Administration

Alexander earned his J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law and a B.A. in Political Science from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Following law school, he clerked for the Hon. Harold A. Baker, U.S. District Judge for the Central District of Illinois and for the Hon. Larry L. Lessen, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Central District of Illinois.

Prior to his deanships, Alexander was a faculty member at The Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University. He has taught in the areas of Bankruptcy Law, Criminal Law, Ethics, Evidence, Legal Writing, and Trial Practice. He began law school teaching in 1992 and has taught continuously except for one year during that time.

Prior to becoming a law professor, Alexander was in private practice for seven years where he focused on bankruptcy, real estate transactions, and civil and criminal litigation in federal court.

Alexander is a member of the American Bar Association, the National Bar Association, and the Illinois State Bar Association. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute, and he is a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy.

Alexander is the author of two monographs on bankruptcy topics and more than a dozen law review articles. In 2014, he co-authored a book with his father, entitled "It Takes a Village: The Integration of the Hillburn School System," which was published by Page Publishing. He has completed a manuscript that will be published in the near future as a book entitled "Insufficient Funds: The Financial Life of Frank Lloyd Wright." He is regular CLE presenter, leading programs on Bankruptcy, Legal Education, and Trial Skills.

He previously served as Associate Dean for Administration and Finance, and held the Ernest W. Clemens Professorship for Corporate and Securities Law at the St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas. He was the founding director of the Center for Latina/Latino Legal Studies at St. Mary’s.

Born and raised in the Texas Panhandle, Professor Valencia is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School. Following law school, he practiced law with Jones, Day in Dallas for 5 years, in the areas of commercial litigation and corporate bankruptcy.

He joined the St. Mary’s law faculty in 1995. He was appointed by President Clinton as one of 16 White House Fellows for 1999-2000, and worked in the White House Office of Chief of Staff, focusing primarily on race, civil rights, immigration, and Hispanic education issues. He is the lead author of Mexican Americans and the Law: ¡El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!

Valencia has received the 2012 Equality Texas Becky Cross Anchor Award in recognition of work with and support of LBGTQ students; the 2008 Distinguished Faculty Award from St. Mary’s Law School; and the Outstanding Legal Achievement Award (2003 and 2006) from the Mexican American Bar Association of San Antonio. He has served, by appointment, on: the Supreme Court of Texas Task Force for Gender Fairness; several committees of the Law School Admission Council; and the Council on Legal Education Opportunity.

Edward Hart is a native of Valdosta, Georgia, where he graduated from Valdosta State University in 1992 before going on to the New England School of Law, graduating in 1999. He earned his Master's in Library Science from Simmons College in 2002 and an LLM in European Union from Northumbria University in 2006. He started his library career while attending NESL as a student assistant and later served as the Acquisitions and Collections Management Librarian (2000-2005). He then moved to the University of Florida where he started as Acquisitions Librarian (2005-2008) before his promotion to Head of Technical Services (2008-2013). While at University of Florida he also served as an Adjunct Professor of Law teaching Advanced Legal Research.

Hart is the author of the chapter “Technical Services 2.0” in Law Libraries in Digital Age.  He has published several articles that have appeared in such journals as International Journal of Legal Information, Legal Information Management, and Journal of Southern Legal History.

He has been a member of the American Association of Law Libraries since 2000. He was a Fellow of the AALL's first Leadership Academy in 2007. He served as president of the Southeastern Chapter of the American Association of Law Libraries in 2012-13 and chair of the Government Documents – Special Interest Section in 2014-2015. He is president of the Dallas Association of Law Libraries for 2016-2017. Outside of the legal community, he serves as the volunteer training chair for the Tejas Caddo District of the Circle Ten Council, Boy Scouts of America.

James graduated magna cum laude from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2003 with a B.A. in Professional and Technical Writing and a B.A. in Criminal Justice. She received her J.D., with honors, in 2008 from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. She received the National Association of Women’s Lawyers Outstanding Woman Graduate award. She was also named Bowen Student Representative for the National Academy of Trial Lawyers, member of Bowen and BLSA mock teams, academic success lead mentor, and Paralegal of the Year by the Arkansas Association of Legal Assistants.

While in undergraduate and law school, she worked as a senior paralegal and law clerk at the Little Rock law firm of Mitchell, William, Selig, Gates & Woodyard, P.L.L.C. After receiving her law license in Arkansas in 2008, she joined the firm as an associate. Her practice experience included the areas of business and commercial litigation, business tort, bankruptcy, employment discrimination, and pro bono.

After completing high school in Mannheim Germany, in 1982, she attended college at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia and Hagerstown Community College in Hagerstown, Maryland. She received an Associate of Arts in English/Communications in May of 1985 from Hagerstown Community College. After living in the Republic of Panama for three years, serving as a civilian communications liaison for the United States Army, she resumed her education at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, Massachusetts. She graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in English/Communications in January of 1994 and a Masters in Education in May of 1996 from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Jarrell earned her Doctor of Philosophy degree in Public Affairs in January of 2007 from The University of Texas at Dallas. Jarrell is a published scholar in the fields of succession planning and city governance and a proud member of Alpha Chi, Phi Lambda Theta, and past-president of Pi Alpha Alpha. Jarrell is also a member of several professional organizations to include the Texas Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, the Southern Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, and is currently serving on the federal compliance committee for the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.

After graduation, Robinowich remained connected to St. Mary’s working as the Associate Director of the Summer Skills Enhancement Program for St. Mary’s University School of Law. In 2009, he took the position of Clinical Fellow for the Center for Legal and Social Justice (CLSJ) at St. Mary’s, and continued to work with students in the Summer Skills Enhancement Program. As a Clinical Fellow, Robinowich practiced and lectured in a variety of areas of law including consumer law, probate law, wills and estates, bankruptcy, family law, and Social Security law. He taught St. Mary’s law students to practice in these areas of law as well. He also played an integral role in setting up the CLSJ’s office and procedures at Haven for Hope, the local transitional homeless shelter. During his time as a Clinical Fellow, Robinowich also worked with the Community Justice Program to initiate the Criminal Warrants Clinic, and provided legal presentations for the Parenting Order Legal Clinic and other organizations.

In 2011, Robinowich became the Associate Director of Academic and Student Affairs. In this position he worked with other faculty and staff to create and implement a new and robust academic support program at St. Mary’s University School of Law. In 2013 he became Director of Academic Support for St. Mary’s University School of Law and continued to serve students’ needs in the areas of academic support and student affairs. He also taught a course in consumer bankruptcy law.

Robinowich has published an article, From Admission to Bar Passage: Extending a Helping Hand to Students at St. Mary’s University School of Law, 14 SCHOLAR 107 (2011). He has also presented at national conferences including the Association of American Law Schools Midyear Meeting - Workshop On Measuring Learning Gains, Orlando, Florida; the 2015 Rapid Insight Conference, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts; the 2015 Association of Academic Support Educators Conference, Chicago, Illinois; and the 2nd Annual Southwestern Consortium of Academic Support Professionals Workshop, San Antonio, Texas.

Cruz began his professional career as an ESOL Aide for (K-6) and transitioned into higher education. He has over three years of experience serving as a Senior Registrar for Shelton Ogle Enterprises, where he maintained the student records and processes for seven sites throughout the state of Texas. He is a student advocate and is deeply committed to student success. Being a Dallas native and one who loves baseball, Cruz is an avid Texas Rangers fan. He attended The University of Texas at Austin and completed his bachelor’s degree in 2009.

In 2005, Ms. Ruth obtained a B.A. in Government and Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin.  She received a J.D. in 2009 from the University of Oklahoma College of Law.  While at OU, she was a coordinator for Students for Access to Justice, the law school’s pro bono and public interest organization, where she organized the public interest career fair, raised funds for a public interest stipend program, and organized several trips to the Gulf Coast to assist with disaster relief legal efforts.  In the summer of 2008, Ms. Ruth was selected for the Equal Justice Works, AmeriCorps JD program and worked with Lone Star Legal Aid in Galveston, Texas, where she advocated for improved housing and public benefits.

Following law school, Ms. Ruth joined the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, where she focused on improvements to the state’s child nutrition programs.  She became a Staff Attorney for Mosaic Family Services in 2010, and represented survivors of domestic abuse and trafficking with contested family law matters and petitions for immigration relief.  Ms. Ruth then worked on public policy related to child welfare and juvenile delinquency at Children at Risk, and joined Strayer University as an Adjunct Faculty member.  In 2014, Ms. Ruth opened and briefly managed her own law practice before joining an established firm.

Ms. Ruth continues to provide pro bono assistance with the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program, Human Rights Initiative, Hope’s Door, CHETNA, the Texas Muslim Women’s Foundation, GRACE, Texas Advocacy Project, Catholic Charities, and the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program.  She is licensed in Texas and Oklahoma.

Ms. Ruth also remains involved with several community organizations:  She was a member of the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers Leadership Class of 2011, and served as Chair for the Lawyers Against Domestic Violence and Equal Access to Justice Committees.  Since 2014, she has been an Executive Board member of the South Asian Bar Association of Dallas-Fort Worth.  In 2015, Ms. Ruth joined the Letot Center Capital Foundation Board of Trustees and was appointed by the Commissioner’s Court to serve on the Dallas County Child Welfare Board of Directors.

Prior to her employment at UNT Dallas College of Law, Ms. Willett worked as a mental health clinician with Dallas County in their Juvenile Department, with the Consult Liaison Psychology Department at Parkland Hospital, and as a Research Assistant with the Dallas Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center. Ms. Willett has experience working with adults and adolescents facing a variety of mental health issues, including trauma, mood and anxiety disorders, and substance abuse issues. Ms. Willett is a certified trauma therapist and incorporates Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), Person Centered Therapy, and Mindfulness Theories in her practice.