Center Advisory Board
The National Agricultural Law Center is pleased to introduce the six members of its national Advisory Board. The Board will play an integral role in enhancing the Center's mission as the nation's leading source for agricultural and food law research and information by solidifying the Center's national institutional partnerships and networks and helping to define the Center's research and information priorities.
Nowell Berreth
Nowell Berreth is a partner at Alston & Bird where he focuses his practice on representing agribusinesses in litigation and general counseling, working frequently on matters concerning the Packers & Stockyards Act, the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act, and other agricultural statutes. He works with Senators Bob Dole and Tom Daschle of Alston & Bird in support of the Agricultural Carbon Market Working Group, an organization that focuses on the possible impacts to agriculture of any upcoming climate change legislation. Before joining Alston & Bird, Mr. Berreth served two years as a federal court law clerk to The Honorable Willis B. Hunt, Jr., United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. He is the Vice Chair of the State Bar of Georgia's Agriculture Law Section and is active in the American Agricultural Law Association.
Nancy Bryson
Nancy Bryson is principal of The Bryson Group, PLLC, in Washington, DC and is the immediate former General Counsel to the United States Department of Agriculture. As General Counsel, Ms. Bryson participated in senior policy deliberation and helped formulate USDA policy. She regularly testified before both houses of Congress and was responsible for maintaining collaborative relationships with her counterparts at the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Interior and Commerce, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and the Office of Management and Budget. During a visit to the National Agricultural Law Center in November 2005, Ms. Bryson presented "Practical Lawyering in the Perfect Storm" in which she described the complex legal issues created by the USDA's closing of the U.S./Canada border, followed by the rest of the world's closing its borders to U.S., in the wake of the May 2003 reports of BSE infected cattle.
John Gilliland
John Gilliland is Counsel to Miller & Chevalier, Chartered, in Washington, D.C. His practice focuses on all matters affecting international trade in agriculture and food products. Prior to joining Miller & Chevalier, John served as International Trade Counsel to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, where he was responsible for oversight of all agriculture trade issues, as well as the WTO Doha Development Agenda and numerous bilateral free trade agreements. He also helped coordinate congressional responses to a variety of agriculture trade disputes, including bans against U.S. beef due to BSE, the NAFTA sweetener dispute, and several sanitary and phytosanitary barriers to other U.S. commodities. John is also a former Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), where he advised the Senator on all agricultural and trade matters. Before his work on Capitol Hill, John spent five years in government relations, representing the Louisiana sugar and U.S. cotton warehouse industries.
Jim Lukens
With an upbringing on a mixed livestock/crop family farm in the Midwest, an academic background in agronomy, and twelve years as a commercial farmer in Kansas, Jim Lukens has been living in Arkansas and working as an educator and organizer around sustainable agriculture in the south since 1984. For fourteen years, Jim managed sustainable agriculture programs, including the USDA-funded national information service known as ATTRA, for the National Center for Appropriate Technology. He has served as a director on the boards of directors of numerous local, statewide, and national sustainable agriculture organizations. Jim assumed the position of Executive Director of the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group in January, 2008. Southern SAWG works to empower and inspire farmers, individuals, and communities in the south to create an agricultural system that is ecologically sound, economically viable, socially just, and humane. Because sustainable solutions depend on the involvement of the entire community, Southern SAWG is committed to including all persons in the south without bias.
Maureen Kelly Moseman
Maureen Kelly Moseman was elected President-Elect of the American Agricultural Law Association in 2007 and will serve on its executive committee until 2010. Maureen manages her own consulting business, Moseman & Associates, based in Omaha, Nebraska. Services provided to clients include implementation of policy initiatives and federal government relations on regulatory, legislative, and federal funding issues. Prior to starting her business in Omaha, Maureen represented agricultural trade associations as a private consultant in Washington, D.C. after 5 years of service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and serving as legislative counsel for agriculture and natural resources for Congressman Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota. Maureen graduated from the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota and is licensed in Minnesota. Her undergraduate degree in economics (with an emphasis in science, technology and public policy) is from Carleton College of Northfield, Minnesota. She has been a member of AALA since 1994, was elected to the Board of Directors in 2000, and served as a Director until October 2003. Maureen chaired the membership committee of the AALA for 2004 and 2005.
Julie Anna Potts
Julie Anna Potts was named General Counsel for the American Farm Bureau Federation in 2004. As chief legal officer for AFBF and its affiliates, she advises on both general corporate matters and public policy issues affecting Farm Bureau. Prior to joining AFBF, Julie Anna was a member of the environmental practice group of Mayer Brown where she represented AFBF in environmental litigation and regulatory proceedings involving concentrated animal feeding operations, water quality and other public policy issues. She serves as secretary for AFBF and is admitted to the bars of Virginia and the District of Columbia. Julie Anna is a native of Alabama, where her family continues to own farmland. She and her husband, Parks Shackelford, have three children and live in Arlington, VA.