Join us for the third conversation in our Adjunct Teachers in Animal Law Series. This session - Engaging and Empowering Students - will focus on the different ways that students and teachers can work together. Students can help show support for new classes, build student organizations and their activities, and suggest areas or interest or need. Teachers can help with mentoring, networking, supporting student projects and building the student organization, career planning and so on. There are many ways for animal law students and teachers to interact, including classes, student organizations, presentations, writing, competitions and more. Join the conversation to learn more, to ask questions, and to share ideas and information.

The panelists include:

• Priscilla Rader Culp, Animal Legal Defense Fund
• Mishael Hibshoosh, GW Law
• Kailey McNeal, GW Law
• Hana Nabulsi, GW Law
• Sydney Pieczynski, University of Illinois, Chicago School of Law
• Greta Fiedler, University of Oklahoma College of Law
• Brynáe Riggins, Esq., ASPCA
• Kathy Hessler, GW Law

Speaker Bios

Priscilla Rader Culp is the senior law school programs attorney for the Animal Legal Defense Fund. There, Priscilla develops, implements, and manages the organization’s law school initiatives, including its student chapter programmatic work, the annual Student Convention, scholarship series’, mentorship, student events, law professor assistance, and more. Priscilla is passionate about empowering law students and professionals to expand the emerging field of animal law in all spaces. As a 2016 Lewis & Clark Law School graduate, she served as co-director for her school’s student chapter, student coordinator for the Animal Law Conference, and clerked with Mercy for Animals, Animal Legal Defense Fund, and the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School. Priscilla was awarded the Animal Law Leadership Award and the Richard J. Peppin Scholarship for Animal Rights. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and their beloved cat, Wesley, who has them both wrapped around his paw.

Kailey McNeal (she/her) is a third-year law student at The George Washington University Law School. Throughout high school and college, she worked on animal protection issues in her home state of Texas. At GW, she is a member of the Black Law Students Association and she is the student leader of the Animal Welfare Project, for which she has testified in front of DC Council, compiled legal research, and drafted and advocated for legislation to improve the lives of animals and people in the District. Outside of GW, she is one of the Law Student Vice Chairs for the American Bar Association’s Animal Law Committee and a Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. She is particularly passionate about the intersection between animal protection and racial justice.

Hana Nabulsi graduated from DePaul University with a degree in Neuropsychology and a minor in biological studies. After working in the medical research field for a few years she pivoted her career goals to focus on her passion, animal welfare. Hana helped jumpstart a now flourishing rabbit and guinea pig adoption program at a shelter in her home city, Chicago. While it was difficult to leave that meaningful work, law school felt like the next natural progression. She is now a 2L at George Washington University Law School, a law student vice chair for the ABA Animal Law Committee, and a social chair for the GW SALDF. Hana hopes to use her degree to help advocate for factory farmed animals.

Sydney Pieczynski is a first-year law student at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law. She graduated from Michigan State University in 2021, where she majored in Animal Science and actively participated in various animal welfare projects. Her involvement in these projects sparked her interest in animal law and motivated her to pursue it further. Currently, Sydney is in the process of establishing a Student Animal Legal Defense Fund chapter at UIC Law.

Greta Fiedler is a 3L at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. She founded the SALDF chapter at OU Law her 1L year, where the planned and executed dozens of animal law and animal advocacy educational events. In addition, she spearheaded OU Law's first animal law class, which reached maximum enrollment. She is one of the first students of animal law to be awarded the Justice John Paul Stevens Public Interest Fellowship, and has worked with Animal Partisan, Materra, Animal Think Tank, Animal Legal Defense Fund, and Animal Rising. After sitting for the bar, she is relocating to London to join England's animal rights movement.

Mishael Hibshoosh is a 2L, President of GW SALDF, and a Managing Editor on The George Washington Law Review. Mishael worked as a Research Assistant to Dean Hessler, focusing on the Animal Law and Science Project. As part of the Animal Welfare Project, Mishael worked on legislative efforts to ban fur and foie gras sales in Washington, D.C. He is excited to be a part of GW's growing Animal Law program!

Brynáe Riggins, Esq., is the senior manager of federal legislation for the ASPCA’s Government Relations team, where she works to advance animal welfare policies to protect dogs in federally licensed facilities. Prior to joining the ASPCA, Brynáe served as law clerk to the Honorable L. Grace Spencer in New Jersey Superior Court, handling domestic violence and child endangerment cases.  While studying law at Roger Williams University School of Law (RWUSOL), Brynáe revived the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund and served as president for two years, where she worked to expand animal law opportunities, including establishing RWUSOL’s first animal law course. While in law school, she also interned and externed at the Animal Welfare Institute and provided research for What Can Animal Law Learn From Environmental Law? Brynáe’s talents extend beyond the legal realm. She received her B.A. in Dance and History from Rutgers University and spent several years performing professionally at a local theatre while teaching dance. Brynáe is a New Jersey native, a classically trained dancer, theater enthusiast, and dedicated animal advocate. 

Kathy Hessler is the inaugural Assistant Dean for Animal Legal Education at George Washington University Law School (GWU), and Director of the Animal Legal Education Initiative (ALEI), working with Joan Schaffner and Iselin Gambert, in a program made possible by generous support from ALDF. Dean Hessler has been a clinical law professor for 30 years and has been teaching animal law for 22 years. She is the first law professor hired to teach animal law full-time. She received her JD from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary and her LLM from Georgetown University Law Center. Dean Hessler helped develop the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School (L&C). For fourteen years she taught there and directed the Animal Law Clinic, which was named one of the top fifteen most innovative clinics in 2015. She also created and directed the Aquatic Animal Law Initiative and is the co-founder of World Aquatic Animal Day along with Amy P. Wilson.

About the Adjunct Teachers in Animal Law Series

Adjunct, rather than full-time, law professors do the majority of animal law teaching in the U.S. and globally. Yet this community does not have the same access to academic resources and support as their full-time counterparts. That can make developing and maintaining animal law courses more challenging. This series is designed to remedy some of that inequity and offer support and resources to expand and improve animal law teaching. The series will focus pragmatic as well as pedagogical matters designed to help those interested in starting or continuing to teach animal law.