Dean Pryor Co-Founder of Organization of Law Student Affairs Professionals
06/22/2017
Johnny Pryor, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs at IU McKinney, is one of the co-founders and president of a newly formed organization, the National Association of Law Student Affairs Professionals (NALSAP). The group held its inaugural conference at the UCLA School of Law June 1-3 in which 160 law student affairs professionals from 34 states and Canada were in attendance. The group’s next annual meeting will take place at IU McKinney in Summer 2018.
Dean Pryor served for two years on the Association of American Law Schools Student (AALS) Services Section Executive Committee, but was among those who thought that an organization exclusively dedicated to programming for law student services professionals was needed.
“I thought there was a need for an annual two- to three-day conference to offer workshops on a broad range of student affairs topics, and to provide greater opportunities for networking and information sharing,” Dean Pryor said.
There are professional organizations for other areas related to law student services professionals: the Law School Admission Council serves those who work in student admissions, and the National Association for Law Placement serves those who work in professional development offices. Dean Pryor asked some of his colleagues about the need for a law student services professional organization during an AALS Student Services Executive Committee dinner in January 2016.
“We all agreed this organization was needed,” Dean Pryor said. After a series of conference calls, NALSAP was founded in March 2016 by Macey Edmondson from the University of Mississippi School of Law, Rebecca Grodsky from the McGeorge School of Law, Emily Scivoletto from the UCLA School of Law, and Dean Pryor. (In the photo from left are Scivoletto, Dean Pryor, Edmondson, and Grodsky.)
The mission of NALSP is to serve as the professional home for those who support law students by providing leadership, professional development and student affairs resources. The vision is that NALSAP will provide its members with information about law student affairs best practices, resources for student programming, opportunities for professional growth, and the support of a community of like-minded individuals. Over 250 law school student affairs administrators from over 110 law schools have joined NALSAP to date.
The group’s inaugural conference featured more than 30 speakers who presented on topics such as supporting marginalized students, infusing professional development into student services, student development theory, and higher education law, among other topics.