Kathryn Myers, associate professor and coordinator of paralegal studies at Saint Mary-of-the Woods College (SMWC) is the chair of a four-person national conference committee that created the program for the American Association for Paralegal Education (AAfPE). AAfPE, the only association for paralegal educators, will hold its 28^th annual conference in Portland, Ore., Oct. 28-31. The annual conference provides educators with opportunities to acquire vital and cutting-edge information to ensure that paralegal students are as knowledgeable and marketable as possible in a challenging economy.

This year’s conference will cover more than 40 dynamic and contemporary topics in areas such as teaching and course development, advising, and scholarship and career advancement. Myers will present “Legal Memos Made Easy” where she will provide classroom tools to engage students in one of the hardest, but most necessary, courses in most paralegal programs: legal research. One of the key points will be providing teaching tips that help educators show students how to break the assignment into chunks logically and easily and to show students how to manage their time and effort on long-term assignments. The ultimate result is students who are engaged with the process of research. Myers is currently turning her many teaching tips into a textbook called “Foundations of Legal Research and Writing” for Pearson/Prentice Hall, due out in 2010.

Myers has also consulted with Pearson/Prentice Hall in the creation of 13 online CourseConnect paralegal courses that will be unveiled at the conference. In addition to consulting on all courses, she wrote two of the courses and three instructor resource manuals. The courses are designed to help paralegal programs that wish to offer quality interactive and effective online courses to satisfy a portion of the minimum required “legal specialty” courses and those program courses for which the delivery is at the discretion of the program.

Myers has been involved in paralegal education since 1982 when she helped create the paralegal program at SMWC. She served on the founding advisory board, taught as an adjunct instructor for two years, and then became the coordinator of paralegal studies in 1985. She is the only full time faculty member in the program and oversees five adjunct instructors.

She has been active in the AAfPE since 1989 and has served in many roles, including regional reporter, president and secretary, and she has served as editor and co-editor of The Paralegal Educator. She has also co-hosted regional meetings, co-hosted the annual conference, and since 2001, she has been the chairperson of the National Conference Committee. In addition to numerous committees, she was a member of committees that created the model syllabi for several courses and of the Core Competencies.

She is a founding member of Indiana Legal Assistants (ILA), and a member of Indiana Paralegal Association (IPA), the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA), and the National Federation of Paralegal Associations (NFPA). She has served on the certifying board for NALA, is on the advisory board for NFPA, and is an Educational Consultant for the American Alliance of Paralegals, Inc. (AAPI). She also reviews text proposals, publishes articles, and lectures on various areas of paralegal education such as research and writing, grant writing, litigation, career development, communication, internships, and substantive law topics.

The Social and Behavioral Sciences Department at SMWC offers majors in criminal justice, history/political science (pre-law), human services, paralegal studies, psychology, social science (history), and social studies education. The department also offers minors in criminal justice, history, paralegal studies, psychology, political science, and sociology.

The faculty members in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department at SMWC are actively involved in research, practice and advocacy, bringing real-world applications of the social sciences to the classroom. The faculty members employ innovative teaching techniques, and they provide service and experiential learning opportunities to take learning beyond the classroom. Students have opportunities to participate in original research, present findings at regional and national conferences, and gain practical experiences in the social sciences through practicum and internship experiences.

For additional information about the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, contact the SMWC Office of Admission by email at smwcadms@smwc.edu or by phone at 812-535-5106 or 1-800-926-SMWC. More information on the AAfPE conference can be found online at www.aafpe.org.