Prof. Thomas Mitchell talks rural policy under the new administration

Posted by Texas A&M School of Law on Feb 5, 2021 11:41:11 AM

thomas-mitchellThe Rural Cause at Kenyon College, a student-led initiative aimed at strengthening ties between the college and the rural communities that surround its campus, will convene a panel of nationally-recognized experts, including Texas A&M School of Law's Thomas Mitchell, February 18 to discuss the future of rural policy under President Biden. Rural America has faced mounting crises in recent years, and the election of Joe Biden offers the opportunity to pursue new policies to champion and uplift the 60 million Americans who live there.

Panelists, listed below, include experts on equity in agriculture, economic development, healthcare, broadband access, and tribal relations:

  • Janie Simms Hipp, J.D., L.L.M. – CEO of the Native American Agriculture Fund, Hipp formerly served as senior advisor to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Director of the Office of Tribal Relations at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
  • Thomas W. Mitchell, J.D. – A property law scholar at Texas A&M University School of Law, Mitchell has focused on reforming laws and developing policy solutions to address the legal doctrines that have caused Black Americans to lose millions of acres of land since the early 1900s. Mitchell received the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2020.
  • Keith Mueller, Ph.D. – Director of the Rural Policy Research Institute, Mueller is also a faculty member at the University of Iowa, where he is Head of the Department of Health Management and Policy, College of Public Health, and Gerhard Hartman Professor in Health Management and Policy.
  • Zoe Willingham – A research associate at the Center for American Progress, Willingham’s work focuses on rural economic development and the impact of antitrust policy on workers, farmers, and small businesses.
  • John Windhausen – Founder and Executive Director of the Schools, Health, Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition, Windhausen has long advocated for greater broadband
    access. As senior counsel to the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, he was a principal staff person responsible for drafting the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

The event will be moderated by Daniel Napsha, founder and leader of the Rural Cause and senior, political science major at Kenyon.

For all press related inquiries, please contact Alina Kalmeyer, Rural Cause Fellow, at kalmeyer1@kenyon.edu and (650) 842-0661.

About the Rural Cause

Founded in 2018, The Rural Cause at Kenyon College is a student-led, campuswide initiative to strengthen the College’s ties to its place in rural, central Ohio through education, support, and action. The work of the Cause includes public education and institutional advocacy to support students interested in rural life, agriculture, and community service. Through this work, the Cause promotes knowledge of the local area and a greater understanding of the larger rural landscape in the United States.

Founded in 1824, Kenyon is the oldest private college in Ohio and the first institution in the U.S. to implement the model of faculty members serving as academic advisors. With a curriculum rooted in the liberal arts, Kenyon students and faculty aspire to a nuanced understanding of the world and all who inhabit it. Home to the Kenyon Review, one of the nation’s most esteemed literary magazines, Kenyon celebrates a rich literary tradition that promotes writing across academic disciplines. For inquiries regarding the College, contact Director of Media Relations Mary Keister: keisterm@kenyon.edu.

Topics: Thomas Mitchell, texas a&m school of law

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About Texas A&M School of Law

Texas A&M School of Law is an American Bar Association-accredited institution located in downtown Fort Worth. Since integrating with Texas A&M University in 2013, the law school has sustained a remarkable upward trajectory — dramatically increasing entering class credentials; improving U.S. News and World Report rankings; hiring more than 30 new faculty members; and adding more than 10 clinics and six global field study destinations. In the past several years the law school has greatly expanded its academic programs to serve the needs of non-lawyer professionals in a variety of complex and highly regulated industries such as cybersecurity, energy and natural resources, finance, and healthcare.

For more information, visit law.tamu.edu.

About Texas A&M University

Texas A&M, established in 1876 as the first public university in Texas, is one of the nation’s largest universities with more than 66,000 students and more than 440,000 living alumni residing in over 150 countries around the world. A tier-one university, Texas A&M holds the rare triple land-, sea- and space-grant designation. Research conducted at Texas A&M represented annual expenditures of more than $905.4 million in fiscal year 2017. Texas A&M’s research creates new knowledge that provides basic, fundamental and applied contributions resulting, in many cases, in economic benefits to the state, nation and world.

About Research at Texas A&M University

As one of the world's leading research institutions, Texas A&M is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery, including that of science and technology. Research conducted at Texas A&M represented annual expenditures of more than $905.4 million in fiscal year 2017. Texas A&M ranked in the top 20 of the National Science Foundation’s Higher Education Research and Development survey (2016), based on expenditures of more than $892.7 million in fiscal year 2016. Texas A&M’s research creates new knowledge that provides basic, fundamental and applied contributions resulting, in many cases, in economic benefits to the state, nation and world.

To learn more, visit http://research.tamu.edu.