November 18, 2019
Open forums set with SIU School of Law dean finalists
Five candidates for dean of the SIU School of Law at Southern Illinois University Carbondale will meet with constituents during a series of forums beginning next week.
The candidates, in alphabetical order, are:
- Peter C. Alexander, visiting professor and interim associate dean for academic affairs, University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law.
- Christopher W. Behan, professor of law, SIU School of Law.
- Cindy Galway Buys, interim dean, SIU School of Law.
- Camille M. Davidson, adjunct professor of law, Wake Forest University School of Law.
- Brian R. Gallini, director of distance learning initiatives, University of Arkansas School of Law.
Open forums start on Tuesday
During their respective forums, the candidates will discuss their vision for the law school. The individual forums will each be in the Hiram H. Lesar Law Building courtroom, Room 108. A Q&A will follow each of the presentations. The forums give university students, staff and faculty an opportunity to meet with the candidates and ask questions about their proposed approaches to the position. The open forums are in conjunction with each of the candidates’ interviews.
In addition to the open forums, each candidate will spend time at the law school meeting with faculty, staff and students.
The open forum schedule is:
- Tuesday, Nov. 19 – 12:30-1:30 p.m. – Peter Alexander
- Nov. 22 – 12:30-1:30 p.m. – Brian Gallini.
- Dec. 2 – 12:30-1:30 p.m. – Camille Davidson.
- Dec. 3 – 12:30-1:30 p.m. – Cindy Buys
- Dec. 5 – 12:30-1:30 p.m. – Christopher Behan
Dean has numerous responsibilities
The dean is the chief academic and administrative officer for the School of Law and reports to the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.
The dean works with the faculty and staff in the development and maintenance of the School of Law’s programs and policies and is responsible for its academic program, fiscal management, personnel, external relations, recruitment and retention, among other areas. Each candidate must have an outstanding record as a teacher and scholar and a strong record of academic leadership and administrative experience.
Candidates bring varied experience to the position
Three of the five candidates, Alexander, Behan and Buys, have experience with the SIU School of Law school as professors and in various administrative capacities.
Alexander served as dean and professor of law at the law school from 2003 to 2009 and then as a law professor until 2012 when he left to become founding dean and law professor of Indiana Institute of Technology’s Indiana Tech Law School. He was a visiting faculty member at the William H. Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock from 2016 to 2018, and since 2018 has been at the University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law. Alexander has also worked as an author, public speaker and consultant since 2015.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from SIU Carbondale in 1979 and a law degree from the Northeastern University School of Law in 1983. He then served as a law clerk for the U.S. District Court in Danville until 1985 before going into private practice in Champaign, Savoy and Watseka. He came to SIU in 2003 from Penn State University, where beginning in 1992, he was an assistant professor, associate professor and later law professor.
Behan, who was acting dean from September 2017 to July 2018, joined the law school as an assistant professor in 2006 after serving as a judge advocate for the U.S. Army from 1995 to 2006, including three years as associate professor of the Judge Advocate General’s School in Charlottesville, Virginia. Behan served as a U.S. Army Judge Advocate from 1995 to 2006. At SIU, Behan became an associate professor at the law school in 2012 and full professor in 2016.
Behan served as the law school’s associate dean for academic affairs from July 2014 to September 2017. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Brigham Young University in 1992 and his law degree from the university’s J. Reuben Clark Law School in 1995. He also earned a master of laws degree in military law with a specialty in criminal law from the Judge Advocate General’s School in 2003.
Buys was appointed interim law school dean in July 2018 after serving as acting associate dean for academic affairs beginning in October 2017. Buys is director of the law school’s International Law Programs; founder and director of the law school’s Immigration Detention Project and co-founder and director of the law school’s Women in Leadership Workshop.
Buys came to SIU in 2001 from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Chief Counsel for Import Administration, where she was an international general attorney. She became an associate professor in 2017 and full professor in 20111. She earned her law degree from Syracuse University College of Law in 1991 and a master’s degree in international relations from the university’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the State University of New York at Albany in 1987 and a master of laws degree in international and comparative law from Georgetown University Law Center in 1999.
Davidson has been with the Wake Forest University School of Law since 2017 where she developed and teaches the Business of Healthcare online course for a master of studies in law. From 2007 to 2017, she was an assistant professor, associate professor and then full professor of law at the Charlotte School of Law. After serving there as an associate dean for faculty development in 2012-2013, Davidson served as associate dean for academic affairs and faculty development from 2013 to 2017. She also taught at Davidson College as an adjunct professor from 2004 to 2006. Her experience includes work as a managing shareholder with The Fuller Law Firm, PC in Charlotte, North Carolina, and assistant counsel to the Office of the Legislative Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., from 1994 to 2000.
Davidson earned her law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in May 1993 and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Millsaps College in 1989. She also performed postgraduate studies work in African Literature at the University of Nairobi in Kenya, East Africa, from 1989 to 1990.
Gallini has been with the University of Arkansas School of Law since 2008 when he was an assistant professor. He became an associate professor in 2011 and full law professor in 2014. From spring 2014 to fall 2017, he was associate dean for research and faculty development before becoming senior associate dean for faculty in fall 2017. He became the law school’s director of distance learning initiatives this fall. Since fall 2014, Gallini has been co-director of the law school’s criminal law certificate program. Prior to coming to Arkansas, Gallini was the Abraham L Freedman Fellow and Lecturer in Law from fall 2006 to spring 2008 at Temple University School of Law.
In addition to his work with the law school in Arkansas, Gallini has been the university’s men’s ice hockey program director since 2018. Prior to that, he was men’s hockey head coach from 2009 to 2018. He also served as the University of Pennsylvania men’s hockey coach from 2006 to 2008. Gallini earned his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 2002 and a master of laws from the Temple University Beasley School of Law in 2008. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Russian Studies from the College of the Holy Cross in 1999.
The links to the candidates’ full CVs are available here.