The National Agricultural Law Center's National Advisory Board plays an integral role in developing the short and long-term research and information priorities for the Center. In particular, the Board helps determine how best the Center can serve the nation's diverse agricultural community and how best it can fulfill its mission as the nation's leading source of agricultural and food law research and information. We are honored to introduce the Board members to you. Click here for their full biographies.

Nancy Bryson is the Chair of the Agriculture and Food practice at

Holland & Hart, LLP. She served as General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from 2002-2005 and was subsequently a founder and principal of The Bryson Group, PLLC. As USDA General Counsel, Ms. Bryson was responsible for USDA legal policy and served as the principal legal advisor to Secretaries Veneman and Johanns. She directed department litigation and mediation. Client agencies include: the Food Safety and Inspection Service; the Farm and Foreign Agricultural Service; the Food and Nutrition Service; the Agricultural Marketing Service; the Forest Service; the Natural Resources Conservation; and Rural Development. Prior to joining USDA, Ms. Bryson was an environmental and natural resources partner with the law firm of Crowell & Moring, LLP. In that capacity, she handled litigation, policy initiatives, hydro-electric relicensing proceedings, rulemaking and legislative representations. Ms. Bryson also served in the U.S. Department of Justice as Assistant Chief of the Environmental Defense Section and in the U.S. Department of Labor as Assistant Counsel for Appellate Litigation. Ms. Bryson has received the highest AV rating by Martindale-Hubbell and is listed in Best Lawyers in America for her work in Environmental Law.

Daniel M. Dooley is Vice-President for the University of California

Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR), a systemwide position he has held since 2008. He also serves as Senior Vice President for External Relations for the UC System. As VP for ANR, Mr. Dooley leads a statewide research and public service organization responsible for activities in agriculture, natural resources, environmental sciences, family and consumer sciences, forestry, human and community development, 4-H/ youth development and related areas. Prior to serving as Vice-President of ANR, Mr. Dooley has had a long relationship with UC and the agricultural community. Throughout his career, he has held leadership positions in local, state and national agricultural organizations, as well as with the University of California. Dooley previously served as chief deputy director of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (1977-80) and member and chair of the California Water Commission (1982-86). He has chaired both the UC President's Advisory Commission on Agriculture and Natural Resources and the UC Agricultural Issues Center's advisory board, as well as serving as UC representative to and Chair of the Council for Agriculture Research, Extension, and Teaching (CARET), a national grassroots organization of the land-grant universities and colleges. From 1993 to 2007 Mr. Dooley was a partner at Dooley, Herr and Peltzer, LLP, a Visalia-based law firm emphasizing agricultural, environmental, business and water rights law.

Peggy Kirk Hall is Senior Research-Policy Associate and Director of

the Agricultural and Rural Law Program at the Ohio State University Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Developmental Economics. As director of the Agricultural and Rural Law Program, Ms. Hall provides legal research and outreach on agricultural and rural issues for OSU Extension through newsletters, training and workshops. Her primary areas of focus are civil liability, property law, animal law, land use law and environmental law. Other responsibilities at OSU include teaching the department's Agricultural Law course and serving as Legal Director for the Center for Farmland Policy Innovation.

Julie Anna Potts was appointed to serve as Chief Counsel for the

U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry in December 2009. From 2004 until this appointment, Ms. Potts served as General Counsel for the American Farm Bureau Federation. As chief legal officer for AFBF and its affiliates, she advised on both general corporate matters and public policy issues affecting Farm Bureau. Prior to joining AFBF, Ms. Potts 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.

Michael T. Roberts is Associate General Counsel, Global Regulation

and Government Relations, for Roll International Corporation, a private holding company headquartered in Los Angeles that includes leading agri-food companies that are vertically-integrated, global leaders in their respective product lines and employ in excess of 4,000 people worldwide. Mr. Roberts has taught law and lectured in the global agriculture and food sector in a variety of venues. He is a former Research Law Professor at the University of Arkansas School of Law, where he was the Director of the National Agricultural Law Center and taught classes in the J.D. and LL.M. programs. He taught a summer law course on international trade at Cambridge University (UK) and lectured at Georgetown Law Center, University Tennessee College of Law, University of Gent (Belgium), University of Cluj Napoca (Romania) and various conferences in the U.S., China, Europe and Italy. He is a visiting professor at the East China University of Science and Technology Law School in Shanghai, China, where he teaches comparative law, lectures on international food law topics and advises on the development of a new food safety center in the law school. He has been a visiting scholar and consultant for the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome and is the lead instructor of Asia Food Law at Michigan State University. Mr. Roberts has also practiced law in firms, including Venable LLP in Washington DC.