Dean Barbara Glesner Fines

Barbara Glesner Fines is the Dean of the University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Law, where she has been a member of the faculty since 1986.  She served as Executive Associate Dean from 2008 to 2016 and as Interim Dean from January 2017 until she was appointed Dean in June of 2018.  Endowed as the Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law, Glesner Fines received her master of law degree from Yale University and her J.D. (cum laude) from the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Professor Glesner Fines is an expert on professional ethics, family law, and legal education and has authored numerous articles and books on these subjects.  She has taught a range of courses from Property and Federal Income Tax to Family Law and Civil Procedure. Her drive to create community-connected legal education has led to the creation of several innovative programs at the School of Law.  She helped to found the UMKC School of Law Child and Family Law Program, which is currently ranked as one of the top four programs of its kind in the United States.  She is also one of the founding faculty members of the Entrepreneurial Lawyering: Solo & Small Firm Practice Program, which prepares students with critical law practice management skills.

This past year she was instrumental in launching the Self-Help Legal Clinic in collaboration with Legal Aid of Western Missouri.  Retired attorneys volunteer in the clinic, working with law students, to provide free brief advice and assistance to members of the public through the Leon E Bloch Law Library at the School of Law.  The program has continued through the COVID-19 crisis by shifting to an online delivery of legal services.

Moderator: Professor Kenneth Ferguson, J.D.

Kenneth D. Ferguson is a  Professor of Law at UMKC School of Law. He is recognized nationally for his sports law and bankruptcy law scholarship.  Professor Ferguson’s sports law scholarship has considered application of assumption of risk theory to distinguish liability for injuries to athletes in amateur and professional sports athletes. His sports law scholarship has also focused on whether gender equity under Title IX is being achieved for girls from economically disadvantaged communities, and from urban, rural, and minority communities. His bankruptcy law scholarship has evolved from addressing the intersection of preferential transfers law and payment systems law, to applying linguistic theory to bankruptcy law, and recently to proposing an innovative two-part business in-fact and business in-law analytical process that courts should consider in determining whether a debtor can avoid the reorganization process of Chapter 11 bankruptcy by instead selling their business under Bankruptcy Code § 363.   Ferguson has served as the Chair of the Sports & Law and the Debtors’ & Creditors sections of the American Association of Law Schools. Professor Ferguson has employed his sports law expertise in shaping national athletic policy while serving as a member of the Board of Directors USA Track & Field – the National Governing Body for the United States Olympic Track & Field Program and on various national committees for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

Panelists:

Dr. Tracie Canada, Ph.D.

 Tracie Canada is a socio-cultural anthropologist with research and teaching interests in race, sport, kinship, and care. Her ethnographic work about American football foregrounds issues of anti-Black racism, racial capitalism, labor exploitation, and structural violence. Across her projects, she aims to highlight what football, and its Black players, can tell us about racial, historical, political, and power dynamics in the contemporary United States. Dr. Canada is currently an assistant professor of anthropology at Duke University and is working on a book project about the lived experiences of Black college football players.

Cy Smith, J.D.

Cy Smith has three decades of trial experience and is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He primarily represents plaintiffs and defendants in large, complex civil litigation in diverse industries such as financial services and healthcare. Most recently, Cy’s representation of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) resulted in a $41.5 million settlement for UPMC after a month of trial and shortly before closing arguments. The Delaware Court of Chancery has labeled his work “an exemplar of exactly how entrepreneurial plaintiffs’ contingent fee litigation ought to work,” while The National Law Journal has called him a “trailblazer.”

Sandi Isaacson, Ph.D.,

ABPdN, Midwest Neuroeducational Services: is a Board-certified neuropsychologist who specializes in assessing children, adolescents, and adults with brain impairments.  She has worked with individuals with learning, attention, memory, executive functioning, and behavioral and emotional concerns for over 30 years in hospitals, schools, and correctional settings.  She received her doctorate in Counseling Psychology from Michigan State University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Menninger Clinic.  She received postdoctoral training in Neuropsychology from the Fielding Institute and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Neuropsychology.

J.R. Wyatt, J.D.

J.R. Wyatt is a battle-tested attorney with over 15 years of experience.  Mr. Wyatt regularly handles high-stakes litigation, involving everything from Civil Rights actions to complex Bankruptcy matters.  He has experience with the NFL Concussion Litigation and understands the deadlines and process and will get results. Having spent the first 6 years of his career with 2 of largest law firms in the country, Mr. Wyatt is well aware of how large corporations and associations defend cases.  Mr. Wyatt is often willing to represent clients in cases that other attorneys deem unwinnable and obtains results. 

Moderator: Dr. U. Diane Buckingham, M.D.

Dr. U. Diane Buckingham began her career in medicine as a registered nurse and decided to train as a physician to be able to respond to the psychiatric needs of her patients, especially children and adolescents. She has worked as a clinical assistant professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine and in private practice.

Although she experienced discrimination as she launched her career, Dr. Buckingham benefited from the support of mentors and her own drive to have more direct involvement with patients. She is especially proud of her role in empowering patients to demand better health care. Areas of Dr. Buckingham's current private practice focus on children and adolescents with ADHD, Tourette's syndrome, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. She is a nationally recognized expert in providing psychiatric care to African Americans and multicultural children, and travels the country giving speeches to educate parents, teachers and health professionals about culturally correct assessments tools and treatment options, not only with ADHD, but other behavioral and mental health diagnosis. Dr. Buckingham is committed to raising awareness of the benefits of behavioral health treatment in communities of color. In that way, she says, "patients will no longer avoid mental health treatment because of its stigma."

Dr. Buckingham served as Chair of the National Medical Association from July 2007 to July 2009. In July 2008, she was awarded one of the largest unrestricted educational grants in the history of the psychiatry section. She has received numerous awards including the Black Psychiatrists of America award for Outstanding Psychiatric Resident in the Cause of African American Families and Children in 1994 and a Presidential Scholar Award in 1991 from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She has also served as an officer of the local chapter of the NAACP.

Dr. Melissa Lewis, Ph.D.

Indigenous people suffer from the worst physical and mental health disparities in the country compared to other racial and ethnic groups. Melissa Lewis, Ph.D, partners with indigenous communities to revitalize traditional lifeways that can ameliorate the negative effects of colonization, thereby improving health and well-being. By revitalizing traditional beliefs, activities, culture and language, native communities are healing themselves from historical loss and trauma.

In her research, Dr. Lewis has partnered with communities to create training protocols for mental and medical health professionals to provide better care for indigenous patients and clients. She also partners with her own tribe, Cherokee Nation, to evaluate and co‐create programs aimed to reduce cardiovascular disease by harnessing the power of cultural learning.

Dr. Meg Gibson, M.D.

Dr. Gibson is a Clinical Associate Professor in our Family Medicine Department and Program Director in our Sports Medicine Fellowship. She has worked with athletes of all levels, from high school to professional. She is a Division 1 NCAA team physician and has spent additional time training in concussion management and is a Certified ImPACT Consultant.  Head Team Physician UMKC Athletics.

Dr. Jannette Berkley-Patton, Ph.D.

Dr. Berkley-Patton, Ph.D. is a professor in the UMKC School of Medicine’s Department of Biomedical and Health informatics. She received both her master’s degree in human development and family life, and a doctorate in developmental psychology HIV/AIDS at the University of Kansas. She joined the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2005 in a postdoctoral fellowship position founded by the National Institute of Mental Health in the Department of Psychology. Dr. Berkley-Patton received a tenure as an associate professor in the UMKC Department of Psychology, where she remains as an adjunct. She leads the unconquered path of African American and community health research for the UMKC School of Medicine faculty. One of her noted research projects, Taking It to the Pews, was funded with a $3.2 million dollar grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to assess HIV testing. She is the director of the UMKC Community Health Research Group, which supports collaborative community research, and provides doctoral and undergraduate training in community participatory research.

Dr. Berkley-Patton, Ph.D. has been awarded many honors and professional memberships, including the Heartland Health Network and the National institute of Minority Health and health Disparities. She is a reviewer for both the University of Missouri Research Board and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where she helps improve public health practices through translational research.

Deron Cherry is a Kansas City businessman and former NFL star. Deron is president of United Beverage Company, an Anheuser-Busch distributor in Kansas City. He also currently serves as a commissioner for the Jackson County Sports Authority and was a minority owner for the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars football team. A six-time All-Pro safety, Deron is considered one of the best players in Kansas City Chiefs history. He was named to the All NFL Decade Team in the 1980s and is a member of the Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame. Known for his bone-jarring tackles, his 50 career interceptions rank third in club history. In 1988, he received the NFL Players Association’s highest honor, The Byron White Humanitarian Award, for service to his team, community and country. Deron graduated from Rutgers University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology. He is the founder of Score 1 for Health, a program that provides health screenings for more than 13,000 children in the Kansas City metropolitan area. He has also served as a spokesperson and fundraiser for several non-profit organizations. Previously, Deron served as co-chairman of Kansas City’s Jazz District Redevelopment Corporation and on the Kansas City Liquor Advisory Committee.

Moderator: Valerie E. Chow, M.D.

Valerie E. Chow, M.D. is a retired physician, after practicing for 34 years. She was department head of Anesthesiology at TMC Lakewood campus and President of Lakewood Anesthesiology, P.C. for the last 18 years of her career.  She is also fellowship trained in Wellness and Integrative Medicine.  She presently volunteers, giving Covid vaccinations at KCHD and TMC as well as giving community lectures on the eight components of health and wellness.

She received her A.B degree from Vassar College, M.D. from Kansas University School of Medicine and did her residency in Anesthesiology at the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center and Parkland Hospital, Dallas, Texas.  She completed her fellowship in Wellness and Integrative Medicine from the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Dr. Chow presently serves on the board of trustees of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.  In the past, she has served on the board of directors of TMC Foundation, Shawnee Mission Hospital, Kansas City Youth Symphony, KCK Public Schools Foundation for Excellence, and Advisory to the Musical Bridges Program at UMKC Conservatory of Music.  She was a member of the Kansas City Covid Task Force in 2021.

Kristin Kaplan,  J.D.

Kristin Kaplan is an expert in FDA regulatory law and, before joining Shook, Hardy & Bacon, spent about a decade in FDA’s Office of the Chief Counsel.  FDA, and many pharma/medical device companies have been struggling with how to address racial (and other) diversity in clinical trials and the impacts of lack of diversity in clinical trials on advancing health equity.  This important topic is further amplified by the trend toward the use of real-world evidence and real-world data in developing (and approving) new drug therapies.  While the development of new drugs therapies occurs in the pre-approval (and pre-litigation) context, it arguably has effects in the post-approval world… if diverse populations aren’t represented in the clinical trial and drug development context, then presumably that could have impacts both on which drugs are developed (and ultimately approved) as well as the data underlying those approvals.

Dr. Bridgette Jones, M.D.

Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine; Education Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Kansas School of Medicine.  Dr. Jones has written over thirty (30) scholarly works which includes such titles as “The Loud Silence of Racism: It is Killing Us All”, “We continue to fail black children with asthma and allergic disease”, “Increasing Resident Racial and Ethnic Diversity through Targeted Recruitment Efforts,” and many other articles relevant to the intersection of race, medical treatment, and clinical diagnostics.

Moderator: Professor Mikah Thompson, J.D.Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Mikah K. Thompson re-joined the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law in 2018, where she had been a full-time faculty member from 2005 to 2011. She teaches the following courses: Civil Procedure I, Evidence, Race and the Law, and Employment Law. Professor Thompson’s research centers on the intersection of evidentiary law and race. Recently, she has written on juror bias, describing the impact racial stereotypes have on the way in which jurors assess trial evidence. She has also published articles on the cultural meanings of silence, advocating for a revocation of the tacit admission rule.

Prior to re-joining the faculty, Professor Thompson was the Director of Affirmative Action and Title IX Coordinator for the UMKC campus. In that role, she coordinated the university’s response to internal complaints of discrimination, harassment and gender-based violence. She also handled the university’s response to complaints of discrimination investigated by local, state and federal administrative agencies and served as the campus’ ADA Accommodations Coordinator.

Professor Thompson is a certified mediator in the states of Kansas and Missouri and frequently provides continuing legal education in the areas of employment law, professional responsibility, and implicit bias. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in communications from Missouri State University and her J.D. from Washington University.

Panelists:

Professor Jerimi Duru, J.D.

Professor Duru is active in the national sports law community. Among other appointments, he has served as a member of the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s Anti-Doping Review Board, the NCAA’s Committees on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sport, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s Racial and Social Justice Expert Advisory Team, and the National Sports Law Institute’s Board of Advisors. He also frequently lectures and consults abroad. For instance, he has taught and studied on a Fulbright Fellowship at Faculdades Integradas Helio Alonso in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and has served as a visiting professor at the University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia and the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, China. In addition, he has served as a lecturer in the Union of European Football Association’s Executive Masters Program for International Players.

He is a co-author of one of the field’s premier casebooks, Sports Law and Regulation: Cases and Materials (5th edition) (Wolters Kluwer), as well as one of the field’s premier explorations of sports agency, The Business of Sports Agents (3rd edition) (U. of Penn Press). In addition, he is the sole author of Advancing the Ball: Race, Reformation, and the Quest for Equal Coaching Opportunity in the NFL (Oxford University Press), which examines the NFL’s movement toward increased equality of opportunity for coaches and front office personnel.

Jennifer Hunter, J.D.

Currently serves as the Sr. Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) for the Portland Trail Blazers. In this role she leads DE&I strategy, policy and learning for the organization. She oversees the internal and external execution of equity and inclusion initiatives for the team and works to increase the impact of Trail Blazers in BIPOC and underserved communities.

Prior to her time in Portland, Hunter led diversity and inclusion initiatives for Brown University’s Campus Life and Athletics’ Department, was responsible for the creation and growth of the Department of Inclusion & Engagement at the University of Wisconsin Athletics and spent time working at UC-Berkeley working with Cal Men’s & Women’s Basketball. She taught in New Orleans Public School District and has held various positions within professional sports. She earned a BA in Public Relations and Sports Administration from Howard University and holds a Juris Doctor from Thurgood Marshall School of Law.

Dr. Keith Harrison, Ed.D.

Dr. C. Keith Harrison, Ed.D. is the DeVos Associate Unit Head/Chief Academic Officer and Professor for the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program and founding director (2006-14) of The Minor that’s Major™ Sport Business Management Undergraduate Program. In addition to his role as Faculty and Innovative Curriculum Coordinator of the DeVos Sport Business Management Programs, Dr. C. Keith Harrison also has served as the Associate Chair for Faculty, Research & Academic Affairs of the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program and was the Interim and Acting DeVos Chair in Fall 2014. In 2020, he served as a Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellow at the Hutchins Center at Harvard and has been the Principal Investigator of the NFL's Occupational Mobility Report since 2012.

Dr. Vincent H. Key, M.D.

Dr. Vincent H. Key is Medical Director/Head Team Physician: Kansas City Royals (MLB), is also President: Major League Baseball Team Physician's Assoc. as well as Associate Physician for USA Track and Field.  Dr. Key is certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery with a sub certification in sports medicine. He completed a fellowship at Wellington Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine. He earned his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and completed his residency at Martin Luther King-Drew Medical Center (Los Angeles). He decided to become a doctor because he loves to help people and get them back to doing what they love to do. He was no stranger to sports injuries as a college track athlete at Kansas State. He wanted to be able to diagnose and treat athletes and get them back to competing.

He has a passion for treating young athletes. With four athletic children of his own, he knows the importance of treating the individual patient, not just the injury. He specializes in arthroscopic procedures and the treatment of shoulder, elbow (Tommy John) and knee injuries (ACL/Meniscus) for professional athletes, young athletes, and weekend warriors alike. The injuries for all levels of athletes are similar, and often so are their treatment courses.

Moderator: Dr. Raymond Doswell, Ed.D.

Born in St. Louis, MO, Raymond Doswell grew up in E. St. Louis, IL.  He graduated from Monmouth College (IL) in 1991 with a degree in History and training in education.  He taught high school briefly in the St. Louis area before attending graduate school at the University of California-Riverside. He earned a Master’s degree in History with emphasis on Historic Resources management. Doswell joined the staff of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, MO in 1995 as its first curator.  The museum has grown into an important national attraction, welcoming close to 60,000 visitors annually. He earned a doctorate in Educational Leadership from Kansas State University through work in partnership with the museum to develop educational web sites and programs. Doswell travels extensively as a public speaker on topics of baseball and African American history.  Now as museum Vice-President, he manages exhibitions, archives, and educational programs.

Panelists:

Dr. Brandon Martin, Ed.D.

Dr. Brandon E. Martin, Ed.D. began his tenure as Kansas City Athletics Director on December 3, 2018. Martin’s leadership has helped change the culture within Kansas City Athletics as his positive energy, passion, and strategic vision has helped elevate the Roos' momentum on and off the field.

In September 2020, Dr. Martin was promoted to Vice Chancellor/Director of Athletics. In this role, Martin paired his athletics department leadership with strategic initiatives on campus including  leading a task force on retention and graduation for underrepresented, first generation, transfer students, and students of color at UMKC. Martin o-lead’s the task force with Senior Vice Provost for Student Success Kristi Holsinger, an effort launched in fall 2020 by Chancellor C. Mauli Agrawal and Provost Jenny Lundgren.

Since arriving at UMKC in December 2018, Dr. Martin has been appointed Executive in Residence in three academic departments on campus: The Henry Block School of Management, School of Education, and Race, Ethnic, and Gender Studies. In each academic role, he assists with the strategic vision, course development, advising students, and recruitment. These roles also include teaching various courses related to higher education administration, sport management, and diversity and social issues in college and professional sports.

Dr. Martin also serves as Co-Chair for the Black AD Alliance—an organization aimed at promoting the growth, development, and elevation of Black athletics administrators at the Division I level. He is also the Chair of the Summit League Diversity and Inclusion Task Force.

Jeffri Chadia

Jeffri Chadiha is a senior columnist and an on-air personality for the NFL Network and NFL.com. His responsibilities include writing features and weekly columns for NFL.com, producing stories for "NFL 360" and appearing regularly on shows such as "Gameday Morning," "NFL Now" and "Total Access." Before joining NFL Media, Chadiha was a correspondent for ESPN's "E:60" and a senior writer for ESPN.com (2007-15), as well as a senior writer for Sports Illustrated (2000-07). He also won a Sports Emmy in 2009 and wrote his first book, "Going Deep: How Wide Receivers Became the Most Compelling Figures in Pro Sports," with Hall of Fame wide receiver Cris Carter in 2013. A 1993 graduate of the University of Michigan, Chadiha resides in Overland Park, Kan.

Dr. Keith Harrison, Ed.D.

Head/Chief Academic Officer and Professor for the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program and founding director (2006-14) of The Minor that’s Major™ Sport Business Management Undergraduate Program. In addition to his role as Faculty and Innovative Curriculum Coordinator of the DeVos Sport Business Management Programs, Dr. C. Keith Harrison also has served as the Associate Chair for Faculty, Research & Academic Affairs of the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program and was the Interim and Acting DeVos Chair in Fall 2014. In 2020, he served as a Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellow at the Hutchins Center at Harvard and has been the Principal Investigator of the NFL's Occupational Mobility Report since 2012.

Moderator: Greg Cotton, J.D.

Greg Cotton’s 22-year law practice includes working primarily in the areas of sports law and commercial litigation for Shughart Thomson (now Polsinelli) and as general counsel and COO of Major League Soccer club Sporting Kansas City. In the 10 years Greg worked for Sporting, Greg negotiated dozens of NIL deals and hundreds of vendor, premium seating, and licensing deals.  He and his fellow associates developed and built Children’s Mercy Park, the Swope Soccer Village, Compass Minerals Sporting Fields, Pinnacle National Development Center, the Three Points skyline rooftop, No Other Pub, and other major developments.  A persistent focus on brand, culture, facilities and partners saw top-line revenue increase by over 4000% during his tenure at Sporting, which is the same focus Greg brings as partner and President of XO Sport & Development.  Greg grew up in Kansas City, attending Rockhurst High School before obtaining undergraduate and law degrees in the University of Missouri system.

Panelists:

Prof. Kenneth L. Lewis Jr., J.D.

Professor Kenneth L. Lewis, Jr. is a tenured Professor of Law. Professor Lewis joined the Shepard Broad College of Law Faculty in 2009. He teaches Property Law, Professional Responsibility, Sports Law, Legal Research and Writing I and II, Wills, Sports Law and Health Issues, Sports Law and Education, and Sports Law and Employment. Prof. Lewis has also taught Administrative Law, Employment Law, and Criminal Law.

Professor Lewis also has been a guest speaker and lecturer in Nova Southeastern University’s Life Long Learning Institute. Professor Lewis has been recognized for his commitment, including his charitable contributions, to Nova Southeastern University, and he, on several occasions, has been a guest at Nova Southeastern University’s Trifecta Luncheon.

Prior to joining the faculty, Professor Lewis worked as a litigator for Greenberg Traurig in Miami, Florida. Professor Lewis also managed his own law firm where he, among other things: (1) litigated commercial disputes; (2) represented community associations; and (3) represented athletes and entertainers. Professor Lewis successfully negotiated endorsement contracts for professional athletes, and he has drafted loan and transfer agreements for professional soccer clubs and players.  Prior to becoming an attorney, Professor Lewis was the chief financial officer and chief operating officer for a multi-million-dollar Florida company.

Prof. Marc Edelman, J.D.

Marc Edelman is a tenured Professor of Law at the Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, City University of New York, where he teaches in the areas of sports law, antitrust law, contract law, intellectual property law, and gaming law. He has published upwards of 60 law review articles in leading journals, and he is regularly cited by the media on topics including how the Sherman Act applies to professional sports leagues, how gaming laws apply to fantasy sports contests, and how both labor laws and antitrust laws apply within the college sports industry.  In July 2019, Professor Edelman testified before the California State legislature in favor of the Fair Pay to Play Act – the act that first enabled college athletes to earn money from licensing the rights to their names, images, and likenesses.

 A magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and a cum laude graduate of Michigan Law School, Professor Edelman began his professional career by practicing antitrust and sports law with the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom LLP. Thereafter, Professor Edelman has practiced both litigation and transactional law in the sports and intellectual property practice groups of Dewey Ballantine LLP.

Prof. David A. Grenardo, J.D.

 Professor David Grenardo is the Associate Director of the Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions and Professor of Law at the University of St. Thomas School of Law (Minneapolis). He teaches Professional Responsibility, Contracts, Sports Law, Business Associations, Civil Procedure, and International Sports Law. He has presented on professionalism and ethics multiple times locally, statewide and nationally. He practiced corporate civil litigation in California and Texas for three large law firms – Jones Day, DLA Piper, and King & Spalding – for nearly a decade before joining the legal academy in 2011.

His scholarship focuses on professional responsibility, sports law, legal pedagogy, and the practice of law. He has published or forthcoming articles in the Harvard Journal of Sports & Entertainment Law, the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, Pepperdine Law Review, Brooklyn Law Review, Oregon Law Review, the Berkeley Journal of Entertainment & Sports Law, and the University of North Carolina School of Law’s First Amendment Law Review, among others.

Grenardo has been quoted in multiple articles on sports law, including by the New York Times, ESPN, and the Boston Globe. His op-eds on sports (as they relate to business and society) have appeared in, among other publications, Fortune Magazine (solicited), AP News, Yahoo! Finance, and the Houston Chronicle.

He earned his B.A. from Rice University where he played football and was a four-year letterman. He earned his J.D. from Duke University School of Law.

Dr. Keith Harrison, Ed.D.

Head/Chief Academic Officer and Professor for the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program and founding director (2006-14) of The Minor that’s Major™ Sport Business Management Undergraduate Program. In addition to his role as Faculty and Innovative Curriculum Coordinator of the DeVos Sport Business Management Programs, Dr. C. Keith Harrison also has served as the Associate Chair for Faculty, Research & Academic Affairs of the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program and was the Interim and Acting DeVos Chair in Fall 2014. In 2020, he served as a Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellow at the Hutchins Center at Harvard and has been the Principal Investigator of the NFL's Occupational Mobility Report since 2012.

Moderator: Professor Kenneth Ferguson, J.D.

Kenneth D. Ferguson is a  Professor of Law at UMKC School of Law. He is recognized nationally for his sports law and bankruptcy law scholarship.  Professor Ferguson’s sports law scholarship has considered application of assumption of risk theory to distinguish liability for injuries to athletes in amateur and professional sports athletes. His sports law scholarship has also focused on whether gender equity under Title IX is being achieved for girls from economically disadvantaged communities, and from urban, rural, and minority communities. His bankruptcy law scholarship has evolved from addressing the intersection of preferential transfers law and payment systems law, to applying linguistic theory to bankruptcy law, and recently to proposing an innovative two-part business in-fact and business in-law analytical process that courts should consider in determining whether a debtor can avoid the reorganization process of Chapter 11 bankruptcy by instead selling their business under Bankruptcy Code § 363.   Ferguson has served as the Chair of the Sports & Law and the Debtors’ & Creditors sections of the American Association of Law Schools. Professor Ferguson has employed his sports law expertise in shaping national athletic policy while serving as a member of the Board of Directors USA Track & Field – the National Governing Body for the United States Olympic Track & Field Program and on various national committees for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

Panelists:

Dr. Ann McKee, M.D.

Dr. McKee completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin and received her medical degree from the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. She completed residency training in neurology at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital and fellowship training in neuropathology at Massachusetts General Hospital. She was Assistant Professor of Neuropathology at Harvard Medical School from 1991-94, when she became Associate Professor of Neurology and Pathology at Boston University School of Medicine. In 2011, she was promoted to Professor of Neurology and Pathology. Dr. McKee directs the Neuropathology Service for the New England Veterans Administration Medical Centers (VISN-1) and the Brain Banks for the Boston University Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, Framingham Heart Study, and Centenarian Study, which are all based at the Bedford VAMC. Dr. McKee is also the Chief Neuropathologist for the National VA ALS Brain Bank.

Cyndy Childs

Graduated from Kansas State University, bachelor’s degree in Social Work. Owner/Operator for twenty-three years of two Cyndy's Hallmark Shops in Mission, Ks. and Kansas City, Ks. Worked in administration for the U.S. Commerce Dept. and the U.S. Social Security Administration.  Retired from the federal government in December 2017.

Married to Henry Childs for 39 yrs., and proud mother of Henri' Childs and Miya Childs who reside in Olathe, Ks. and Lenexa, Ks.  Also, proud grandmother to four grand children.

Currently spend time volunteering, working part time in a garden center, and maintaining my own gardens!

Henri Childs

Henri’ was born in Kansas City, MO and raised in Lenexa, KS. He attended Shawnee Mission West High School where he excelled in Football, Basketball, and Track.  Henri was an all-state football player and earned a scholarship to play football at Kansas University and then transferring to Colorado State University.

Henri is a 2003 graduate from Colorado State with a BA in Exercise Science. While attending Colorado State, Henri was a member of the CSU football team.  After graduating he signed a free agent contract with the Kansas City Chiefs and then spent a year in NFL Europe.  Henri then signed with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the CFL in 2006 and ended his career in 2008 with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

After a short career of playing professional football. Henri entered himself into the sales industry. He has spent 2 years in the advertising sales, 3 years in the medical industry and now has spent the last 4 years in the synthetic turf industry. Henri’ is currently working for Sprinturf. The turf industry has given him a platform to install safe playing fields. More importantly trying to protect student athletes from injuries and concussions by installing protective shock pads underneath the turf. It is his passion to protect the game of football and all sports that are played on turf.

Henri’ now resides in Olathe, KS with his wife Joanna and their 4 kids Noah, Sterling, Capri and Jalen.

David Langfitt, J.D.

David Langfitt has practiced complex commercial litigation and mass personal injury litigation for more than 29 years and focuses on litigation and trials involving numerous parties, claims, and courts, both state and federal.  He has litigated a wide variety of complex cases involving mass tort claims, claims under the federal securities laws, professional liability, legal malpractice, Pennsylvania’s Dragonetti Act (an analog to the F.R. Civ. P. 11), merger agreements, pre-packaged bankruptcy plans, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and infringement of patents and copyrights.

Mr. Langfitt currently spends most of his time focusing on large-scale catastrophic personal injury litigation involving both the National Football League and NCAA as defendants.  He served on the Court-appointed Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee in the NFL Concussion Litigation and Settlement, which has become increasingly troublesome for claimant/players based on the resistance of the NFL to pay claims.  He is among the leaders for all ongoing claims against the NFL.  He has personally represented more than a thousand former players against the NFL for latent brain disease and, while at his former law firm, received more awards for players than any other lawyer in the Settlement.  He continues to represent hundreds of players against the NFL for the purpose of holding the NFL accountable to the players.

In cases involving the NCAA, Mr. Langfitt represents former NCAA football players with latent brain disease from their days in college football.  He is currently litigating pending cases against the NCAA for players in many different state courts.  Mr. Langfitt and his team of lawyers regularly evaluate these cases and determine whether they are willing to take the case and bring it to a trial by jury.  Mr. Langfitt is the lead attorney in the cases of Steven Schmitz vs. NCAA, (Court of Common Pleas of Cuyahoga Cty., Ohio), Mary Ann Gera v. NCAA, (Court of Common Pleas of Cuyahoga Cty., Ohio), John Askin v. NCAA, (Jefferson Circuit Court, Tenth Division, Louisville, Kentucky), Robert Geathers v. NCAA, (Court of Common Pleas of Orangeburg Cty., South Carolina), and Michael Hamlin v. NCAA, (Court of Common Pleas of Darlington Cty., South Carolina), all of which are pending cases and expected to go to trial in the near future.  He has litigated the Schmitz case since 2014 and obtained a watershed opinion in the Supreme Court of Ohio found at Schmitz v. Natl. Collegiate Athletic Assn., 155 Ohio St.3d 389, 2018-Ohio-4391.  Video of the oral argument is available on website for the Supreme Court of Ohio.