Haley Moss

Haley Moss is a lawyer, neurodiversity expert, and the author of five books that guide neurodivergent individuals through professional and personal challenges. She is a speaker and consultant to top corporations and organizations that seek her guidance in creating an inclusive workplace, and a sought-after commentator on disability rights issues. The first openly autistic lawyer in Florida, Haley’s books include “Great Minds Think Differently: Neurodiversity for Lawyers and Other Professionals”, “The Young Autistic Adult’s Independence Handbook”, and “Talking The Talk About Autism”. Her articles have appeared in outlets including the Washington Post, Teen Vogue, and Fast Company.

Meshea Poore

Meshea L. Poore, Esq., a long-time champion of underrepresented people, serves as vice president and chief diversity officer for West Virginia University’s Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. In that role, she motivates the Mountaineer family to recognize the value of diversity and challenges all who interact with her to create transformational change.

Poore has been helping light the way toward equity throughout her career. An attorney who served in the WV House of Delegates from 2009-2014, she is an accomplished and sought-after motivational speaker, public and political leadership consultant, and strategist. She has been nationally recognized and named a ‘Game Changer’ in her professional endeavors.  She has mentored and consulted with hundreds of elected officials nationwide as they seek higher office. Poore is an experienced educator who served as an adjunct professor at West Virginia State University, as a faculty member in residence at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University and has teaching privileges at WVU College of Law.

In 2017, Poore became the first African American woman named president of the West Virginia State Bar since its 1947 founding. Before operating her practice, she was an attorney in the Office of the Kanawha County Public Defender in Charleston, WV. Poore’s influence and impact throughout WVU’s university system, the State of West Virginia, and nationally is evident through her roles as past President of the Big 12 Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (ADOHE), as a member of the executive committee for the Council on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) and as a Membership Committee member for the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE). Poore earned her bachelor’s degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C., and her law degree from Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She is a Yale University Women’s Campaign School graduate, an alumna of the prestigious German Marshall Memorial Fellowship, and the FBI Citizens Academy’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Chapter.

Poore’s ability to facilitate insightful conversations with leading voices in social justice, such as Ibram X. Kendi, Nikole Hannah-Jones, and W. Kamau Bell, to name a few, has fostered a deeper understanding of equity and inclusion for others. Her influence extends beyond her professional roles. She has been a featured TEDxWVU speaker, inspiring people globally to embrace life’s moments of happiness, small victories, and the healing power of gratitude and joy.

Nawar Shora

Nawar Shora has spent his two-decade plus career at the intersection of civil rights/DEIA and national security/counterterrorism with expertise and accolades across the spectrum.

The positive impact of his groundbreaking outreach efforts in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks remain through today. He is a nationally recognized authority and subject matter expert on community outreach and stakeholder engagement as well as cultural demystification and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access (DEIA) efforts. He has presented to a range of audiences to include the FBI, Center for Strategic and International Studies, The General Board of Church and Society of the Methodist Church, among countless academic institutions, law enforcement entities.

Nawar has delivered in-person trainings to more than 100,000 professionals, including intelligence analysts, law enforcement officers, university professors and students, houses of worship, and corporate security and executive groups. 

Kaitlyn Samuelson

Kaitlyn Brooke Samuelson is an attorney at Littler Mendelson P.C., and a founding Co-Chair of the West Virginia State Bar’s LBGTQ+ Committee. In her practice at Littler, Kaitlyn represents employers in a variety of labor and employment disputes, including, but not limited to, discrimination, wrongful termination, harassment, retaliation, and wage and hour litigation. Prior to joining Littler, Kaitlyn served as judicial law clerk to the Hon. Michael John Aloi in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia. Kaitlyn is a double graduate of West Virginia University, receiving her Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies 2015, magna cum laude, and her Doctor of Jurisprudence in 2020, earning the distinctions of Order of the Coif and the Award for Excellence in Labor and Employment Law.  In her role as Co-Chair of the West Virginia State Bar’s LBGTQ+ Committee, Kaitlyn works with Legal Aid of West Virginia to plan and promote opportunities for pro bono work and strives to plan regular CLE and committee programming related to LBGTQ+ updates related to education and employment law.

Gerald Langan

Gerald J. Langan practices, litigates, and mediates with his own firm based in Hardy County, and serves as co-chair of the WV State Bar’s LGBTQ+ Committee. A retired Colonel and 30-year veteran of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, Jerry held numerous worldwide legal assignments, with regular rotations in and around the nation’s capital.  An avid follower of the U.S. Supreme Court, Jerry has attended countless oral arguments at the high court on matters of professional and personal interest, and has taught frequently with the American Constitution Society’s “Constitution in the Classroom” Program.  His other teaching interests include serving as guest lecturer at the Georgetown University School of Management, and frequent presenter on topics of LGBTQ+ legal developments.  He holds undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Idaho; his LL.M from Boston University; and his mediation certification from the Harvard Law School.

Lauren McCartney

McCartney is the Assistant Dean for Career Services and Professional Development at the WVU College of Law. McCartney leads the Center for Career Services and Professional Development and counsels
students and alumni on career choices. Before joining the Center, she was the Director of West Virginia Continuing Legal Education and an associate attorney at Jackson Kelly PLLC.

Jennifer Powell

Jennifer Powell has served as the Assistant Dean for Student Services and Engagement since August of 2021.  She served previously as the Director of the Center for Law in Public Service (2013-2021) and as the Assistant Dean for Career Services (2004-2013)at the WVU College of Law. Powell is a member of the West Virginia State Bar. She earned her J.D. from the West Virginia University College of Law in 1997, her M.S.W. from West Virginia University in 1992, and her B.A. in English from West Virginia University in 1988. Prior to working at the College of Law, Ms. Powell worked as an Application Consultant for LexisNexis, served as a prevention educator and community fundraiser for Caritas House (a local HIV/AIDS service organization) and practiced law with Regina Charon’s Law Offices.

Nicole Cofer

Nicole A. Cofer is the Director of Magistrate Court Services for the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. She attended the University of Pittsburgh where she completed her bachelor’s degree with a focus in Neuroscience. After graduation, she followed her passion for the law and officially became a Mountaineer attending the West Virginia University College of Law. As she progressed through law school, she realized that public service and protection of the public was her calling. Throughout law school, she interned for the West Virginia Office of the Attorney General and was offered a position as an Assistant Attorney General upon graduation in 2007. Nicole has also earned her master’s degree in Business Administration in 2011 and her Master of Laws (LLM) in Forensic Justice from WVU College of Law 2018.

During her ten and a half years at the Attorney General’s Office, Ms. Cofer has handled a host of different clients and has made appearances across the state courts in the following areas: agency representation, criminal appeals, administrative professional licensing boards, and, for her last seven years with the office, administrative actions for DUI. Nicole completed the Drug Recognition Expert School (DRE) in 2015 and, since that time, has participated as an instructor for Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE) classes, DRE Schools for West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky, and for the Impaired Driving Week at the West Virginia State Police Academy. In her position as Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor for West Virginia, Nicole joined the Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in Charleston, West Virginia. In addition to serving as a resource for prosecutors and law enforcement in WV, she also handled DUI drug driving cases in Kanawha County. In 2020, Nicole joined the WV Prosecuting Attorneys Institute continuing her role as the WV Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor serving prosecutors, law enforcement and the judiciary. Nicole has also instructed training regarding bias in the criminal justice system in West Virginia, Florida, Kentucky, Washington, and Colorado, and for nationwide broadcast webinars.  In 2023, Nicole was appointed to her current role as one of the Court Division Directors for the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.  In this role, she is responsible for training, oversight, trouble shooting, policies and procedures for all magistrates, magistrate assistants and magistrate court clerks in West Virginia.

Nicole is also a mother of two daughters, the coach of Charleston Catholic Middle School Lady Irish Volleyball team, the mother of a soccer and wrestling girl phenom and a team mom and social media director for the Charleston Wrestling Club, and the lead singer for a local band, The New Old Souls.