice, Elon Law’s signature experiential learning program in which students learn the law by praticing it, at Sarratt & Horta Vorse, P.A., in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Plain White T’s headlined last year with over 2,000 alumni, students and friends in attendance! As a fan-favorite Homecoming event, Rock the Block will once again transform into a full music festival experience featuring a variety of food trucks, a bar, activities and an end-of-night fireworks show.

O’Neal will perform from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Rock the Block and the Homecoming Concert are open to all members of the Elon community for free, so register for today!

Last year, Kramer challenged the Class of 2025 to achieve an overall first-time bar passage rate of 83%, a mark that would have been the highest in Elon Law history.

The class’s Student Bar Association president had a counterproposal: What if they reached 85%? Would the dean get a tattoo?

Kramer said yes.

The Class of 2025 responded with a 90.9% overall first-time bar passage rate across North Carolina and 11 other states.

On Sept. 4, Kramer responded by rolling up his sleeve.

At Frozen Pines Tattoo in Gibsonville, North Carolina, shop co-founder and tattoo artist Annie Bella inked “One and Done” on the dean’s arm, a reference to Elon Law’s slogan around bar preparation and passing the bar examination on the first try.

Law School Dean Zak Kramer kept his promise to the Class of 2025, emblazoning the "One and Done" slogan permanently on his left arm Friday, Sept. 4, 2026.

Dean Zak Kramer's expressive face was on full display as he got his "One and Done" tattoo Friday, Sept. 4, at Frozen Pines Tattoo in Gibsonville.

Dean Zak Kramer laughs as Annie Bella of Frozen Pines Tattoo in Gibsonville completes the mark on his left arm.

Artist Annie Bella of Frozen Pines Tattoo in Gibsonville completes detail work on Dean Zak Kramer's tattoo.

Dean Zak Kramer grimaces as tattoo artist Annie Bella of Frozen Pines Tattoo in Gibsonville begins work.

Law School dean Zak Kramer sits for a “1 and done” tattoo on September 04, 2026.

Law School Dean Zak Kramer admires the “One and Done” tattoo on his arm Sept. 04, 2026, at Frozen Pine Tattoo in Gibsonville.

Law School Dean Zak Kramer admires the “One and Done” tattoo on his arm Sept. 04, 2026, at Frozen Pine Tattoo in Gibsonville.

Elon Law Dean Zak Kramer kept his promise to the Class of 2025, emblazoning the "One and Done" slogan permanently on his left arm Friday, Sept. 4, 2026.

The tattoo celebrates a significant achievement for the Class of 2025 and Elon Law. In addition to the 90.9% overall first-time passage rate nationwide, class members taking spring exams also achieved a 91.96% first-time passage rate on the North Carolina Bar Examination.

Elon Law’s accelerated 2.5-year J.D. program allows students to graduate in December and take the bar in February, months ahead of the traditional three-year law school timeline.

Kramer isn’t letting the Class of 2026 rest on its predecessors’ success. He’s challenged this December’s graduating class to raise the bar again when they sit for the exam in February.

What kinds of promises will he make them? That remains to be seen.

So, how did this one go?

“Ow,” Kramer said just afterward, “but I’m happy to do it. Proud of the students.”

“A deal’s a deal.”

New members were selected based on their academic standing, quality of legal writing, and strong performances in the school’s oral advocacy competition and auditions.

Moot Court Board

Thirty-eight members of the Class of 2027 have been named to the Moot Court Board:

• Brianna Arnovits L’27
• Aislynn Bell L’27
• Gabrielle Brown L’27
• Vivian Camplin L’27
• Megan Chen L’27
• Will Courts L’27
• Kali Crooks L’27
• Madison Curtis L’27
• Samantha Davis L’27
• Frank Deronja L’27
• Aarya Deshmukh L’27
• Madison Emsermann L’27
• Paulina Escobar L’27
• Skylar Flechsig L’27
• Kayleigh Foster L’27
• Jacqueline Gardner L’27
• Abigail Halloway L’27
• Zaria Hanchell L’27
• Kyla King L’27
• Arden Latham L’27
• Anthony Logrono L’27
• Nicole Malagon L’27
• Michael Maroney L’27
• Kassidy Neuner L’27
• Addison Noe L’27
• Grant Paramore L’27
• Carson Patterson L’27
• Bryanna Rediger L’27
• Clare Rudolph L’27
• Queen Salaam L’27
• Alex Sarmiento L’27
• Lily Selznick L’27
• McKenzie Swedin L’27
• Baron Turner L’27
• Avery Vidt L’27
• Rachel Wilson L’27
• Adelaide Zahren L’27
• Libby Zapor L’27

Board members were selected based on a combination of their performance in the spring 2026 Intramural Moot Court Competition, their appellate brief writing in Legal Method and Communication, and their overall academic record.

Members of the Moot Court Board represent Elon Law in external appellate advocacy competitions and help organize the law school’s internal and national moot court competitions.

“These new board members have demonstrated that they can analyze difficult legal questions, craft persuasive arguments and advocate effectively before a panel of judges,” said Vice Dean and Professor of Law Alan Woodlief, director of Elon Law’s Moot Court Program. “We look forward to seeing them represent Elon Law in competitions across the country and work alongside our Class of 2026 board members to host this fall’s 17th Billings, Exum & Frye National Moot Court Competition.”

The new members will also help organize Elon Law’s spring 2027 Intramural Moot Court Competition and the fall 2027 Billings, Exum & Frye National Moot Court Competition.

Mock Trial Team

Following auditions last spring, eight members of the Class of 2027 were also selected for Elon Law’s 2026–2027 Mock Trial Team:

• Aislynn Bell L’27
• Gabrielle Brown L’27
• Sam Grant L’27
• Kyla King L’27
• Arden Latham L’27
• Grant Paramore L’27
• Avery Vidt L’27
• Rachel Wilson L’27

The Mock Trial Team gives students opportunities to develop courtroom advocacy skills and represent Elon Law in trial competitions.

“These students put in the work and brought their A-game to earn their places on the team,” said Adjunct Professor of Law Bob Minarcin, who coordinates Elon Law’s Mock Trial program. “Here’s to a fantastic season and an even better team.”

Professor of Law Enrique Armijo recently , an independent nonprofit newsroom that includes Los Angeles’s largest NPR station, about the $18 million Meta settlement.

According to LAist, Meta agreed Wednesday to pay up to $18 billion and add stronger child-safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms as part of a landmark legal settlement that ended a trial over teen social media addiction and settled claims filed by nearly every state.

“The idea of having people at the very highest levels of Facebook and Instagram testifying about what they knew with respect to whether or not these apps were harmful to minors in light of some research that the state attorneys general had unearthed, with the help of some whistleblowers, …. a big company like Facebook often is engaged in these kinds of studies on its own,” Armijo said. “When some of that information came to light, I just think it was going to be very difficult for Mark Zuckerberg in particular … to actually have to stand up there and talk about what he knew and did not know in light of some of this information that had come to light over the course of years of litigating against these companies.”

Meta’s settlement includes additional penalties, which are contingent on the outcomes of similar lawsuits against TikTok, YouTube and Snap. As it stands, changes to Facebook and Instagram are expected to include limits on time usage for younger users, and features such as like counts.

“I think it’s safe to assume that Meta will continue to make some legal arguments that it can’t be held liable for user content,” said Armijo. “And there are two basic reasons underlying that argument. One, Section 230 of the Communications Act, which basically says that Meta cannot be held liable for the content of its users … I think that’s really still an open question. No ultimate court, certainly not the Supreme Court, has concluded that Section 230 covers this type of lawsuit. And the other thing is the First Amendment. These platforms have and will, I think, continue to make the argument that the way their users consume their content is editorial in nature.”

Assistant Professor of Law Robert Craig, Assistant Dean of Experiential Education Bryant Park, Assistant Professor of Law Susan Ross and Assistant Professor of Law Heather Scavone join the law school with professional backgrounds spanning federal courts, civil rights advocacy, corporate legal practice, career and experiential education and federal immigration policy. Their experiences will shape courses and programs that prepare students for both the intellectual demands and practical realities of the legal profession.

Craig, Park and Ross are based in Greensboro, while Scavone returns to the School of Law as a member of the faculty in Charlotte.

Here’s a bit more about each of them as Elon Law prepares to begin the Fall trimester next week.

Robert Craig, Assistant Professor of Law

Robert Craig brings to Elon Law a career spanning the K-12 classroom, federal courts and constitutional civil rights advocacy.

A Tucson, Arizona, native, Craig studied philosophy and political science at the University of Arizona before joining Teach For America and ľĂľĂČČ fifth grade in Phoenix. He earned a master’s degree in elementary education from Arizona State University and later a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Craig clerked for Judge Andrew D. Hurwitz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Judge James A. Soto of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. He then spent seven years in nonprofit legal practice focused on plaintiffs-side federal constitutional and civil rights issues, including due process, private prisons and the delegation of government authority.

At Elon, Craig will teach Constitutional Law I & II and First Amendment. He was drawn to the law school’s emphasis on innovative and experiential ľĂľĂČČ â€” something he has considered throughout a career that began in an elementary school classroom.

Craig enjoys seeing students grasp new ideas, but ľĂľĂČČ also allows him to encounter familiar cases and concepts through students’ perspectives. Each semester offers a chance to learn something new and refine his approach.

“There’s a built-in natural way to get better,” he said.

Craig and his wife, Erin Duncan-O’Neill, have two children, Connor and Wren. Outside the classroom, he enjoys golf, soccer, games, and science-fiction and fantasy novels.

Bryant Park, Assistant Dean of Experiential Education

Bryant Park joined Elon Law to lead the continued refinement and growth of its signature Residency-in-Practice Program in Greensboro and Charlotte.

The program places every full-time student in an immersive legal setting during their second year, where they work alongside attorneys and judges while developing the practical skills, professional judgment and confidence needed to enter the profession. Park was drawn to a model that ensures every full-time student receives that experience.

“Law school does a great job of helping you think like a lawyer, but not necessarily all the nitty-gritty of how to be a lawyer,” Park said. At Elon Law, the required Residency bridges that gap for every student through experience working with clients and colleagues and learning the everyday mechanics of legal practice.

Park brings experience in legal practice, career development and experiential education. He began his career practicing family and elder law in Wisconsin and most recently served as senior associate director of career and professional development at the University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law.

A first-generation law student and lawyer, Park earned his bachelor’s degree in English creative writing from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and his J.D. from Marquette University Law School. The Wisconsin native enjoys puzzles, LEGO and figuring out how things work. He recently built his first computer — and discovered he enjoyed building it as much as using it.

Susan Ross, Assistant Professor of Law

After two years as a visiting professor, Susan Ross joins Elon Law’s full-time Legal Method & Communication faculty with decades of experience spanning engineering and corporate law.

Ross spent much of her legal career as an in-house attorney, including nearly a decade with Vontier and Gilbarco Veeder-Root and seven years with a Triangle-based technology company later acquired by Oracle. Her work encompassed contracts and negotiations, mergers and acquisitions, employment law, litigation management, environmental matters and corporate management, including service as chief legal officer for the Americas.

Raised in Arizona, Ross studied engineering at Duke University before working as an engineer and earning her J.D. from Arizona State University. She has taught throughout her career, from tutoring and serving as a ľĂľĂČČ assistant to leading continuing legal education programs.

At Elon, Ross teaches Legal Method & Communication courses and is developing a course on artificial intelligence and the practice of law. Having seen the internet transform legal practice early in her career, she views AI as the profession’s next technological shift.

“We’re not going to get rid of AI,” Ross said. “We need to lean into it and find a way to teach students to use it responsibly.”

Ross, a longtime Greensboro resident, has an adult son and two dogs. And students can expect each class to begin with one of her favorite ľĂľĂČČ tools: a dad joke.

Heather Scavone, Assistant Professor of Law

Heather Scavone returns to Elon Law with deep roots at the law school and years of experience shaping federal immigration policy.

Scavone first joined Elon in 2010 after directing a Greensboro legal services program for refugees. Working with founding faculty member Helen Grant, she helped establish Elon Law’s Humanitarian Immigration Law Clinic, creating an opportunity for students to serve clients while putting their legal education into practice.

She left Elon in 2018 to join U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), where she served as associate counsel in the Refugee Asylum Law Division of the Office of the Chief Counsel. During her federal service, she served as a legal and policy advisor to USCIS and DHS leadership on matters involving humanitarian protection, administrative law, national security, and federal immigration policy. Her work included advising on complex regulatory and statutory issues, supporting the Department of Justice in class action litigation, drafting certiorari recommendations to the U.S. Office of the Solicitor General, and briefing members of Congress and senior executive branch officials on areas of subject-matter expertise.

Now an assistant professor at Elon Law in Charlotte, Scavone will teach Constitutional Law and Professional Responsibility. Her executive branch experience provides a particularly timely foundation for exploring constitutional law and separation of powers with students.

For Scavone, ľĂľĂČČ offers another way to expand the impact of her legal career. ľĂľĂČČ who have transformative experiences in law school, she said, become “the ripples that just keep going out” as they serve clients and communities.

Scavone earned a bachelor’s degree in French from Guilford College and her J.D., cum laude, from North Carolina Central University School of Law.

Outside of the classroom, Scavone enjoys baking, playing traditional Irish music with her father, and going on international adventures with her husband and children.

“A Changing Landscape: Immigration Law in the 21st Century” will bring attorneys and scholars to ľĂľĂČČ School of Law in downtown Greensboro on Friday, Sept. 25, to examine the complexities of the nation’s laws and policies.

The symposium will explore how questions surrounding borders, power and the rule of law intersect with contemporary legal challenges. Speakers will address asylum, policy changes, family immigration law, as well as employment and humanitarian issues at the day-long event.

A Changing Landscape: Immigration Law in the 21st Century

Friday, Sept. 25, 2026

9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

ľĂľĂČČ School of Law

201 N. Greene St.

Greensboro, NC 27401

The event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited. Please register early to reserve a spot.

Keynote Address

“The Complexities of Immigration Policy”

, founder of New Frontier Immigration Law and TEDx speaker

Panel Discussions

Seeking Asylum – Hands-On Immigration Law

• Dara Arroyo-Longoria L’22, attorney at McKinney Immigration Law
• Heather Scavone, assistant professor of law and former associate counsel at the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

American Immigration

• Jordin Dickerson, assistant professor of political science and public administration at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke
• Tolulope Folokun, assistant professor of law at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law
• Allen Orr Jr., founder and principal attorney of Orr Immigration Law Firm

The Family Immigration Landscape

• Kailey Houck, judicial law clerk for Justice Melissa Hart and Justice Susan Blanco of the Colorado Supreme Court
• Maria Rosales, executive director of FaithAction International

In addition to the keynote address and panel discussions, the symposium will feature remarks from Elon Law Dean Zak Kramer; Chief Symposium Editor Rose Peterson L’26; Co-Symposium Editors Abigail MacKnight L’26 and Lauren Collins L’26; and Elon Law Review Editor-in-Chief Rachel Claffee L’26.

About Elon Law Review

The Elon Law Review is a student-edited legal journal that publishes scholarship examining emerging issues and developments in the law. Through its scholarship and annual symposium, the Law Review fosters legal dialogue among scholars, attorneys, judges and students while contributing to the study and practice of law.

About Elon Law

Elon Law is the preeminent school for engaged and experiential learning in law. With a focus on learning by doing, it integrates traditional classroom instruction with a required, full-time Residency-in-Practice field placement for all full-time students during the winter or spring of their second year. The law school’s distinctive curriculum offers a logically sequenced program of professional preparation and is accomplished in 2.5 years, providing exceptional value by lowering tuition and permitting graduates early entry into their careers.

Elon Law has graduated more than 2,000 alumni since its establishment in downtown Greensboro in 2006. Its annual enrollment now tops 600 students, and the law school is regularly featured in the top tier of preLaw Magazine’s “Best Schools for Practical Training” rankings.

Elon Law offers full-time legal education in Greensboro and a part-time, in-person Flex Program in Charlotte. In 2026, the American Bar Association approved Elon Law to expand its signature 2.5-year J.D. program to Charlotte.

Beginning in Fall 2027, students in Charlotte’s full-time and Flex programs will attend classes on the Queens University of Charlotte campus in Myers Park. Elon Law will continue to offer its full-time 2.5-year J.D. program at its downtown Greensboro campus.

Recipients of the annual awards are nominated by their colleagues and selected by the College’s dean and associate deans.

“Each of these award recipients demonstrate dedication to their students and colleagues,” said Hilton Kelly, dean of Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences. “I am so pleased to recognize each of these faculty and staff members for all of their work and contributions to supporting the mission of the College.”

The 2026 College Excellence Award recipients:

Excellence in Teaching Award

Kristen Mazur

Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics

Associate Professor Kristen Mazur builds her classrooms around the idea that students learn best when they are encouraged to take intellectual risks, embrace productive struggles and grow through challenges. She was the leader in the development of Elon’s Precalculus program and co-creator of the Mathematics and Statistics Learning Assistant Program, helping strengthen pathways into science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. She received the Trevor Evans Award, established by the Mathematical Association of America, for scholarship of an exceptional mathematics article that is accessible to ľĂľĂČČs which was published in “Math Horizons.” Mazur also has multiple publications with ľĂľĂČČ co-authors.

Excellence in Scholarship

Yanica Faustin

Assistant Professor of Public Health

Assistant Professor Yanica Faustin’s work focuses on health equity and understanding and dismantling the systemic and structural barriers that shape health and well-being for marginalized communities. Faustin was Elon’s first recipient of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Equity Scholars for Action award, a national grant supporting groundbreaking scholarship that advances health equity. This award helped position Elon on a national stage in public health research. In addition to peer-reviewed publications, invited presentations and public scholarship, she has built a research program committed to developing future scholars. Faustin has also advanced national conversations around maternal and reproductive health, racial inequities in birth outcomes, severe maternal morbidity and the health experiences of Black communities across the diaspora.

Excellence in Service-Leadership Award

Corey Roberts

Assistant Professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies

Assistant Professor Corey Roberts’ service has been defined by a commitment to collaboration and community engagement. Through leadership of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation (OBSN) Heritage Language and Learning Working Group, Roberts helped secure multiple grants, develop educational initiatives, organize conferences and workshops and deepens the partnership between ľĂľĂČČ and the OBSN. These efforts brought together students, faculty, staff, tribal leaders and community members in meaningful and lasting ways. He helped to lead the creation and installation of a historic marker at The Oaks that includes Yesa:sahĂ­ language and a land acknowledgment, along with coordinating signage on OBSN tribal grounds. The dedication brought more than 120 members of the Elon and tribal communities together. Roberts also helped organize the Undergraduate Conference on Languages and Cultures, coordinated Polyglot Lunches, co-advises the Native American Student Association and delivered guest lectures that embody language, culture, community and belonging.

Excellence in Mentoring Award

Lauren Guilmette

Associate Professor of Philosophy

Associate Professor Lauren Guilmette has created numerous opportunities for students to connect their academic work with the wider world. From mentoring independent research projects, Honors students, Summer Undergraduate Research Experience scholars and graduate school applicants, to creating programs that connect students with faculty mentors, community partners and scholars across the country, Guilmette bands the horizons of what mentoring can be. As an advisor to the Gender & Sexuality Living Learning Community, Guilmette has cultivated spaces where students find community, leadership opportunities and a sense of belonging. Through partnerships with local organizations, grassroots initiatives, and community leaders, students have been encouraged to see themselves not simply as learners, but as engaged citizens capable of making a difference in the world. She also has a gift for connecting people, students with mentors, students with communities, students with one another and students with a deeper sense of purpose.

Staff Excellence Award

Beth DeFord

Program Assistant for Psychology, Human Service Studies and Public Health

Program Assistant Beth DeFord has spent more than two decades tracking down the right answer, identifying a potential problem before it arises, navigating a complicated process, helping a colleague meet a deadline and working behind the scenes to ensure things run smoothly. Known for approaching tasks with professionalism, precision, kindness and a desire to help others succeed, faculty trust her expertise, students benefit from her support and colleagues rely on her wisdom and institutional knowledge. DeFord supports three academic departments, Psychology, Human Service Studies and Public Health, to provide assistance to faculty, supervise student employees, support hundreds of students and manages a building. One nominator described DeFord as a superhero who manages an enormous workload, yet somehow makes it all look effortless.

They were selected from a record pool of more than 230 applicants to the part-time, evening, in-person program hosted at ľĂľĂČČ’s Charlotte Center.

Nearly 120 students are enrolled in the program as it enters its third year. Designed for place-bound students balancing law school with jobs and other commitments, the Flex Program offers a path to a law degree that can be completed in about three years and eight months — meaning this year’s new students could graduate as soon as March 2030 — with the flexibility to adjust their pace and extend studies if needed.

Vice Dean and Professor of Law Alan Woodlief welcomed the class during Convocation ceremonies on Aug. 10 highlighting the academic achievement and professional experience its members bring to Elon Law.

“You were selected based on your many prior achievements, your demonstrated passion for studying law, and your immense potential for success in law school and in serving others through the legal profession,” Woodlief said. “You should be proud of your admission to the Flex Program and motivated to live up to the high expectations we have for you.”

48 — Total Enrollment of the Entering Class of Fall 2026

154 — Median LSAT

66% Female | 34% Male

31% — ľĂľĂČČ of Color

29 — Average Age

20+ — Members holding advanced degrees

27% — First-Generation College ľĂľĂČČ

Nearly 90% of incoming students are the first in their families to attend law school.

Broad professional and educational experience

Entering Flex Program students earned ľĂľĂČČ degrees from 34 colleges and universities. The institutions most represented in the class include:

• UNC-Chapel Hill with six students;
• UNC Charlotte with four;
• Appalachian State University and the University of South Carolina with three students each, and;
• North Carolina State University and Winthrop University with two students each.

More than 20 ľĂľĂČČ majors are represented, ranging from art history to zoology. Political science is the most common major, with 12 students, followed by criminal justice with five, psychology with four and business with three.

Two members of the class have served in the military, and several competed as varsity athletes.

The class also brings substantial professional experience to the classroom. Eleven students — 23% of the class — already work in the legal field, including as paralegals and legal assistants. Others have built careers in banking and finance, real estate, nursing, journalism, ľĂľĂČČ and sports coaching.

The class also reflects the Flex Program’s strong regional ties. Eighty percent of students are from North Carolina, while five are from South Carolina. Other members of the class come from Utah, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania and Florida.

“We look forward to witnessing firsthand your accomplishments to come — over the next four years and throughout your careers as Elon lawyers — as you channel this energy, focus, and commitment to excellence and service in your new chosen profession as pioneering lawyer leaders,” Woodlief said.